Dog Day Afternoon
- Jun 7
- 2 min read
It’s amazing to realize that in just four years—between 1972 and 1975—a young Al Pacino starred in a quartet of American films that are now classics: The Godfather, Serpico, The Godfather Part Two, and Dog Day Afternoon. Incredibly, Pacino almost didn’t make Dog Day because he was too exhausted from acting in the second Godfather film. But when the producers of Dog Day moved to replace him in the cast with Dustin Hoffman, Pacino changed his mind. A good rivalry works wonders for motivation.
Based on a real-life incident, Dog Day Afternoon takes place during a hot summer afternoon in New York City when three armed men attempt to rob a bank in Brooklyn, only to have everything go haywire. One of the crooks gets cold feet and runs off. When the other two robbers force their way into the bank vault, they discover that it’s empty! And then comes the really bad news: the police show up. In a panic, the robbers take the bank employees hostage and threaten to kill them unless the cops back off and let the robbers escape
The standoff that unfolds is electric.
The standoff that unfolds is electric. Pacino plays Sonny, the lead bank robber—a desperate, sympathetic man who’s married with two children and wants the money from the heist to pay for gender-affirming surgery for his lover. With Sonny is his friend Sal, a brooding sidekick with a machine gun and hair trigger nerves. John Cazale is unforgettable in the role.
Meanwhile, the police and the FBI set up a command post in the barber shop across the street where the NYPD officer in charge—played by Charles Durning—tries to negotiate with Sonny for the release of the hostages.
TV cameras swarm to the scene, as do crowds of New Yorkers anxious to see how the spectacle will play out. When Pacino steps outside the bank and repeatedly shouts the word “Attica” at the police—a reference to when dozens of prisoners were shot to death during a riot in New York’s Attica prison—the crowd jeers the police and shouts support for Sonny. the Attica episode is one of the most famous scenes in American cinema.
Credit director Sidney Lumet and writer Frank Pierson for making a cops and robbers story unlike any other, populated with realistic, believable people caught in the vice of a day gone horribly wrong. There are no heroes or villains here—just honest portrayals without judgment or mockery, like in the scene where a heartbroken Pacino tries to talk his lover into escaping with him to a new life. As Leon, Pacino’s lover, actor Chris Sarandon is brilliant, as is the entire cast.
Dog Day Afternoon a masterful, four-out-of-four-star American classic.
