Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 American biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by Martin Bregman and Martin Elfand. The film stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Broderick, and Charles Durning. The screenplay is written by Frank Pierson and is based on the Life magazine article "The Boys in the Bank" by P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore. The feature chronicled the 1972 robbery and hostage situation led by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile at a Chase Manhattan branch in Brooklyn.
Elfand brought Bregman's attention to the article, who proceeded to negotiate a deal with Warner Bros. and clear the rights to use the story. Pierson conducted his research and wrote a script that centered the story of the robbery around Wojtowicz. The cast was selected by Lumet and Pacino, with the latter selecting past co-stars from his Off-Broadway plays. Filming took place between September and November 1974, and the production was finished three weeks ahead of schedule.
Upon theatrical release on September 21, 1975, Dog Day Afternoon was a critical and box office success. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards and seven Golden Globe Awards and won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2009, Dog Day Afternoon was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot
On August 22, 1972, first-time crook Sonny Wortzik, and his friends Salvatore "Sal" Naturile and Stevie attempt to rob the First Brooklyn Savings Bank. The plan immediately goes awry when Stevie loses his nerve and flees. Sonny discovers they arrived after the daily cash pickup, and find only $1,100 in cash.
Sonny takes the bank's traveler's checks and burns the register in a trash can, but the smoke raises suspicion outside, and the building is surrounded by police. The two panicked robbers take the bank employees hostage.
Police Detective Sergeant Eugene Moretti calls the bank and Sonny bluffs that he is prepared to kill the hostages. Sal assures Sonny that he is ready to kill if necessary. A security guard has an asthma attack and Sonny releases him as a display of good faith. Moretti convinces Sonny to step outside. Using the head teller as a shield, Sonny begins a dialogue with Moretti that culminates in his shouting "Attica! Attica!" to invoke the recent Attica Prison riot. The crowd begins cheering for Sonny.
Sonny demands a vehicle to drive himself and Sal to the airport so they can board a jet. He also demands pizzas to be brought for the hostages, and for his wife to be brought to the bank. Sonny's partner, Leon Shermer, arrives and reveals that the robbery was intended to pay for Leon's sex reassignment surgery, and divulges that Sonny has children with his estranged wife, Angie.
As night sets in, the bank's lights are shut off as FBI Agent Sheldon takes command of the scene. He refuses to give Sonny any more favors, but when the bank manager Mulvaney goes into diabetic shock, Sheldon lets a doctor inside. Sheldon then convinces Leon to talk to Sonny on the phone. Leon had been hospitalized at Bellevue Hospital after a suicide attempt. Leon turns down Sonny's offer to join him and Sal in their escape, and Sonny tells the police that Leon had nothing to do with the robbery.
Sonny agrees to let Mulvaney leave, but the manager refuses to leave his employees. The FBI calls Sonny out of the bank to talk to his mother, who fails to persuade him to give himself up. Back inside, Sonny dictates his will to one of the hostages, acting as a secretary, leaving money from his life insurance for Angie, and for Leon to have the surgery.
When the requested limousine arrives, Sonny checks for hidden weapons or booby traps, and selects Agent Murphy to drive him, Sal, and the remaining hostages to Kennedy Airport. Sonny sits in the front beside Murphy with Sal behind. Murphy repeatedly asks Sal to point his gun at the roof so Sal will not accidentally shoot him.
As they wait on the airport tarmac for the plane to taxi into position, Sal releases another hostage, who gives him her rosary beads for his first plane trip. Murphy again reminds Sal to aim his gun away. Sal does, and Sheldon seizes Sonny's weapon, allowing Murphy to pull a revolver hidden in his armrest and shoot Sal in the head. Sonny is immediately arrested, and the hostages are freed.
The film ends as Sonny watches Sal's body being taken from the car on a stretcher. On-screen text reveals that Sonny was sentenced to twenty years in prison, that Angie and her children subsisted on welfare, and that Leon was a woman living in New York City.