"The robbery should have taken 10 minutes. 4 hours later, the bank was like a circus sideshow. 8 hours later, it was the hottest thing on live T.V. 12 hours later, it was all history. And it's all true."
It is the dog days of summer. Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino) and his partner, Salvatore "Sal" (John Cazale), one hot August day (the 22nd, 1972 to be exact), decide to rob a bank.
Sonny is robbing this bank in order to aquire enough money to help pay for his close, gay friend Leon's (Chris Sarandon) sex change operation. It's the only way he knows of to get enough money for the procedure.
Within 30 minutes of first entering the bank, Sonny and Sal have taken hostages, the police and paparazzi have arrived on the scene, and the place has become a wild three-ring circus.
With no choices left, Sonny gives his demands to the head of the police (Charles Durning). He wants a helicopter to take him and Sal to the airport were they will catch a plane Algeria. But a helicopter can't land in the street, so Sonny will have to settle for a limo to the airport. However, it will take time to arrive.
Sonny passes the time by ordering pizzas, talking to reporters and communicating with the police and F.B.I. Even when Leon comes to visit Sonny at the bank, the scene stays a wild mob scene.
The time passes slowly, but eventually the limo arrives and Sonny and Sal are off to the airport, hostages in tow. It looks as though they are going to make it to Algeria.
Dog Day Afternoon was a great film. However it could have easily done without the homosexual angle. I didn't get this aspect at all. However, you cannot take this out of the film because it was a non-fictional movie.
Al Pacino was at his best in this film. He really was. He was even better than he was in The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II. In fact, he was pretty damn good.
Plot: 
The plot was based on a true story, and it is a rather good story at that.
I didn't like the homosexual angle to the film, but if you are going to tell a true story, you have to cover all the angles, so there is not much you can do about it.
Visual Effects: 
There really are no special effects to speak of and the camera movements are all basically static.
Sound:
Character Development:
You can really see the change in Sonny's attitude during the course of the film, and Al Pacino does a really good job, as always, taking his character's development to the next level.
Atmosphere:
The film starts off with a bang and then does a very good job of keeping you in the action.
Realism:
The film is all based on a true story. The film is hard to belive at most times because the things that happen, well, are a little bit hard to swallow. That just make the film all the more better.
Warren�s Rating:
Movies it was nominated with for Best Picture:
Barry Lyndon, (1975); Dog Day Afternoon, (1975); Jaws, (1975); Nashville, (1975); *One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, (1975)
8.14/10 Is the movie worth your time to watch?
15-09-04
