Few fictional thrillers are as tense or as funny as this real-life recreation.
Sonny seems like a genuinely intelligent person committing a genuinely stupid act, but he's surrounded by people in his personal life who in the movie appear like genuine morons. Stevie quits and runs away; Sal is a automaton; Sonny's wife is an overweight motor-mouth; Sonny's boyfriend is a basket case; Sonny's mother is a nag. It's no wonder he cracked up.
"Dog Day Afternoon" is a comedic thriller whose tone eventually turns deadly serious. It follows the incidents of the actual story in basic outline if not in detail, but it largely retains the real-life ending. It is perhaps not a great or classic movie, but it is gripping throughout, and it will have you smiling quite a lot, too. Be aware, however, that it is rated R for profanity and plenty of it.
The Academy nominated the movie for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Chris Sarandon), Best Editing (Dede Allen), and Best Writing (Frank Pierson), with only Pierson taking away the award.
Video:
The picture quality is about as good as we might expect from a thirty-year-old film, given Warner Bros.' best, high-bit-rate, anamorphic treatment. The transfer engineers retain most of the film's original 1.85:1 theatrical-release ratio, black levels are deep, and there is little grain except that which probably is inherent in the film stock. Colors sometimes seem a little off, though, with facial tones, especially, looking at time too orangish. There is some minor line flutter in Venetian blinds; definition is only average; and some shots can be too intensely dark, further muddying detail. Still, the image is more than adequate.
Audio:
The audio is rendered via an excellent Dolby Digital mono track, with good dynamics; a smooth, natural-sounding midrange; and clear, vibrant highs. There is no stereo spread, though, no deep bass, and no surround information, but one hardly notices.
Extras:
Disc one contains the feature film, plus English and French spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; thirty scene selections; a widescreen theatrical trailer; and an audio commentary by director Sidney Lumet. Lumet, now in his eighties and still going strong after directing movies for close to sixty years, calls the shooting of "Dog Day Afternoon" an "adventure." A "dog day," he explains, is "a hot, miserable day when nothing is happening in New York," the perfectly ironic title for the ironies of the movie to follow. He admits that when he started out to do the commentary, he hadn't watched the film in over twenty years, and there are long pauses among his comments where he is obviously enjoying the film again himself. Late in the commentary he tells us it took only about thirty-two days to shoot, almost completely on location; and apparently I was right about the improvisation, much of which was Pacino's own doing. This is an attentive and loving commentary that makes for easy yet informational listening.
Disc two contains two documentaries. The first and most important is a new, widescreen, four-part, thirtieth anniversary affair called "The Making of Dog Day Afternoon." It's divided into four parts, which can be accessed separately or all at once. The first part is "The Story." It is about twelve minutes long and includes comments from producer Martin Bregman, screenwriter Frank Pierson, and star Al Pacino. One of the things they mention is that the story came to their attention via a Life magazine article by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore. The second part is "Casting the Controversy," about thirteen minutes with further comments from director Sidney Lumet, who earlier had worked with Bregman and Pacino on "Serpico"; co-stars Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, and Lance Henriksen; and editor Dede Allen. The third part is the longest, "Recreating the Facts," twenty-one minutes. It contains remarks from director of photography Victor J. Kemper and assistant director Burtt Harris in addition to comments from all of the above-named filmmakers. Finally, there's "After the Filming," an eleven-minute segment in which Lumet tells us there is a difference between realism in films and naturalism, and that he tried hard to get "Dog Day Afternoon" to be as naturalistic as possible.
The one minor disappointment I had after watching the documentary was not finding out what had become of the real-life film characters today. The end of the movie tells us that the court sentenced Sonny to a twenty-year prison term, and that's all we get. However, doing a little research, I discovered that Sonny Wortzik's real name is John Wojtowicz and that he served seven years of his sentence before being paroled. Where he is today is something of a mystery, however, one rumor suggesting that he is alive and well and living on welfare somewhere in New Jersey.
The second item on disc two is a vintage featurette, "Lumet: Film Maker," ten minutes long, in fullscreen. The two discs come housed in a double, slim-line keep case, but WB include no slipcover or chapter insert.
Parting Thoughts:
Sometimes real life can surpass anything a scriptwriter can come up with. Certainly, the occurrences in "Dog Day Afternoon" would seem like pure, exaggerated fiction to anyone who didn't know they had actually happened. Credit the filmmakers and stars, however, for bringing the events to life with such zest, such enthusiasm, and such broad appeal. Few fictional thrillers are as tense or as funny as this real-life recreation.
"Dog Day Afternoon" is a comedic thriller whose tone eventually turns deadly serious. It follows the incidents of the actual story in basic outline if not in detail, but it largely retains the real-life ending. It is perhaps not a great or classic movie, but it is gripping throughout, and it will have you smiling quite a lot, too. Be aware, however, that it is rated R for profanity and plenty of it.
The Academy nominated the movie for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (Chris Sarandon), Best Editing (Dede Allen), and Best Writing (Frank Pierson), with only Pierson taking away the award.
Video:
The picture quality is about as good as we might expect from a thirty-year-old film, given Warner Bros.' best, high-bit-rate, anamorphic treatment. The transfer engineers retain most of the film's original 1.85:1 theatrical-release ratio, black levels are deep, and there is little grain except that which probably is inherent in the film stock. Colors sometimes seem a little off, though, with facial tones, especially, looking at time too orangish. There is some minor line flutter in Venetian blinds; definition is only average; and some shots can be too intensely dark, further muddying detail. Still, the image is more than adequate.
Audio:
The audio is rendered via an excellent Dolby Digital mono track, with good dynamics; a smooth, natural-sounding midrange; and clear, vibrant highs. There is no stereo spread, though, no deep bass, and no surround information, but one hardly notices.
Extras:
Disc one contains the feature film, plus English and French spoken languages; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; thirty scene selections; a widescreen theatrical trailer; and an audio commentary by director Sidney Lumet. Lumet, now in his eighties and still going strong after directing movies for close to sixty years, calls the shooting of "Dog Day Afternoon" an "adventure." A "dog day," he explains, is "a hot, miserable day when nothing is happening in New York," the perfectly ironic title for the ironies of the movie to follow. He admits that when he started out to do the commentary, he hadn't watched the film in over twenty years, and there are long pauses among his comments where he is obviously enjoying the film again himself. Late in the commentary he tells us it took only about thirty-two days to shoot, almost completely on location; and apparently I was right about the improvisation, much of which was Pacino's own doing. This is an attentive and loving commentary that makes for easy yet informational listening.
Disc two contains two documentaries. The first and most important is a new, widescreen, four-part, thirtieth anniversary affair called "The Making of Dog Day Afternoon." It's divided into four parts, which can be accessed separately or all at once. The first part is "The Story." It is about twelve minutes long and includes comments from producer Martin Bregman, screenwriter Frank Pierson, and star Al Pacino. One of the things they mention is that the story came to their attention via a Life magazine article by P.F. Kluge and Thomas Moore. The second part is "Casting the Controversy," about thirteen minutes with further comments from director Sidney Lumet, who earlier had worked with Bregman and Pacino on "Serpico"; co-stars Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, and Lance Henriksen; and editor Dede Allen. The third part is the longest, "Recreating the Facts," twenty-one minutes. It contains remarks from director of photography Victor J. Kemper and assistant director Burtt Harris in addition to comments from all of the above-named filmmakers. Finally, there's "After the Filming," an eleven-minute segment in which Lumet tells us there is a difference between realism in films and naturalism, and that he tried hard to get "Dog Day Afternoon" to be as naturalistic as possible.
The one minor disappointment I had after watching the documentary was not finding out what had become of the real-life film characters today. The end of the movie tells us that the court sentenced Sonny to a twenty-year prison term, and that's all we get. However, doing a little research, I discovered that Sonny Wortzik's real name is John Wojtowicz and that he served seven years of his sentence before being paroled. Where he is today is something of a mystery, however, one rumor suggesting that he is alive and well and living on welfare somewhere in New Jersey.
The second item on disc two is a vintage featurette, "Lumet: Film Maker," ten minutes long, in fullscreen. The two discs come housed in a double, slim-line keep case, but WB include no slipcover or chapter insert.
Parting Thoughts:
Sometimes real life can surpass anything a scriptwriter can come up with. Certainly, the occurrences in "Dog Day Afternoon" would seem like pure, exaggerated fiction to anyone who didn't know they had actually happened. Credit the filmmakers and stars, however, for bringing the events to life with such zest, such enthusiasm, and such broad appeal. Few fictional thrillers are as tense or as funny as this real-life recreation.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]17587[/release]