Dog Day Afternoon

Director: Sidney Lumet

1975 / 125min / 35mm

Al Pacino, in as close as he gets to a career-defining role, plays Sonny Wortzik, a small-time crook who makes big-time headlines while maintaining a volatile hostage situation with itchy trigger-fingered partner Cazale at First Brooklyn Saving Bank—shot on location in Windsor Terrace. As the standoff drags on, Wortzik’s personal life becomes property of police and reporters, while the public adopt him as an unlikely brigand-hero, to cheers of “Attica! Attica!” Cazale’s subtle, at times ominously stone-faced performance as the sickly looking, increasingly feverish “Sal” Naturile provides an ideal counterpoint to the volcanic and splenetic Pacino, the duo performing one of the great dramatic double acts in the annals of New Hollywood.

Part of Also Starring... John Cazale