DOG DAY AFTERNOON
A film review by Scott A. Borton
Copyright 1996 Scott A. Borton
Title: DOG DAY AFTERNOON (USA 1975) Directed by: Sidney Lumet Starring: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon
Rating: C+
Compact-O-Review: DOG DAY AFTERNOON passes
itself off as a farce about two guys robbing
a bank and finding themselves in a situation
where everything and anything goes wrong.
Instead, DOG DAY AFTERNOON is a muddled film
that seems to have no central theme and with
an unsatisfying conclusion.
Unfortunately, I do not begin watching a movie without some preconceived notion about what the movie is going to be like. I started watching DOG DAY AFTERNOON with the idea that I was going to get a tight farce about two brain-dead bank robbers. Of course, films invariably differ from my conception, but with DOG DAY AFTERNOON I found that not only did I not get what I expected, I got nothing at all.
DOG DAY AFTERNOON jumps right into the action, which involves three freshman bank robbers scoping out and subsequenty robbing a neighborhood bank in Brooklyn. Things begin to go awry when one of the robbers' number chickens out of the operation. Despite all the robber's precautions, soon the gig is up: the bank is surrounded by police officers. Robbers Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale) decide to hold out in the bank with eight hostages until they figure out a way to escape cleanly. The already-bad situation degrades when the press find out certain facts about Sonny that could prove to be somewhat embarrassing.
Sounds interesting? It is, from a topical point of view. The robbers are delightfully goofy and clueless, and there are some humorous little moments that demonstrate how strange some situations can get. But that's as far as the comedy goes: light-hearted moments that don't add up to a larger comedy aesthetic. There are moments of drama, inserted in a seemingly random fashion and without cohesion. So what do you get in the end? A dramatic comedy? A comedic drama? Of course, it's always dangerous to classify films, but it seems to me that even the creators and actors of the film had no idea how the film should turn out. This lack of direction is magnified by the larger plot of the film: the film starts out funny but ends dead serious.
There is simply nothing special about this film. The dialogue is ho-hum, the plot is simple and uninteresting (I really didn't even care if the robbers made a getaway or not), and the characters are dry and underacted. The only thing that I found funny about the film was the robbers' complete cluelessness about the art of bank robbery, but that idea was basically thrown away in favor of unclear drama.
One thing that I did notice and enjoy about the film was the depiction of the media covering the event. During the standoff in the bank, TV cameras are everywhere: there seem to be more media guys than policemen. There isn't a TV on without some report of the event blaring on it, and radio talk-show hosts even try to call and negotiate with the robbers directly. This is a delightfully understated comment on the media, and certainly more effective than some contemporary films (NATURAL BORN KILLERS leaps to mind).
Thus concludes my review of DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Now I will review the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations that this film received. My main question is: what were they thinking? There were six Oscar nominations and six Golden Globe nominations for this flick. _Maybe_ Al Pacino (AAN: Best Actor) as Sonny deserved some special recognition for acting the part of a goofy robber so... goofily. But John Cazale (AAN: Best Supporting) as Sal, Sonny's partner? Naw. Sal was pretty uninteresting. Charles Durning (AAN: Best Supporting) as the cop who tries to coax the robbers out? No! He mostly shouted into a bullhorn throughout the whole film. And Chris Sarandon (AAN: Best Supporting) as Sonny's gay lover? Certainly not. A totally unbeliveable character at most.
--Scott Andrew Borton Urbana, Illinois scott@prairienet.org
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