Dog Day Afternoon

1975 • 124 minutes

About this movie

On the blistering afternoon of August 22, 1972, two optimistic losers attempt to rob a Brooklyn bank -- the frantic master-mind Sonny (Academy Award-winner Al Pacino, "Scent of a Woman," "Carlito's Way"), and his slow-witted buddy Sal (John Cazale, "The Godfather," "The Deer Hunter"). But then the cops arrive. The crowds arrive. The TV cameras arrive. Even the pizza man arrives. As their heist turns into a circus, Sonny and Sal's notoriety grows, and their chances for survival shrink. Pacino teams with his "Serpico" director Sidney Lumet ("The Verdict," "Prince of the City") for a jolting comedy-drama that earned six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, and a win for Frank Pierson's streetwise screenplay based on a real-life incident. Recently selected by the prestigious American Film Institute as one of the 400 greatest American films of all time. "Funny...vivid...Lumet's most accurate, most flamboyant New York movie," raves The New York Times of this box-office hit. MPAA Rating: NOTRATED © 1975 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved

Ratings and reviews

Dog Day Afternoon is a great movie. The spectacle of a botched bank robbery and what follows makes it much like watching the news, but without the need to stop from laughing at the absurdity of human interaction.... Except that the movie is based on a real event that was the news of its particular day.

Great movie! See it every few years. Pacino, Sarandon, Cazale, Durning all excellent. Interesting story, very New Yorky. Ahead of its time. Of course, I'd watch Pacino read a dictionary!

wow what an masterpiece al pacino and cuzan did a really great rolle this movie is so realistic and great how they tried to rob a bank but failed misrebly