Review of Dog Day Afternoon (1975) by Ethan P — 22 Nov 2016

I felt like one of the hostages in the bank, holding out hope that I would survive through the end. I get that Dog Day Afternoon is important because it makes an interesting statement on human nature and it brings up human rights issues about sexual and gender identities in a time when that wasn't necessarily acceptable. But it is largely a dull, desperate and exhausting affair. We are trapped in the same room with the same people yelling and waving and threatening for 2 hours and nothing really transpires except for the slow, strange development of the main character.

Part of the intent of the film was to display how people change when they are in the spotlight. Sonny turns into a raving "hero" demanding outlandish requests in exchange for the hostages and performing for the people in the streets. The pizza man dances for the crowd and the head teller refuses to leave her girls because her and the others are getting so much attention. It's interesting to see them transform. I also thought it was fascinating how it pushed such liberal themes in a time period that largely rejected them, with some of the major characters being homosexual and transgender people.

Al Pacino's character is dynamic and we slowly learn about him as the robbery progresses. First that he has a wife, then that he has a gay lover, then that he's married to both and his mistress needs a sex change and that he has a troubled relationship with his mother. His motives for the robbery give insight into who he was and what his priorities are. And Pacino does a good job of not playing to homosexual stereotypes and delivering a character who is gay and different, but not flamboyant. But I didn't like how gross and unappealing all the characters become. Aesthetically, the film is poor. It's a boring, blank bank with unattractive, stressed out characters.

The film's central issue is that is largely a tiring bore. It is tense at the beginning, but 30 minutes in the tension has broken and it's exhausting to watch Pacino and the cops constantly go back and forth. As a bank robbery, it is really dry. It consistently brings new characters into the story, such as his lover, his wife, his mother to further develop him. The conclusion was also pretty satisfying where the police trick his friend, shoot him in the head and clear the bus. I get why Dog Day Afternoon is relevant because of its themes and unique central character, but I can only take so much of Al Pacino pacing around sweating, yelling constantly.