Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Dog Day Afternoon rating: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic

IMDb8/10· 286K votes

Rotten Tomatoes94%

Metacritic86%

TMDb7.8/10· 3K votes

With 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by 8/10 on IMDb and 86/100 on Metacritic, critical reception of this film has been very positive.

About Dog Day Afternoon

Based on the true story of would-be Brooklyn bank robbers John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile. Sonny and Sal attempt a bank heist which quickly turns sour and escalates into a hostage situation and stand-off with the police. As Sonny's motives for the robbery are slowly revealed and things become more complicated, the heist turns into a media circus.

Cast of Dog Day Afternoon

• 

  Al Pacino

  as Sonny

• 

  John Cazale

  as Sal

• 

  Charles Durning

  as Moretti

• 

  Chris Sarandon

  as Leon

• 

  James Broderick

  as Sheldon

• P

  Penelope Allen

  as Sylvia

• 

  Sully Boyar

  as Mulvaney

• B

  Beulah Garrick

  as Margaret

• 

  Carol Kane

  as Jenny

• S

  Sandra Kazan

  as Deborah

• 

  Marcia Jean Kurtz

  as Miriam

• A

  Amy Levitt

  as Maria

Dog Day Afternoon facts

Budget

$1.8M

Box office

$56.7M

Our take on Dog Day Afternoon

Sidney Lumet's 1975 thriller dramatises a real Brooklyn bank robbery gone hilariously, tragically wrong, as a desperate amateur turns a botched heist into a media circus. Tense, funny and bursting with humanity, it's a landmark of 70s American cinema. If its sweaty realism and offbeat heart gripped you, seek out true-crime dramas and character-driven heist films about ordinary people in over their heads.