Dog Day Afternoon: Special Edition (1975)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Sidney Lumet (Director) Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Making Of Featurette-Lumet: Film Maker
Rating
Year Of Production	1975
Running Time	119:28 (Case: 121)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (60:55) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Sidney Lumet
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Al Pacino John Cazale Charles Durning James Broderick Beulah Garrick Chris Sarandon Sully Boyar Sandra Kazan Penelope Allen Marcia Jean Kurtz Carol Kane Amy Levitt Lance Henriksen
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Elton John

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Arabic Bulgarian Dutch French Italian Romanian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, soft drinks and electronics
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    The phrase 'truth is stranger than fiction' is a rather well worn one, but its application is certainly appropriate here. Dog Day Afternoon is based on the true story of a bank robbery in New York in 1972. The film reunited the successful Serpico team of Producer Martin Bregman, Director Sidney Lumet and Actor Al Pacino, but was equally famous in its time for its controversial portrayal of a homosexual relationship.

    Acting on an unreliable tip, former bank employee Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino) and his friend Sal (John Cazale) arm themselves and walk casually into a bank at the end of a hot August day with the intention of relieving them of their vault's contents. After emptying the tills, they access the vault only to find it bare. Rather than realise their mistake and make a run for it, they take hostages and find themselves cornered by the NYPD. A combination of clumsy police work and FBI interference spark a media frenzy and Sonny thrives on the attention, as the crowd of curious civilian onlookers grows outside. The incompetent burglary evolves into an even bigger circus as the true motivation for the robbery is revealed, and Sonny's wife and mother are brought to the scene to help negotiate. Sonny is just the kind of disorganised guy who wants to please everyone but doesn't have the resources. Everything that can go wrong, does go wrong in this perfectly hilarious, dramatic farce.

    The real events on which this film is based occurred on Tuesday, August 22, 1972 at a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in Brooklyn, New York. On the corner of Avenue P and East Third Street, twenty-seven year old John Wojtowicz and his colleague Sal netted US$37,951 in cash and $175,150 in traveller's cheques from their bungled robbery until they were interrupted by local police. Hostages were taken and the stand-off lasted fourteen hours, broadcast all over the media as it was happening. Wojtowicz claimed that he wanted the money for two things. Firstly, to fund a sex change operation for his wife, a 26 year-old male named Ernest Aron. Secondly, Wojtowicz was convinced he was dying from stomach cancer and wanted some cash to fund a final fling in his last days. He was, of course, perfectly healthy in the physical sense but mentally he was a bit of a fruitcake. Only the weekend before he had been hospitalised for an overdose on barbiturates, so one would expect him to be on a bit of an edge. Like the film, the robbery was a laughable failure and Wojtowicz served seven years of a twenty year sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping.

    For the rights to his story, Wojtowicz was paid US$7,500 and an additional one percent of the net profits from the film. Two and a half thousand dollars of this sum was given to his now estranged wife Ernie for the operation, which funnily enough was the reason he committed the robbery in the first place. Ernie became Elizabeth Eden and died later at the age of 41 of an AIDS related illness.

    The film's producers endured setbacks of their own, in fact the project was in disarray before a single scene was shot. After three weeks of intense rehearsals, at the eleventh hour Al Pacino had second thoughts about the portrayal of the homosexual relationship in the film, specifically a scene that involved a passionate kiss between the male lovers. A quick rewrite ensued, distilling their climactic, relationship defining scenes to one lengthy, nail biting phone call. Pacino's instincts were spot-on - even screenwriter Frank Pierson acknowledges the changes were for the better and served to focus attention on the drama at play rather than delve into homosexual cliché.

    During the weeks of rehearsals, Director Sidney Lumet encouraged improvisation and many of these lines made it into the shooting script. To relax the cast and add a further sense of realism, the actors used their own clothes rather than the production's wardrobe. It's said that the cast became great friends and the film was completed quickly in thirty-two days. Surprisingly, despite the many rewrites and additions the film's plot closely resembles the original story published by Life Magazine, written by P. Kluge and Thomas Moore, who are each given writing credits for the film.

    Dog Day Afternoon was nominated for six Oscars, among them best actor and best picture. Only one was secured, for screenwriter Frank Pierson. Had it not been the year of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, it's likely this film would have received a lot more.

    It has been some time since I first viewed this film and I was surprised to find it much funnier than I remembered. There are some truly hilarious moments of inept police work and even more bungling strategy on the part of our robbers. This is a superb film, and although the impact may have dulled a little over time with changes in our society, this is Pacino at his best and a must-see.

Video

    This video transfer is very good considering the age of the film. It's a great looking, solid PAL effort with little to complain about.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, which is relatively close to the film's original theatrical aspect of 1.85:1. The image is tight to the frame on the top and bottom.

    The image is sharp and clear, with plenty of depth. Shadow detail is good in the night-time scenes, which is an achievement considering the very rudimentary lighting that was utilised. There is no low level noise evident in the transfer.

    Colouring is consistent and bold, with no evidence of manipulation that I can see. There are no major examples of bright colouring to speak of, however skin tones do come across realistically.

    The video stream has been encoded with a healthy variable MPEG bitrate of 6.1Mb/s. I didn't notice any compression artefacting at all. Some minor film artefacting can be seen on occasion, never extending beyond tiny specks of dust or dirt. A perfectly acceptable level of film grain is also visible.

    English subtitles are provided and appear to be very well done, perfect in fact. The subtitles are accurately paced with the dialogue and translate the spoken word precisely.

    This disc is dual layered (DVD9 formatted), with a layer transition placed during the feature at 60:55. This is situated in a silent, still moment mid-scene and was completely transparent on my system.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are a total of four Dolby Digital 1.0 mono soundtracks accompanying this film on DVD, two of which are foreign language dubs. The default soundtrack is the film's original English, while an insightful Director's Commentary is also included. I was intrigued to find Director Sidney Lumet discussing the film's sound editing in the commentary, referring to the stereo mix and how faithful it was to the crowd setting, achieving a certain level of realism. It seems a little strange that this stereo mix has never surfaced on DVD.

    The English dialogue is laden with thick New York accents, and these are always easy to discern and understand. The ADR and audio sync is perfect.

    The soundtrack itself is in excellent condition; there were no pops, clicks or noisy imperfections to speak of. I did notice a little pitch wavering when phones were ringing, but these occasions were rare and not obtrusive at all.

    There is no score in this film per se, however a familiar Elton John tune is featured in the film's opening. The Director feared an emotional or bombastic background score would betray the film's realism, and he was right. The musical accompaniment isn't missed.

    There is obviously no surround or subwoofer activity to report.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    This collection of extras is a vast improvement on the original Region 4 disc. The events surrounding Dog Day Afternoon have been the basis of several award winning documentaries, such as Based On A True Story by Dutch filmmaker Walter Stokman and short film The Third Memory by French artist Pierre Huyghe. Neither are included here, unfortunately.

Disc One

Menu

Audio Commentary- Sidney Lumet (Director)

    Lumet discusses many aspects of the filmmaking process and shares specific anecdotes from the making of this film. He explains the hurdles he encountered working with extras, the many weeks of rehearsals, and certain allowances he made as a director to give the film a more realistic feel. He also expresses his concerns that the film's homosexual angle has less shock value nowadays, which is hardly surprising. Technical issues are also covered, including the minimal natural lighting that was used, and he also explains his reasons for deciding not to score the film. This is an insightful and entertaining commentary.

Theatrical Trailer (2:33)

    This is your standard trailer, however it includes some camera angles and dialogue not seen in the final cut of film. This trailer is presented at 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

Disc Two

Featurette- The Making Of Dog Day Afternoon (57:53)

    This Making Of is divided into four chapters and includes new interviews with Al Pacino, Sidney Lumet, Lance Henriksen and legendary film editor Dede Allen. Some of the content here is duplicated in the commentary, but as a whole this is equally worthwhile viewing for fans of the film. This featurette is not 16x9 enhanced.

Featurette- Lumet: Film Maker (10:00)

    This is a dated making-of piece, compiled back in 1975. We see Lumet on the set controlling crowds of extras and trying to get things moving. Assorted crew are asked about their working relationship with Lumet and a little attention is given to the original story. This featurette is sourced from a very grainy 16mm film print and presented with 16x9 enhancement.

    The new Region 1 SE is actually coded for Regions 1, 2, 3 & 4 and features the same content as our local PAL version, even down to the menus. We have a great transfer, so I don't see any compelling reason to import this title.

    The video transfer is great.

    The audio transfer is what I presume to be a faithful rendition of the original mono soundtrack. A 5.1 remix would have been a nice inclusion.

    The extras are worthwhile viewing, however an opportunity to explore the actual events further would have been valuable.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall