150 Word Review: 'Dog Day Afternoon' (1975)
And when it rains...
Some movies are both of their time and timeless. Director Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon is a perfect example: it’s set on a sweltering day in early-1970s Brooklyn, a rougher, dirtier, more chaotic place than today. But this story of a bank robbery gone wrong feels as alive and immediate as anything released this year.
It’s a movie with a documentary’s realism about a nobody pushed to commit a crime to pay for the person he loves to get surgery. Dog Day Afternoon is also a trailblazing queer story for the Hollywood of the time.
It’s also Al Pacino’s best movie—a striking demonstration of the man’s many talents. He’s raw and feral, explosive and lovable. I can’t think of another role where he’s both heartbreaking and genuinely funny. John Cazale, who played Fredo to Pacino’s Michael in The Godfather, is quietly heartbreaking here as a sweetheart with a submachine gun.