02/12/10 - Dog Day Afternoon

Dog Day Afternoon (1975, 125 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072890/

From watching John Cazale a few days earlier in The Deer Hunter, I immediately wanted to check out Dog Day Afternoon again to see him in a minor role. I simply love the acting he does in his movie and it's a huge contributing factor to why I love it so much.

The film stars Al Pacino as Sonny Wortzik and John Cazale as Sal as New York bank robbers. Trying to handle the situation is Det. Sgt. Eugene Moretti (Charles Durning) and later from the FBI there's Sheldon (James Broderick). Chris Sarandon plays Sonny's lover Leon Shermer.

The highlight of Dog Day Afternoon for me is the acting. Leading are Pacino and Cazale. First, Pacino. Pacino gives the absolute best performance of anybody I've ever seen in anything ever. This is my favorite acting job of all the films I've seen. There is complete range of emotions that he displays and everything seems so genuine. He really doesn't even seem like he's acting here, just like he actually is robbing a bank. The pain he feels as his simple plan slowly crumbles and fails around him is so realistic. His rage, his line delivery, his mannerisms, his dialogue, everything is perfect. Backing him up is Cazale as Sal. Cazale plays a stupider character and seemingly much more innocent. He interacts with Pacino great and every time they talk to each other there is such an amazing chemistry. They balance and play off of each so well that the relationship here is one of the best in cinema. Pacino delivers the performance of forever and a huge reason for that is Cazale.

Dog Day Afternoon is based off a real robbery, but it's modified to fit into a movie. However, it is so incredibly realistic. As I mentioned above, a big reason for this is probably the top-notch acting moving the story along, but the movie itself seems to move along the way I imagine it would really happen. The local police delay the robbers until the FBI get there, the negotiations themselves, and everything that goes on out at the airport all seem realistic and are handled believably. I can't emphasize enough how Dog Day Afternoon doesn't seem like a movie; it seems real.

I always say that a big different between a great movie and a masterpiece is the soundtrack. Ironically, I love Dog Day Afternoon and there isn't a soundtrack. There's one opening song for the beginning montage and that's it. After that, there's nothing else for the whole thing. Perhaps this is done to reinforce this "realism" that the film has that I've mentioned repeatedly in the previous paragraphs. So it turns out, Dog Day Afternoon is one of the few movies to pull off the lack of a soundtrack to great success.

And now for a paragraph for the best scene in the entire film: the phone call between Leon and Sonny. Completely ad-libbed this is the best acting in the world. The turmoil, the anger, the emotion, the love, the conflicting feelings, and the stress are all evident on Pacino's face during the phone call. Sarandon holds his own as Leon but Pacino is simply on another level here. This isn't one of my favorite scenes in cinema (that's usually lighter stuff), but this is what I consider the best acted scene in cinema. Again: simply perfect.

Overall, I gave this film a 10/10. There's only so many ways you can say how masterful a film is. Everything Dog Day Afternoon does is great and essentially flawless. From the acting of the main characters, to the character development of all the characters, to the pacing, to the finale, to specific scenes, and everything in between: Dog Day Afternoon does it right and it does it perfect.