DOG DAY AFTERNOON, released September 21, 1975
Starring Al Pacino as Sonny. With John Cazale as Sal
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Screenplay by Frank Pierson
Based on “The Boys in the Bank”; by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore
One sweltering morning in Brooklyn N.Y., Sonny and Sal set out to rob a bank. Sonny, who needs the money to pay for a sex change operation for one of his wives, is the mastermind; Sal, the tagalong. It’s clear early on that neither of them has any experience in such ventures. It’s also clear that while Sonny abhors violence, he has some concerns about Sal on that score. His hope is to get the money and get out fast. This might have worked if Sal hadn’t burned some paper in an ashtray, causing smoke to issue from the bank’s ventilation system. The smoke attracts the attention of the insurance broker across the street who comes to investigate and signals with a knowing nod that he doesn’t buy the bank manager’s assurance that everything is fine.
The wailing sirens and TV camera crews that soon appear attract droves of onlookers, a Greek Chorus of sorts, cheering Sal on when he’s called to step out of the bank to negotiate with the cops. His demand: a helicopter to take them to the airport and then a plane to take them out of the country. They haven’t yet decided where. (When he asked Sal which country he’d like to go to, Sal said Wyoming.) The police chief agrees to the demand in part—a bus, not a helicopter to take them to the airport. Also, he points out, these things take time to arrange.
As the hours pass, the scene outside the bank becomes increasingly frenetic, while the scene inside the bank, brutally hot without air conditioning, becomes more relaxed, the women employees no longer viewing Sonny as a threat but as their go-to-guy who gets help when the bank guard has an asthma attack, and who, without being asked, gets the cops to order pizzas for them.
As for Sonny, he’s exhausted. He’s done it all without any help, he complains aloud though no one appears to be listening. He negotiated with the cops, fielded phone calls from his wives: his first wife claiming she couldn’t get a sitter for the kids when Sonny asks why she hasn’t come to see him; his second wife expressing little appreciation for what he’s gone through to get money for the sex change operation. All this topped off by a visit from his weeping mother who wants him to come home.
When their transportation finally arrives—not a bus after all, but a limo—we’re relieved only briefly, understanding that this story can’t have a happy ending.
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NB: The story on which the film is based was itself based on an actual bank robbery. The photo of the perpetrator bears an uncanny resemblance to Al Pacino.
