Review of Dog Day Afternoon (1975) by Brandon W — 11 Sep 2011

I was really underwhelmed by this at first, but god damn does this movie pick up serious steam by the third act. This is one of those "amazing true stories" you've never heard where a few of the key details are changed. It's the tale of the son of a Polish Immigrant from New York named John Wojtowicz who decides to rob a Chase Manhattan Bank in Brooklyn to pay for the sex change operation of his transsexual lover who he'd been having a tumultuous relationship with. Unfortunately Wojtowicz didn't know what the hell he was doing, his plan was inspired by watching the Godfather earlier that day and his knowledge of banks from being a teller. Things went downhill fast and it turned into a circus sideshow with many people turning up to witness the events and the media covering it all live. Wojtowicz partner was killed in the end and he was sentenced to twenty years in prison but he sold the movie rights to his story to help pay for his lovers sex change. It's a little interesting in fact that this film itself would play such an important and pivotal role in the story of its own characters, very unique indeed and with well respected cult director Sidney Lumet behind the project you'd think this would be a near perfect movie experience. But it had its fair share of flak on release Wojtowicz himself complained that it was only about 30% accurate and that he wasn't paid nearly enough for the rights and it's certainly a bit dated at this point about forty five years later. So is it a visionary cult film or a full of itself failed Hollywood attempt to capture the youth market? Let's take an ATTICA ATTICA ATTICA!!!!

The movie has an interesting narrative structure seeing as how the bank robbers motives, here named Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino, who is so deliciously flamboyant and different from his normal roles), are not made clear until about the second act of the film. We just see two comedically inept bank robbers Sonny and Sal (The notoriously underrated John Cazale who can be annoying and yet very sympathetic) sloppily knocking over a Manhattan Chase that quickly descends into a clusterfuck when the police show. The two hole up in the bank and formulate a game plan, that the hostages will be released when they get a plane to Argentina to escape. First however Sonny demands to see his wife a transgendered man named Leon (Chris Sarandon who gives one of the more powerful performances of the film and his scene on the phone with Sonny is in my opinion easily the best) and we start to see the tragic gay and mentally unstable Vietnam veteran within Sonny. The movie begins to pick up real emotional impact and resonance, we understand Sonny and feel for his plight.

This is certainly not a bad movie I've seen it two or three times now and had a lot of fun with it both times. It manages to be quite funny in the beginning with Sonny's obviously in over his head behavior and his clever banter with the bank tellers who seem to grow to like him in a fit of Stockholm Syndrome. It's tense with clear and driven action and never allows itself to get to dull, Lumet is no striking visionary but he knows how to handle a camera and the movie which is mostly contained within the bank and the surrounding area shot in a sparse New York Street style never really oversteps its bounds. But it comes damn close mostly in the scenes where Sonny steps out of the bank to confront the police and FBI which happens a tedious amount of times and tries way to hard to make him seem iconoclastic. Maybe it would have worked but the audio seems off throughout the movie which is made all the more apparent with the obviously fake cheering crowds. That being said it's really nothing spectacular until Leon comes in, than it goes from middling would be counter cultural film to one of real social import and emotional impact right down to the powerful and not all together unexpected ending.

The movie succeeds in some ways and fails in others it is humorous and dramatic sure to make you laugh and the open minded and emotional may even shed a tear but it fails in Lumet's never ending quest to gain the love of the anti authoritarian sect of the Baby Boomers. Lumet's career was marked with constantly trying to be an iconoclast and this movie his sensibilities infect as well but really that aside it's not a bad film. It makes the really cool and fascinating choice not too have a soundtrack or score at all except for the opening scene which really adds to the strange and oddly realistic feel. It also really doesn't tell you much of what to think it wants you to sympathize with Sonny's madness and understand his actions but how you feel about the conclusion is largely up to you. Dog Day Afternoon hits you in places you don't expect and really lives up to the hype, a movie that transcends its means and tells a sublime and wonderful story. Well worth the viewing if you're in the mood for s long character study.