Dog Day Afternoon: The Heist That Became a Circus

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 10:00:00 +0000

There is a moment about forty minutes into Dog Day Afternoon (1975) when Al Pacino’s Sonny Wortzik walks out of a besieged Brooklyn bank, sees a crowd of onlookers being pushed back by police, and starts working them like a stand-up comic. He waves. He tosses money into the air. He starts a chant — “Attica! Attica!” — and the mob answers him. A stick-up has turned into street theatre, and the robber has become a folk hero on live television. Nearly fifty years on, that scene still describes the exact machinery of American celebrity better than almost anything filmed since.

Sidney Lumet - vo.rs

Dog Day Afternoon: The Heist That Became a Circus