Why does Dog Day Afternoon Afternoon, starring Al Pacino and John Cazale, continue to be such a great movie?

“Dog Day Afternoon” synopsis

It's a sweltering afternoon in Brooklyn. Two optimistic and haphazard men rob a bank. Leader Sonny (Al Pacino) and his partner Saru (John Cazale), who later causes problems. The surrounding police, the enthusiastic crowd, the agitated media, and even the pizza delivery man escalate the situation to no end.

Index

• ``Dog Day Afternoon'' makes you realize how difficult it is to rob a bank.
• Why do audiences sympathize with Sony?
• Forgotten John Cazale

``Dog Day Afternoon'' makes you realize how difficult it is to rob a bank.

At some point, I stopped hearing the words ``bank robbery.'' Bank robberies, which used to be a common method of extorting funds in crime movies, have been (almost) eliminated due to the strengthening and evolution of security systems such as surveillance cameras. According to research, the number of incidents has increased in Japan since the recession following the bursting of the bubble economy. The number of robberies targeting financial institutions and post offices peaked in 2001. The number is 237. Roughly calculating the number of incidents on business days excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, this means that there was approximately one incident per day.

However, since 2002, the number of cases has been on a downward trend to around 100. In 2017, the annual number of cases decreased to 26 cases. This is due to financial institutions' awareness and efforts towards crime prevention. In addition, the high clearance rate of the Japanese police, 96.3%, is also one of the achievements in reducing the number of robberies. For the criminals, there is a risk of confronting the victim, and the larger the amount of money to extort, the greater the cost to the plan. ``Bank robbery'' has become an unworthy crime, and in its place, crimes called ``special fraud'' are on the rise.

At the same time, the success rate for bank robberies is low. In Japan, the Special Assault Squad (SAT) has been reorganized to respond to hijackings and terrorist incidents, and the techniques for suppressing barricades have improved significantly. In ``Dog Day Afternoon'' (1975), which is based on an actual bank robbery, the main characters barricade themselves with bank employees and customers as hostages, but what is clearly depicted is what happens before they are arrested. That's the end. What made me realize that it is difficult to successfully rob a bank is this movie I saw on TV, and the 1979 Mitsubishi Bank hostage incident that occurred around the same time ( Tattoo, directed by Tomoaki Takahashi). 82)).

In later years, films such as `` Inside Man '' (2006) starring Denzel Washington, ` `Die Hard '' (1988) and `` Hostage '' (2005) starring Bruce Willis, depict the story of a barricade in a building. Many movies have been produced that use novel ideas to try to escape. However, each of these methods seemed impossible in reality, and they were able to successfully escape from the barricade only through cinematic ``lies'' = ``direction''.

Due to the changing times, ``bank robbery'' scenes in crime movies (depicting the present day) are disappearing. In Japan, the style of robberies is also changing, with the number of crimes known as ``apoden'' robberies in which raids on ordinary households are on the rise. In that sense, it can be said that ``Dog Day Afternoon'' is great because it gave the audience a realistic impression that ``bank robberies will never succeed.''

Why do audiences sympathize with Sony?