Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Sometimes, the simplest concept can provide to be the most compelling and interesting. It’s something director Sidney Lumet succeeded in before with 12 Angry Men and tries his hand at again with Dog Day Afternoon, which has to be the simplest heist movie of all time. Yet like 12 Angry Men, it’s out of that simplicity that the complexity emerges, creating an interesting pallet of characters, ideas and conflicts.

What was supposed to be a simple bank heist gradually slips more and more out of control. Sonny (Al Pacino) does his best to solve the growing series of problems and conflicts, while his partner, Sal, (John Cazale) handles the weapons, but it’s clear his plan has little room for adaptation. Soon the cops have surrounded the building, television crews are outside with cameras and a large crowed has gathered to watch the day unfold.

The real mastery of the film is how the conflicts gradually build. At first it’s simple; a third partner in the heist flakes out. But as the film progresses more and more problems arrive, an asthmatic hostage, gung-ho cops and the media which seems to be getting the facts wrong, much to Sal’s frustration. The way these conflicts build and compound creates for this tension of atmosphere where it seems like everything could blow at any moment.

The film also ratchets up 12 Angry Men by providing this atmosphere of heat where everything seems to be visually reaching a boiling point. At first tempers are calm, things are smooth, everyone is amiable, almost friendly but as the film progress and the temperature rises sweat breaks and tempers flare. As the situation gets more heated, so does everything else.

The film also has a lot to do with the social climate of the times. It’s clear from early on that the cops aren’t seen as the most outstanding people. There are a couple of references to a heist that ended in a lot of lost lives, something that people have pinned on the cops. There is also the rise of the gay rights movement and Sonny himself is in a homosexual relationship. These elements don’t greatly shape the overall film, but they provide a bit more atmosphere and understanding to the situation the characters are in.

And there’s something to be said about how this film simply drops the audience into this situation and runs with it. There’s no setup to the heist, an abnormality in itself, just the heist. By simply placing itself in the situation, the film does make any downtime minimal. However, it has to find ways to bring us up to speed on certain things. Some of the exposition inserted into the narrative is brilliant, others are glaringly obvious and slow down the picture.

Another problem the film runs into by simply dropping in on these characters at the moment of the heist is that they aren’t developed all that well. Throughout the film there are glimpses of these characters and there’s a general sense of who they are by the end, but there’s never a fantastic sense of character. If anything, the characters simply seem to be playing out the roles they are given with little real personality. There’s some there, but there’s also a desire for more.

For how simple of a film it is, Dog Day Afternoon works in a lot of interesting material and finds a way to make the concept work fantastically. However, it seems that the concept deprives it of some personality. For how well it is constructed on a narrative level, the actual players aren’t as compelling as they could be. They are certainly of their times but never seem to be of themselves. Perhaps it isn’t important, perhaps the aim is the larger scope of the world that surrounds them but for a film that deals with such a small number of key players, there should be more emphasis on the actual players.