Thursday, July 4, 2013

Dog Day Afternoon

This is brilliant!

Sonny and two cohorts try to rob a bank. Everything that can possibly go wrong does. First, one of the accomplices chickens out. Money has just been picked up the day before so the vaults are empty. To top it all off, the police swarm the place.

Whenever Sonny comes out, waving a white flag, to negotiate an escape for him and his friend Sal, he gets cheered by the crowd. And he loves it. He yells out paroles, throws money into the crowd and screams "Attica! Attica!" referring to a riot at Attica prison facility some time earlier.

He is more concerned about keeping his hostages safe (bathroom breaks and pizza) and leaving money in his will to both his wife. The second wife is actually a man named Leon and is sort of the reason Sonny got himself into this mess, he was going to steal the money to pay for Leon's sex change.

The film is based on true events (according to the actual culprit, only loosely so) and is one of Al Pacino's finest performances.

9/10

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