Dog Day Afternoon as a whole is just so darn good, but man, that opening sequence is especially a work of art. This opening sequence concerns Sonny (Al Pacino), Sal (John Cazale) and Stevie (Gary Springer) bursting into a New York City bank armed with guns preparing to pull off a robbery. It's a sight that sends the bank tellers and bank manager scrambling as chaos descends on their bank...but then things begin to go wrong. Sonny's timing is just a little bit off as he races through the bank, Stevie immediately wants out of the whole gig and there's nowhere near as much money as expected in the bank. In the span of one scene,
Dog Day Afternoon goes from nail-biter crime thriller to dark comedy about human error. It's a masterful transition, especially since director Sydney Lumet can lend each of these different styles an authentic sensibility that totally makes you believe, for instance, that Sonny and company are about to pull off a bank robbery.
