preview

Film Analysis: Dog Day Afternoon

Decent Essays
Open Document

Ziggy Stardust, Pong, and HBO have one thing in common – 1972. The very same year, on a hot Brooklyn afternoon, two overly ambitious twenty-something men tried to rob a bank creating national attention. In 1975, Sydney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon brought the story to the silver screen showcasing Sonny (Al Pacino) as the mastermind, Sal (John Cazale) as his follower, and disaster the result of their endeavors. The basic premise of the film contains the ingredients for the classic “based on a true story” notion commonplace in Hollywood dramas. Nevertheless, on a deeper lever, the story represents a couple wrestling with the cracks in their relationship. The dialogue in Dog Day Afternoon creates a pure connection between characters with lifestyles rarely found in the 70’s thus allowing audiences to relate to the fantastical bank robbery behavior more than they thought possible. …show more content…

Consequently, robbing a bank already would turn the public against him, and they reason behind it (funding a sex change operation) would cause even more outrage in the public eye. Therefore, the phone conversation between Sonny held up in the bank and Leon waiting patiently with the FBI in the barber shop provides the first inkling of their unadulterated connection. Their exchange soon becomes a cacophony; the banter resembles one of a traditional couple. Lumet’s use of this dialogue allows the viewer to connect with the characters. The words exchanged could apply to anyone and do no reserve themselves to the mouths of gay individuals. At this point, the film begins to reveal how the narrative does not revolve around a gay man and his transgender boyfriend, but between two people dealing with a troubled

Get Access