Jan 26 2009
Dog Day Afternoon
Dog Day Afternoon directed by Sidney Lumet, is one of my favorite movies. I’m surprised it’s not more well known. To serve my growing obsession with it, I’ve compiled a list of some of the best things about it. Spoilers ensue below. Please don’t read unless you’ve seen the movie, or just don’t care about knowing the ending.
The funniest part:
“Sal, Wyoming’s not a country.”
Sonny comes up with the wild idea that he can use the hostages as leverage to convince the FBI to give them a get-away jet. He asks his partner, Sal, what country he wants to go to. Sal responds “Wyoming”. Perhaps this is a statement on the NY school system of the 1970s. A small bit of trivia, according to wikipedia, the real Sal Naturile was only eighteen. It might be that Sal said this quote in real life. The line would have been more believable coming out of a younger person’s mouth.
This part could also be a comment on how people in NYC seem to think that the country ends on the other side of New Jersey. To a New Yorker, Wyoming might as well be another country. Or possibly, and most probably, the line is just there to be really funny. Sal’s dead serious tone is great. He honsetly doesn’t know that Wyoming is part of the same country as New York City.
The most clever part in the dialog:
Sonny has called his female wife to tell her good-bye. She answeres the phone and launches into a monologue about how he’s been yelling at her lately and how much she’s in such disbelief that he’s trying to rob a bank. She just goes on and on and he tries to cut inbetween her speech with no luck. She continues to yammer on and he breaks and starts yelling and swearing just like she’s been complaining about. Her response to his yelling: to complain about how no one can communicate with him.
It’s clever because the screenwriters have communicated in a hilarious way the entire relationship of Sonny and Angela. She complains about him yelling and he yells because she just won’t shut up long enough to be told one sentence of information.
The most interesting film making choice:
The director decided not to score the movie. The only music is over the opening credits. When the opening credits end we find the music is coming through a car radio. On a commentary on the movie, the director says he did this to make the movie seem more real. The movie is based on realistic events after all. This choice makes the ending really cool. After Sal is shot and Sonny read his rights, he’s pushed against the hood of the bus and he’s looking around. The only sound is that of the plane engine. If there had been a musical score it would be going crazy with the ending movie swell. Instead the plane sounds are all you hear. The plane engine perfectly coveys what Sonny is feeling at the moment—white static. His mind is just fuzzed over with the horror of what’s just happened and how bad it’s all turned out.
Something random about this movie that is awesome
There are actual monologues. Seriously, the dialogue in most movies is so sparse. This movie proves that a little short monologue here and there isn’t bad for a script. It isn’t boring. When done right it’s gripping, hilarious, and awesome.
Leon, Sonny’s male wife, has this really great monologue when he first speaks to the cops. He tells of his experience at the mental hospital and what drove him there. He talks about how he goes to the hospital and immediately they begin shooting him up with things. “How are you suppose to get uncrazy if you are asleep all the time?”. This is valid commentary even in today’s society. Mental wards still have this method of just tranquilizing a patient when they come in. What exactly does that fix? It keeps them calm while they’re there, but what exactly are they suppose to do once they are in the real world again?
