Cinema Seminar:
Dog Day Afternoon

Taught by Paul Wright, Ph.D.
Instructor of English and History, Main Line Classical Academy

Inspired by a real 1972 bank robbery and hostage drama in Brooklyn, Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (1975) features Al Pacino in one of his most studied and defining roles. As Sonny Wortzik, a bank robber with a rather unusual agenda for his score that is revealed only as the film progresses, Pacino’s character finds himself morphing from a well-meaning yet intentional robber to an unintended hostage-taker. Sonny then comes under siege first by the New York City police and then the FBI alongside his fellow robber, Sal Naturile, impeccably brought to life by legendary actor John Cazale.

Pacino had memorably co-starred with Cazale in the first two Godfather films, and he would later refer to Cazale, who sadly died of cancer just as he was completing The Deer Hunter, as “one of the great actors of . . . any time.” In addition to these two luminaries, the film boasts the always reliable Charles Durning (Tootsie, O Brother, Where Art Thou?) as the police detective tasked with negotiating with the robbers, as well as an Oscar-nominated Chris Sarandon as Sonny’s intimate, Leon. The movie is also enriched by a terrific cast of minor characters–both hostages and entranced observers watching the whole spectacle unfold–all ripped from the rough fabric of 1970s New York City.

Dog Day Afternoon remains a bracing study of an antihero who taps into a broader frustration with the powers that be, has a willingness to challenge them, and never loses sight of the gravity and moral costs of doing so. With its three-dimensional characters and richly human tapestry of motives and missteps, the film is as powerful now as it was upon release.