50 years ago… the crowds were chanting “Attica!"
On a sweaty, August afternoon, inexperienced criminal Sonny (Al Pacino) and his accomplice Sal (John Cazale) attempt to rob a bank in Brooklyn. Things go wrong from the start, and the hapless crooks find themselves in an increasingly intense pressure cooker as they take hostages and as the media and FBI descend on the scene.
Pacino delivers an electric performance as a queer man motivated by love, hoping to fund his partner’s sex change surgery with the loot from the robbery. Cazele is brilliantly understated as Sonny’s quietly anxious but loyal brother in crime. Director Lumet delivers a relentless chronicle of desperation, expertly navigating between the chaos of an active crime scene, to the pain of an intimate phone conversation between Sonny and his lover, Leon (Chris Serandon).
Humidity and doom seep through the screen in one of the most powerful films of the 1970s.
The movie “Dog Day Afternoon” was inspired by a real-life 1972 bank robbery in Brooklyn, New York, where John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile, along with a third accomplice, attempted to rob a Chase Manhattan Bank. The pair, hoping to fund Wojtowicz’s partner’s gender reassignment surgery, took eight hostages, leading to a 14-hour standoff with police and a media frenzy.
Winner – Best Original Screenplay, Academy Awards Nominee – Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Chris Sarandon), Best Director, Best Editing, Academy Awards Winner – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
Runtime: 2h 10m Format: DCP Rated: R
Select a highlighted date to see event times
Select a time to add to your calendar
7:00pm - 9:30pm