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Post by petrolino on Nov 19, 2017 5:37:14 GMT
Dog Days
For me, '#Dog Day Afternoon' is heist movie number #1.'
"In August 1972, John Wojtowicz, 27, a married Brooklyn man and Vietnam vet with a stream of gay lovers on the side, decided to rob a bank to pay for his boyfriend’s sex change. In the aftermath of the crime, a 14-hour hostage ordeal that riveted the nation, a character based on Wojtowicz would be played by Al Pacino in the 1975 film “Dog Day Afternoon,” which earned six Oscar nominations (winning Best Screenplay). While Wojtowicz’s tale on film became the stuff of legend, the man himself remained little heard from until now, with a posthumous documentary, “The Dog,” hitting theaters on Friday."
- Larry Getten, New York Post
"Sidney Lumet is a master filmmaker. His book on directing joins David Mamet's as two contrasting approaches to the subject, both written with clarity and conviction. Starting young by directing live TV, Lumet launched his big screen career with "12 Angry Men," based on one of his TV productions. His subjects have ranged widely; he clearly cares for the story above all else and doesn't specialize in genres or themes. If he's known for one aspect of his broad creative career, it is films about New York, including "The Pawnbroker," "Bye Bye Braverman," "Serpico" (also starring Pacino), "Q&A," "Network" and the suburban "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead." Here, with "Dog Day Afternoon", he has created a film made brilliant by its deeply seen characters, in a plot that could have obviously been cheapened and exploited but is always human and true."
- Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
“Dog Day Afternoon” (1975) : Lumet was often considered a filmmaker who transcended genres, which is true, but it seems like the sort of compliment that ignores how this spotlighted his greatest trait, which was a mastery of tone. Nowhere is that more evident than this true-crime suspense film, dealing with a momentous bank robbery in 1970’s Brooklyn that evolved into a media-fed hostage standoff. As Sonny, the deluded thief who is quickly in way over his head, Al Pacino gets laughs, but he also fearlessly plunges deep into the psyche of this damaged person, a humane depiction of a man with misplaced passion, oblivious to his own recklessness. Lumet never obscures the time frame of the event, a twelve hour moment in history, but the film is paced so tightly that its tonal shifts don’t feel like directorial flourishes as much as the natural rhythms of real conversation. Amongst the 70s classics, “Dog Day Afternoon,” with its criminal behavior, harsh language and downbeat ending, still feels like one of the most affecting and generous, because Lumet and screenwriter Frank Pierson remain dedicated to telling a story about a crime, and not about criminals."
- Various ('The Films Of Sidney Lumet : A Retrospective'), Indiewire
"I can’t write,” Sidney Lumet told Peter Bogdanovich (then a reporter) in 1960, adding, “and I have such respect for writers.” Lumet was not a director who believed, as did his French contemporary Marguerite Duras, that cinema ought to cast off its attachment to text. Instead, he said: “I am a great believer in words in films,” and considered such talk of cleansing film of dialogue a “temporary fad”. This allegiance to writing shows in his work; a great script is as typical of a Lumet film as a New York City setting. Over the course of a career spanning 55 years, Lumet partnered with some of the industry’s most talented screenwriters – Waldo Salt, Jay Presson Allen, Frank Pierson and David Mamet – and directed adaptations of important stage-plays, including Peter Schaffer’s Equus and Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night. To this material, Lumet brought a command of the camera obtained during intensive training in television. Over a formative four years that would inform his mordant TV satire Network (1976), Lumet directed live telecasts for numerous anthology series, from CBS’s You Are There, specialising in historical re-enactment, to Danger, which dealt in murder mysteries. By the time of his making his first film, Lumet considered himself a meticulous technician. Reflecting on his debut 12 Angry Men, he maintained: “in 385 setups there was not one single technical error”. How Lumet must have railed at Pauline Kael’s discovering “technical crudities” in Serpico (1973)!"
- Thirza Wakefield, The British Film Institute
John Cazale & Al Pacino
Sidney Lumet
"I love so many of his movies. I could just rant on for hours about Lumet's incredible films. He always directed in service to the story and its characters. He didn't try to put some over-stylized stamp on his films in order to serve his own ego. He was nominated for five Academy Awards (four for best director, once for adapted screenplay), but never won. He's in good company: The Academy also managed to snub Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, and Howard Hawks for the best director statue. Lumet did receive an honorary Oscar in 2004. In one 12-year span, from 1964 through 1976, Lumet directed "Fail-Safe," "The Pawnbroker," "The Hill," "The Group," "The Appointment," "The Anderson Tapes," "Serpico," "Murder on the Orient Express," "Dog Day Afternoon," and "Network." Wow!"
- Clint O'Connor, The Plain Dealer
"Well we even give homages to Dog Day. Two of the actors that were in Dog Day are in Inside Man – although you’ll have to do your homework to find out who they are! It was a way of trying to make something contemporary but at the same time be respectful to the films that I liked growing up."
- Spike Lee on the filming of 'Inside Man' (2006)
"Jennifer Jason Leigh is obsessed with 'Dog Day'; ask her."
- Todd Mantarey, 'Revolutionary Films Of The 1970s'
"Pauline Kael hated Lumet. In fact, she hated a lot of people, and a lot of random things."
- Andrea Birdy, 'Film Injunction'
'Amoreena' - Elton John
Robert De Niro & Elton John
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Post by OldAussie on Nov 19, 2017 6:20:28 GMT
Back in the 70s every Pacino movie was an event. We saw them all on the big screen as soon as possible. (Except Bobby Deerfield which I caught on tv a few years later.)
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Post by petrolino on Nov 19, 2017 6:28:34 GMT
Back in the 70s every Pacino movie was an event. We saw them all on the big screen as soon as possible. (Except Bobby Deerfield which I caught on tv a few years later.) It was the same in the '90s. I was born in the mid-70s. Pacino took 4 years off cinema and returned home to theatre in the wake of successive box-office disasters. His career was revived by genre specialist Harold Becker.
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Post by telegonus on Nov 19, 2017 8:25:29 GMT
Excellent film. I watch it whenever it's on. It's erratic at times, like life. The classic conflict between the local police and the feds is fascinating, intensifies as the film draws to a close. For the first time viewer the ending's probably somewhat of a shock. In retrospect everything makes perfect sense.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2017 9:41:09 GMT
Thanks, petrolino. DDA is one of my favorite Al Pacino‘s. He played it brilliantly. And John Cazale, too. What a great actor he was. He died much too early.
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Post by petrolino on Nov 19, 2017 12:08:16 GMT
Excellent film. I watch it whenever it's on. It's erratic at times, like life. The classic conflict between the local police and the feds is fascinating, intensifies as the film draws to a close. For the first time viewer the ending's probably somewhat of a shock. In retrospect everything makes perfect sense. The first time I saw it, it was dubbed in German. I knew a little German but not much. I was gripped though - couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen. And even though it was in German, I cried at the end of the movie. One of a small handful of films that always brings tears to my eyes - 'The Best Years Of Our Lives' (1946), 'The Last House On The Left' (1972), 'The Deer Hunter' (1978), 'Platoon' (1986) ...
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Post by petrolino on Nov 19, 2017 12:09:45 GMT
Thanks, petrolino. DDA is one of my favorite Al Pacino‘s. He played it brilliantly. And John Cazale, too. What a great actor he was. He died much too early. There's a nice documentary about John Cazale : Richard Shepard's film 'I Knew It Was You : Rediscovering John Cazale' (2009).
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Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Nov 19, 2017 12:33:09 GMT
I was just thinking about Dog Day Afternoon the other day. It's featured heavily in the first episode of David Fincher's new Netflix series, Mindhunter.
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Post by gunshotwound on Nov 20, 2017 0:56:42 GMT
I saw DDA when it was first released. I liked it very much and each time I have seen it since I have liked it better and better.
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Post by them1ghtyhumph on Nov 20, 2017 0:59:47 GMT
Possibly Pacino's finest performance
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Post by teleadm on Nov 20, 2017 18:29:07 GMT
One of the great Bank Robbery movies. The reason for the robbery is so absurd, it just had to be based on a real story. Great acing and direction all around.
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Post by telegonus on Nov 21, 2017 8:25:22 GMT
Excellent film. I watch it whenever it's on. It's erratic at times, like life. The classic conflict between the local police and the feds is fascinating, intensifies as the film draws to a close. For the first time viewer the ending's probably somewhat of a shock. In retrospect everything makes perfect sense. The first time I saw it, it was dubbed in German. I knew a little German but not much. I was gripped though - couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen. And even though it was in German, I cried at the end of the movie. One of a small handful of films that always brings tears to my eyes - 'The Best Years Of Our Lives' (1946), 'The Last House On The Left' (1972), 'The Deer Hunter' (1978), 'Platoon' (1986) ... Wow! Dubbed in German, Petro? It's not an easy film to take in English,--riveting visually, it's difficult to understand much of what's being said in English--I can only imagine what it must sound like in German. Or Japanese. Arabic?
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Post by Stammerhead on Nov 21, 2017 12:44:32 GMT
I watched the documentary about John Wojtowicz on the BBC and highly recommend it.
Dog Day Afternoon was an event experience when I saw it at my local cinema.
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Post by petrolino on Nov 24, 2017 1:42:35 GMT
There's a nice documentary about John Cazale : Richard Shepard's film 'I Knew It Was You : Rediscovering John Cazale' (2009). It would be interesting to see this. I know Meryl Streep cared for him until the end, during the filming of The Deer Hunter. What a heartbreaking ending to a very talented life. Still, his legacy lives on. The story goes that cast and crew fought to keep John Cazale from being replaced by the studio on 'The Deer Hunter' due to failing health (deterioration from bone cancer). His best friend Al Pacino later said that Cazale taught him, it doesn't matter if you have a week left to live, or ten years left to live, you're still preparing for the inevitable. Cazale was a brilliant actor, as evidenced by his performance in 'The Deer Hunter'.
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Post by petrolino on Nov 24, 2017 1:46:56 GMT
The first time I saw it, it was dubbed in German. I knew a little German but not much. I was gripped though - couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen. And even though it was in German, I cried at the end of the movie. One of a small handful of films that always brings tears to my eyes - 'The Best Years Of Our Lives' (1946), 'The Last House On The Left' (1972), 'The Deer Hunter' (1978), 'Platoon' (1986) ... Wow! Dubbed in German, Petro? It's not an easy film to take in English,--riveting visually, it's difficult to understand much of what's being said in English--I can only imagine what it must sound like in German. Or Japanese. Arabic? In the early days of Sky broadcasting in the U K, there were Italian and German tv stations being signalled on freeview. The movie was screened by the 'RTL' network. I was struck by how palpable the atmosphere was despite the lack of background music. 'Dog Day Afternoon' later became one of several Sidney Lumet films selected as part of the 'Elite' masterpiece series released to VHS video here in U K. I snapped up a copy and was able to see it in its original form.
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Post by telegonus on Nov 24, 2017 4:02:18 GMT
Wow! Dubbed in German, Petro? It's not an easy film to take in English,--riveting visually, it's difficult to understand much of what's being said in English--I can only imagine what it must sound like in German. Or Japanese. Arabic? In the early days of Sky broadcasting in the U K, there were Italian and German tv stations being signalled on freeview. The movie was screened by the 'RTL' network. I was struck by how palpable the atmosphere was despite the lack of background music. 'Dog Day Afternoon' later became one of several Sidney Lumet films selected as part of the 'Elite' masterpiece series released to VHS video here in U K. I snapped up a copy and was able to see it in its original form. John Cazale is fondly remembered, still talked about to this day despite his brief career in films. His death was a great loss for films.
Yes, the lack of background music does make the movie feel more intense, like a docu-drama, which, thanks to Sidney Lumet's artistry, does not feel artificial. The immediacy is there. Even all the actors in support and small parts players are outstanding. No false notes or missteps,--in the movie, I mean--the main characters screw up royally.
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Post by petrolino on Apr 10, 2020 1:29:54 GMT
I watched the documentary about John Wojtowicz on the BBC and highly recommend it. Dog Day Afternoon was an event experience when I saw it at my local cinema.
I'm going to look for it this Easter weekend as I have some time off work, thanks.
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Post by WarrenPeace on Apr 11, 2020 1:27:32 GMT
I like this movie. Not enough to the point where I wanna buy it but enough to watch it when I see it on time to time. And I love Sidney Lumet. One of the best and most underrated. He belongs in the same circles of conversations with Scorsese and Kubrick. He has been behind the lens of many contemporary classics.
Chris Sarandon and Pacino nailed the phone conversation. Sarandon is great. Love him as the unstable troubled gay lover who wants a sex change.
Last time I watched Dog Day before then I didn't fully realize why Sonny rejected the black bus driver for the FBI one. Because he wanted them to end it. And poor Sal getting shot like that! I read somewhere the real "Sonny" was not happy how they portrayed him selling out like that and says he did not.
Great movie. Nice to see a post on it.
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Post by millar70 on Apr 11, 2020 1:33:31 GMT
Wyoming.
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Post by politicidal on Apr 11, 2020 14:24:22 GMT
7/10.
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