Dog Day Afternoon _BEST_
Filming took place between September and November 1974.[41] The opening montage shows New York's traffic, bridges, beaches, and neighborhoods before moving to a view of the Manhattan skyline from a cemetery.[36] Lumet wanted to convey "a hot boring day, a dog day afternoon".[42] The director shot the footage from a station wagon, and ended in front of the bank, showing the robbers.[42] The footage was silent, as Lumet decided that he did not want a score for the film. The director felt that "he could not reconcile trying to convince an audience that this really happened ... with putting a music score into it".[39] Editor Dede Allen played Elton John's composition "Amoreena" in the editing room. Lumet added the song to the film, which comes out of the getaway car's radio.[39]
Dog Day Afternoon
"Dog Day Afternoon" runs a little longer than the average feature, and you think maybe they could have cut an opening montage of life in New York. But no. These shots, stolen from reality, establish a bedrock for the film. It's "naturalistic," says the director, Sidney Lumet. I think he means it has the pace and feel of everyday life. When you begin with the story of a man who sticks up a bank to finance his lover's sex change, when you have a situation that has attracted hundreds of cops and millions of TV viewers, you run the risk of making a side show. "Dog Day Afternoon" never makes that mistake. The characters are all believable, sympathetic, convincing. We care for them. In a film about cops and robbers, there are no bad guys. Just people trying to get through a summer afternoon that has taken a strange turn.
On a hot sweaty summer's afternoon, Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino) and his partner in crime Sal Naturile (John Cazale) enter the small branch of the First Brooklyn Savings Bank with the intention of robbing it. Their masterplan immediately goes awry; their getaway driver chickens out and their timing for the heist is spectacularly unfortunate: most of the money has already been picked up for the day, leaving a small amount in the cash drawers and some extra in traveller's cheques. 041b061a72