Fantastic crime caper (Dog Day Afternoon (DVD))

Member Name: shaneo632

Product:	Dog Day Afternoon (DVD)
Date:	12/09/09 (3 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Performances and direction

Disadvantages: None

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room

Dog Day Afternoon is an absolute triumph and one of Sidney Lumet's best films, a tall order coming from a man who also directed the American classics 12 Angry Men and Network, but this film strikes a firm nerve as a comment on the mass media and also on the nature of crime. It's got an absolutely cracking performance from Al Pacino to boot, as a criminal who is more complex than he first appears.

The film is purportedly based on a true story (although I find this somewhat dubious), and sees Pacino portraying Sonny, an employed man who decides to rob a bank with his buddy Sal (John Cazale). However, they're not exactly professionals at this, and soon enough, find out there's not much money in the bank, and soon enough become embroilled in a tense hostage standoff as the police turn up. The film muses on the mass media's role in influencing events such as this, and also looks at the psychology of a hostage situation by examining stockholm syndrome, where the captives begin to sympathise with their captors.

What makes the film so great is the sheer level of craft here - it is meticulous in covering every facet of a crime scenario like this, from the crime itself, to the media, the police, and the very unseen forces acting upon the criminals themselves, which results in a rather daring reveal for a film made in the 1970s. It's also a more sympathetic look at crime than many films around the same time had - the criminals are living, breathing characters with their own emotional needs, and one very real motivation for Pacino's Sonny in particular.

A wonderfully inventive bank heist drama that never lets up the tension and manages to enthrall throughout. Fantastic.

Summary: A hallmark of modern crime