--- title: "Dog Day Afternoon: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/dog-day-afternoon/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/dog-day-afternoon" critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 8 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): what the critics said Critics' score 81 from 8 reviews: 8 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. 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. ## Sight and Sound Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 25 November 2016. 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 the review](https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/sidney-lumet-network-10-essential-films) ## The Telegraph — Tim Robey Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 20 October 2006. 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 the review](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/3655998/Must-have-movies-Dog-Day-Afternoon.html) ## The AV Club — Chuck Bowen Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 July 2015. 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 the review](https://www.avclub.com/dog-day-afternoon-deeply-loves-the-america-it-critiques-1798281329) ## Time Out — LQ Rating 4/5. 23 July 2015. 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 the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/dog-day-afternoon) ## The New Yorker — Penelope Gilliatt Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 15 September 1975. 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 the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1975/09/22/vivid-doldrums) ## The New York Times — Vincent Canby Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 22 September 1975. 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 the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/22/archives/screen-lumets-dog-day-afternoon.html) ## Eye for Film — Stephen Carty Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 31 May 2010. 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 the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/search/title/Dog%20Day%20Afternoon) ## Polygon — Jesse Hassenger Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 17 December 2025. 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 the review](https://www.polygon.com/dog-day-afternoon-50-al-pacino-sidney-lumet/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/dog-day-afternoon.md