--- title: "Dog Day Afternoon" year: 1975 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/dog-day-afternoon" fi1m_score: 90 critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-16T10:08:31.663952+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T10:08:47.526505+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Directed by Sidney Lumet · 2h 05m · MPA R · Crime, Drama, Thriller **Fi1m score: 90** · Critics 81 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* Al Pacino robs a bank and somehow ends up looking overworked > Sidney Lumet makes a bungled bank robbery funny, frightening and painfully human. Al Pacino leads an ensemble that deserves equal attention, though the street commotion occasionally pushes the comedy too hard. ## Synopsis Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale) attempt a bank robbery in Brooklyn on 22 August 1972. They want to get away with the money; instead, their ill-planned raid becomes a siege. Moretti (Charles Durning) is among those drawn into the stand-off, while a crowd gathers in the street. Sonny tries to take charge, with an anxious Sal alongside him. The longer the pair remain in the bank, the more people they have to reckon with, and the harder it becomes to find a way out. ## Review *Dog Day Afternoon* is a crime film we would recommend even to someone who usually avoids them. Sidney Lumet takes a badly planned bank robbery and concentrates on people who cannot quite manage the situation they have created. There is suspense, but the ordinary business of dealing with other people keeps getting in the way of the criminals’ attempts to run things. The comedy comes from watching Sonny try to make this mess behave as though it were a plan. Al Pacino makes Sonny exhausting company without making him hard to watch. His bursts of confidence feel provisional: he needs other people to believe him before he can believe himself, and every hesitation threatens another burst of bluster. We laughed at his attempts to take charge, then felt uneasy about how readily we had warmed to him. He is still holding up a bank, and the anxiety on the faces around him keeps that fact in view. The performance lets us like him without asking us to approve of what he is doing. John Cazale’s Sal makes Sonny’s agitation more worrying. His unease does not offer much relief, and the difference between the two men makes their friendship convincing without requiring either to explain it. Charles Durning, Penelope Allen and the rest of the ensemble keep the people around Sonny from becoming an audience for the lead performance. These people seem to have concerns beyond whatever he might do next, and their reactions deserve watching even while Sonny demands attention. Victor J. Kemper’s cinematography is especially good at letting a close-up become uncomfortable without making it look portentous. Sonny’s face needs no decorative emphasis; the strain is there to be watched, and the surrounding bustle gives those close views their force. Charles Bailey’s production design makes the cramped bank convincing as a workplace. The siege is more troubling because it interrupts an ordinary working day, and nothing in the surroundings makes that interruption look glamorous. Dede Allen’s editing keeps the ensemble legible as the situation grows more crowded. We can attend to Sonny without forgetting that everyone else has to endure him, and the switches between individual reactions and the larger commotion sustain that pressure. Frank Pierson’s screenplay is equally alert to the indignity of trying to command a situation while visibly losing control of it. A siege thriller could easily treat everyone caught inside as someone to threaten or bargain with, so it is a pleasure to find their irritation and anxiety taken seriously. The street scenes sometimes push too hard. The crowd’s commotion can make the farce feel overplayed, and there are passages where the insistence on being lively briefly makes the people less convincing. Sidney Lumet is more persuasive when he lets us study an uncertain face than when everyone seems to be competing for our attention. It is a limited flaw, but a noticeable one in a film whose quieter observations are so shrewd about how people try to save face under pressure. At 125 minutes, it gives nervous excitement time to become fatigue, and that length feels earned. The strain of remaining in one place with frightened people is part of what makes the siege convincing. This is worth watching in one sitting, without breaking the tension to do something sensible. Give the faces around Sonny as much attention as his. *Fi1m score 90, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are uniformly positive, with praise centred on Al Pacino’s volatile, anxious Sonny and Sidney Lumet’s handling of a bank robbery going badly wrong. Most critics find a sympathetic character study within the siege, crediting the performances and direction with sustaining tension alongside absurd humour. The supporting cast, ensemble staging and claustrophobic setting also draw praise, while several reviews value the film’s attention to working-class lives and social hypocrisy. The differences concern how much depth critics find beneath that energy, rather than whether the film works. Time Out admires the detailed observation and Pacino’s performance but finds the visual and intellectual imagination limited. The New Yorker praises the control of the farce and crowd scenes, while finding the tone sometimes blustering and the characterisation oafish. The spread runs from qualified approval to strong enthusiasm, with even the more reserved accounts finding substantial acting and directorial skill. ### Reviews we read (8) - **Sight and Sound** (90/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as perhaps Lumet’s masterpiece, praising its portrayal of two hard-up friends botching a Brooklyn bank robbery and highlighting Al Pacino’s outstanding performance as Sonny along with the strong supporting cast and editing. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/sidney-lumet-network-10-essential-films) - **The Telegraph**, Tim Robey (90/100, inferred): The film is a masterly reconstruction of a real Brooklyn bank siege, built around arguably Al Pacino's finest screen performance. Lumet's lean docudrama style closes in on the human mess of the situation and has proved highly influential on later hostage thrillers. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/3655998/Must-have-movies-Dog-Day-Afternoon.html) - **The AV Club**, Chuck Bowen (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Lumet's portrayal of working-class America and its social issues, highlighting the film's empathetic depiction of characters and its celebration of everyday bravery amid criticism of societal hypocrisies. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/dog-day-afternoon-deeply-loves-the-america-it-critiques-1798281329) - **Time Out**, LQ (4/5): The review notes that the film begins with large ambitions but becomes a richly detailed portrait of an incompetent, anxiety-ridden gay bank robber played with ferocious energy by Pacino; its strength lies in shrewd observations and absurdist humour, though it lacks deeper visual or intellectual imagination. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/dog-day-afternoon) - **The New Yorker**, Penelope Gilliatt (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film succeeds overall as a farce because it holds a stylistic note purely and has the virtue of not faltering, praising its technical feat in ensemble and crowd scenes plus closeups of Al Pacino’s face that show fine acting and direction. It has every virtue but doubt, with the farcical tone sometimes blusterous and the characterization oafish. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1975/09/22/vivid-doldrums) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (70/100, inferred): The critic calls it a gaudy street-carnival of a movie that invites laughs at inappropriate moments and is beautifully acted by performers who seem to have grown up on the city's sidewalks. It is Sidney Lumet's most accurate and flamboyant New York movie, a melodrama based on fact about a disastrously ill-planned Brooklyn bank robbery. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/22/archives/screen-lumets-dog-day-afternoon.html) - **Eye for Film**, Stephen Carty (85/100, inferred): The critic calls it a compelling and powerful character piece, highlighting Pacino at his unpredictable, method-acting peak as the bundle of contradictions that is Sonny, along with Lumet's mastery of claustrophobic situations and John Cazale's fantastic, depth-adding turn as the on-edge Sal. They single out the peak performances, top-notch direction, cinematography and screenplay in this ultimate bungled heist thriller. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/search/title/Dog%20Day%20Afternoon) - **Polygon**, Jesse Hassenger (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's enduring relevance, particularly its portrayal of media sensationalism and social issues like gender identity, noting how it feels current despite being 50 years old. They highlight Al Pacino's performance as Sonny and Sidney Lumet's direction in balancing comedy, drama, and thriller elements while keeping the protagonist sympathetic. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/dog-day-afternoon-50-al-pacino-sidney-lumet/) ## Details - **Director:** Sidney Lumet - **Director:** Sidney Lumet - **Screenplay:** Frank Pierson - **Cinematography:** Victor J. Kemper - **Editor:** Dede Allen - **Production design:** Charles Bailey - **Costume design:** Anna Hill Johnstone - **Producer:** Martin Elfand, Martin Bregman - **Cast:** Al Pacino as Sonny; John Cazale as Sal; Charles Durning as Moretti; Chris Sarandon as Leon; James Broderick as Sheldon; Penelope Allen as Sylvia; Sully Boyar as Mulvaney; Beulah Garrick as Margaret - **Runtime:** 2h 05m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 25 December 1975 - **Genres:** Crime, Drama, Thriller - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $57 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3STmwLDDBcI ## Where to watch in the US Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check. Also available in: AT, AU, GB, IE. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1976: Best Actor (nominated); Best Director (nominated); Best Film Editing (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (nominated); Best Writing, Original Screenplay (won) ## If you liked this - *The Taking of Pelham One Two Three* (1974): Another New York siege where weary professionals have little patience for theatrics. - *High and Low* (1963), Fi1m 90: A kidnapping turns crime mechanics into a patient study of class. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/high-and-low.md) - *Le Trou* (1960): Prison escape suspense built from shared labour, patience and mistrust. - *Inside Man* (2006): A bank siege with sharper planning and similarly alert New York faces. - *Victoria* (2015): Another robbery goes wrong, with less room to catch our breath. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/dog-day-afternoon