DOG DAY AFTERNOON

US, 1975, 130 Minutes, Colour.
Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, James Broderick.
Directed by Sidney Lumet.

Dog Day Afternoon was nominated for several Oscars for 1975 - they include Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor. It is quite an impressive film and a strange comment on modern America. The incidents portrayed in the film really happened. Director Sidney Lumet made Serpico and uses the atmosphere of New York again in this film. He also has the same star - A1 Pacino. Pacino is a very good actor indeed, one of moods and intensity which is convincing in such varied films as Scarecrow, Serpico and the two Godfather films.

The character that Pacino plays in this film is a representative of the strange mixture of influences in the modern mixed-up America. He is the migrant son, with a dominant mother, highly emotional and impulsive. He has a wife and children, yet has gone through the form of a homosexual marriage. He has organised a bank robbery, yet it all goes wrong. He is violent, but considerate. And on an August afternoon, despite his inefficiency, he becomes a celebrity with the fickle crowd cheering him on, then jeering. And the police come in droves. This means that the film is quite funny at times, at other times full of pathos. Some of the monologues that the script gives to Pacino move the film from almost being a parody of the robbery genre to a genuine and moving character study.

The film seems to work on several levels. It is entertaining in its way. It is filled with real people. It is a social comment on modern America.

1. The impact of this film? Its quality? The variety of qualities it represented?

2. The emphasis and the meaning of the title? The focus on the afternoon and its style? The irony?

3. How well did the film communicate the atmosphere of heat, the Brooklyn locations, the time passing, the atmosphere of the afternoon, the mood of the people concerned? The documentary background of the film? The variety of photography, especially the overhead photography for overall dramatic effect?

4. The importance of the film as a representation of New York in the 70s? The types and heroes and villains of the city, the mystique of New York? The mystique of robbers, police and criminals? A representation of a cross section of people of the time? The role of violence in the 70s? How interestingly communicated? What kind of reflection?

5. The tradition of robberies and crime in America? The cinema tradition over the decades? How did they come together in the visualising of this robbery? The mentality of the people concerned, criminals, hostages, police, crowds? The audience response to the atmosphere?

6. Sonny presented as an American hero? As an American villain? How did the characterisation retain interest? Was he a sympathetic character? The initial impact, waiting at the bank, initiating the robbery, the things beginning to go wrong? His coping and his inability to cope? How was he seen as a man? Coping with the robbery, with people, with Sal? The gradual explanation of his background, incompetence? The growing nervousness? The importance of his motivation?

7. How well did the film and Al Pacino's performance help us understand Sonny? As a potential criminal? His responsibility for the crime? His good qualities. sympathetic? His failings?

8. How was Sonny a summing up of America at that time? His migrant background? His growing up in New York, the urban influences, Vietnam (an explanation for the violence), his relationship with men, women, Leon, his wife? The screen's portraying his mother and father and their attitudes? The American confronting the police? Show-off and modest? Success and failure? A man of dreams, almost achieving them, doomed to failure and reality?

9. The contrast with Sal? Why was he involved in the robbery? The nervous young man who went off? Sal's lack of brains, his violence? His annoyance about the homosexuality? His gullibility? The growing nervousness throughout the day? How good a characterisation? The pathos of his plight? His worry about the escape and the flight? His lack of relationship to the people held up? His final death?

10. Comment on the characterisation of the bank manager. His actions, his heroism, his diabetes? How well did he act in the situation? His relationship with Sonny? With the police? His helping, his staff? How credible?

11. The portrayal of the staff? The variety of women concerned? The characterisation of each of them? The particular incidents in which they were involved, for example, the pregnant wife ringing her husband? The gum chewing girl learning to use the rifle? The elderly assistant, wanting to go to the toilet, her helping Sonny? How credible did the portrayal of the staff make the whole proceedings?

12. The presentation of the police? The huge numbers, the readiness for violence? The negotiations? The head of the police and his ability to negotiate with Sonny? By phone, their conversation? The way that the negotiations were fouled up?

13. The personalities of the FBI men? Undercover, his waiting in the background, his suave presentation, his cool menace, his achievement of success? A commentary on the methods of the police and the FBI?

14. The importance of the crowds in the film? Their championing of Sonny? Their continued shouting, treating the whole thing as a show? Their liking for violence? Their fear during shots? Their changing of attitudes? The comment on the fickleness of crowds?

15. The importance of the television coverage? A feature of the seventies? The fact that Sonny could watch himself on television? The wide publicity, Sonny's mother and his wife seeing everything? The kind of invasion of privacy by television and the media? The comment on character and morals? The influencing of the crowds pro and con? The comment on the role of modern media?

16. The importance of Leon and the time that he was introduced into the film? Trying to understand Sonny in the light of what we had seen and of his marriage with Leon? The importance of Leon's monologue to the police? Of his phone call to Sonny? The pity for Leon? The plight of the homosexual? The operation? How real a character was Leon despite the bizarre background? His inability to help Sonny, his fear of him? The overtones of madness and nervous breakdown in American society? Gay Liberation demonstrations?

17. The contrast with Angela? How credible that Sonny had married her? Her continual talking, reactions with the children, with the police? Her unwillingness to help Sonny? The contrast of Sonny's attitudes to Leon and Angela? His greater attachment to Leon?

18. The dramatic importance of Sonny's mother's arrival? American momism, her hold over Sonny, his rejection of her and what it meant?

19. Individuals in the crowd wanting to become celebrities? The boy with the food and his song and dance act? The doctor coming in?

20. Trace the reactions of the crowd during the afternoon. What insight into human nature?

21. How interesting was the plan of escape? The various details in its planning? Sonny moving inside and outside the bank? The fact of the FBI and the police agreed?

22. How was the trip the climax to the dram? Huddling the hostages in the bus, the people chasing the bus and their hostility, the shouts? The arrival at the airport and the fore-boding of the plane? The emphasis on Sal's gun? The swiftness of the FBI? Sonny's shrewdness e.g. the driver of the bus and his inability to save Sal? The final catching-up?

23. What were the main themes of American society portrayed in this film?

24. The main human themes? The study of individuals? Their strange behaviour? The importance of Sonny's phone calls and monologues? what insight into his character?

25. How good a film of the 70s was this?