| | | The robbery should have taken 10 minutes. 4 hours later, the bank was like a circus sideshow. 8 hours later, it was the hottest thing on live T.V. 12 hours later, it was all history. And it's all true.
Features: DVD, French, Biographies, Film Highlights, Trailers, Documentary
On a hot Brooklyn afternoon, two optimistic losers set out to rob a bank. Sorry (Al Pacino) is the mastermind, Sid (John Cazale) is the follower, and disaster is the result. Because the cops, crowds, TV cameras, and even the pizza man have arrived. The "well-planned" heist is now a circus. Pacino and director Sidney Lumet, collaborators on Serpico, reteam for this boisterous comedy/thriller that earned six Academy Award nominations (including best Picture) and won an Oscar for Frank Pierson's steetwise screenplay. Based on a true incident, Dog Day Afternoon "is one of the big ones, swarming with energy, excitement and drama" (Gene Shalit, NBC TV).
"Bitingly funny and wonderfully compassionate." New York Daily News
Editor's Note
Al Pacino plays a ferocious and fed-up bank robber in Lumet's classic film DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Balancing suspense, violence, and humor, the film's depiction of a grand-scale media event craftily dives from the political to the personal, evoking a piercing portrait of a man and his devastating downward tumble as seen through the media circus that Lumet made a career of chronicling. Pacino is heartbreakingly real as Sonny, a smart yet self-destructive Brooklyn tough whose plan to rob the local bank to fund his male lover's (Chris Sarandon) sex change goes absurdly wrong. Accompanied only by his doltish accomplice, Sal (John Cazale), Sonny realizes that all the money had been removed before his arrival, and decides to kidnap a handful of bank employees instead. As the lengthy August day drags on, Sonny and hordes of local police, led by Sergeant Moretti (Charles Durning), make little progress, and eventually Sonny's wife and lover are brought to the scene. The crowd's sympathy is immediately captured by the charismatic Sonny, whose antagonism with the police is played out before an audience of millions, leading to an inevitably tragic finish.
| Features | Audio: English, French Dolby Digital Mono | | Subtitles: English, Spanish, French | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Access | | Production Notes |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 5/31/2005 |
| Running Time: 130 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1975 | | Catalog ID: 1024 | | UPC: 00012569102422 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (1976) |  | Frank Pierson, Winner, Best Writing, Original Screenplay | | | Al Pacino, Nominee, Best Actor | | | Chris Sarandon, Nominee, Best Supporting Actor | | | Sidney Lumet, Nominee, Best Director | |
Golden Globe (1976) | | | Martin Bregman & Martin Elfand, Nominee, Best Picture |
| Memorable Quotes| "He wants to know when you'll be through."----Jenny (Carol Kane), repeating to Sonny (Al Pacino) what her husband is asking her on the phone as he's robbing the bank | | "No, I don't want to be paid, I don't need to be paid. Look, I'm here with my partner and nine other people, see. And we're dying, man. You know? You're going to see our brains on the sidewalk, they're going to spill our guts out. Now, are you going to show that on television? Have all your housewives look at that? Instead of AS THE WORLD TURNS? I mean, what do you got for me? I want something for that."----Sonny | | "Attica! Attica!"----Sonny to the crowds outside the bank |
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| | Professional Reviews | Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "Pacino gives one of the performances of his career....Lumet's gritty 1970s landmark remains one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to deal with gay and transsexual characters in a relatively unsensational manner..." 03/01/2006 p.132Widescreen Review
"DOG DAY AFTERNOON swarms with energy, excitement and drama." 04/01/2006 p.59 Sight and Sound
"The combination of simmering tension, comedy and pathos is adroitly handled by the director and his excellent cast." 05/01/2006 p.88 |
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