Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
92%RT Audience Score: 90%
Awards & Nominations: Won 1 Oscar
14 wins & 21 nominations total
Framed by great work from director Sidney Lumet and fueled by a gripping performance from Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon offers a finely detailed snapshot of people in crisis with tension-soaked drama shaded in black humor.
Dog Day Afternoon is a classic 70s bank heist movie that has it all: Al Pacino’s electric performance, a brilliantly constructed script, and a spectacular turn from John Cazale. It’s a film that rises and falls on its acting, and its acting is magnificent. Plus, it’s got swearing and violence, so what’s not to love? If you haven’t seen it yet, grab some popcorn and settle in for a wild ride.
Production Company(ies)
Distributor
Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
285 Prospect Park West, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
MPAA / Certificate
R
Year of Release
1975
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Mono
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 10m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Sep 21, 1975 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 16, 1997
Genre(s)
Lgbtq+
Keyword(s)
starring Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Sully Boyar, James Broderick, directed by Sidney Lumet, written by Frank Pierson, LGBTQ+, bank robbery, hostage situation, media circus, FBI, tension, black humor, motivations, law enforcement, R rating, Warner Bros Pictures, Martin Bregman, Martin Elfand, reviewed by Stanley Kauffmann, Dave Kehr, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Richard Schickel, Variety Staff, Adam Smith, Brian Eggert, Graeme Tuckett, D Patrick Rodgers, Fico Cangiano, Alistair Lawrence, Michael Calleri, Chinatown, Unforgiven, Dogville, The Insider, No Man’s Land, box office performance, budget, MPAA rating, producer names, sound mix, aspect ratio
Worldwide gross: $50,000,000
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $300,854,805
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 500
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 32,808,594
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $1,800,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $10,830,773
Production budget ranking: 1,633
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $5,832,371
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $284,191,661
ROI to date (est.): 1,706%
ROI ranking: 60
John Cazale – Salvatore
Charles Durning – Eugene Moretti
Chris Sarandon – Leon Shermer
Sully Boyar – Mulvaney
James Broderick – FBI Agent Sheldon
Director(s)
Sidney Lumet
Writer(s)
Frank Pierson
Producer(s)
Martin Bregman, Martin Elfand
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Won 1 Oscar
14 wins & 21 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Best Writing Winners, Oscar Nominees, Oscar Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen Winners, Oscar Winners
All Critics (50) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (2)
On the other and substantial hand, most of those segments are very good. If the whole is less than the sum of the parts, if there really is no sum of the parts, those parts those parts are extraordinarily well made.
January 8, 2018
Stanley Kauffmann
The New Republic
TOP CRITIC
Enjoyable and even exciting at the start, Dog Day Afternoon degenerates into frustration and tedium toward nightfall — an experience no less painful for the audience than for the actors.
April 27, 2009
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
One of Sidney Lumet’s best jobs of directing and one of Al Pacino’s best performances (as a bisexual bank robber) come together in a populist thriller with lots of New York juice
April 27, 2009
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
[Pacino] gives an electric performance, charged with a lunatic energy that expertly captures the weird blend of confidence and self-deprecation (if not hatred) that marks the paranoid syndrome.
August 24, 2008
Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Dog Day Afternoon is, in the whole as well as the parts, filmmaking at its best.
August 24, 2008
Variety Staff
Variety
TOP CRITIC
Pacino simmers in this daring and brilliantly constructed treatise on the many facets of a crime.
February 1, 2006 | Rating: 5/5
Adam Smith
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
In the canon of great American films of the 1970s, its unembellished portrait of LGBTQ+ characters keeps the film in the contemporary conversations about representation in cinema.
June 29, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Brian Eggert
Deep Focus Review
Every performance in this film is a thing of beauty.
December 1, 2021
Graeme Tuckett
Stuff.co.nz
It features one of Pacino’s finest performances, as well as a spectacular turn from John Cazale, who would die from cancer just three years after Dog Day’s release.
September 13, 2021
D. Patrick Rodgers
Nashville Scene
Al Pacino’s tour de force performance and Frank Pierson’s lean & mean script are big standouts in this magnificent drama. [Full review in Spanish]
May 15, 2021 | Rating: 4/5
Fico Cangiano
CineXpress Podcast
Classic 1970s bank heist drama has swearing and violence.
February 18, 2021 | Rating: 5/5
Alistair Lawrence
Common Sense Media
“Dog Day Afternoon” rises and falls on its acting, and its acting is magnificent.
January 14, 2021
Michael Calleri
Niagara Gazette…
Plot
Based upon a real-life incident which occurred in August 1972 in which a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Gravesend, Brooklyn, New York, was held siege by Sonny, a Vietnam veteran turned bank robber determined to steal enough money ($2500) for his “wife” (Leon, a man; the two, were, according to an onscreen TV news report, married in a church by a priest who was defrocked shortly after, although Leon says to the police that Sal is “married and has children”) to undergo a sex change operation. (The real life character upon whom Leon is based did, in fact, get the operation.) On a hot summer afternoon, Sonny and two cohort, Stevie and Sal, go to rob the (fictional) First Savings Bank of Brooklyn. Stevie soon gets nervous and flees. Although the bank manager and female tellers agree not to interfere with the robbery, Sonny finds there is not much to steal, as most of the cash has been picked up for the day. Sonny then gets an unexpected phone call from Captain Moretti of the NYPD, who tells him the place is surrounded by the city’s entire police force. Having few options under the circumstances, Sonny nervously bargains with Moretti, demanding safe escort to the airport and a plane out of the country in return for the bank employees’ safety.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Dog Day Afternoon features a standout performance from Al Pacino as the inexperienced criminal leading a bank robbery.
Sidney-Lumet.jpg
