Comprehensive information and links about Dog Day Afternoon

Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 film directed by Sidney Lumet, and written by Frank Pierson from a news article by P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore. The film starred Al Pacino, John Cazale, Chris Sarandon and Charles Durning.

Based on an actual 1972 bank robbery, tells the story of a man named Sonny Wortzik (played by Al Pacino) who holds employees of a bank hostage during a failed bank robbery in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, New York. Wortzik and two of his friends intended to rob the bank so Wortzik would have the money to pay for his partner's sexual reassignment surgery.

In real life, the robbery and resulting hostage situation took 14 hours from beginning to end; in the film, it appears to take about that long as well. In addition to the above mentioned actors, the film features Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar, Carol Kane, and James Broderick.

The film is shot in a naturalist and has no musical score (other than the Elton John song "Amoreena" in the opening credits). Contrary to popular belief, the interior shots of the film were not shot on location on Prospect Park West between 17th and 18th Street in Windsor Terrace; rather, the film crew rented a warehouse and constructed a bank inside it, allowing the versatility of a studio setting with its "wild walls".

won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Al Pacino), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Chris Sarandon), Best Director (Sidney Lumet), Best Film Editing (Dede Allen) and Best Picture.

The movie was based on the story of John Wojtowicz and it adheres to the basic facts of what actually happened. With Sal Naturile, Wojtowicz held up a Chase Manhattan bank in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn on August 22, 1972. Naturile was killed and Wojtowicz served seven years of a 20-year sentence. Wojtowicz’s partner, Ernest Aron, became Elizabeth Debbie Eden and eventually died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1987 (however her character in the film bore the name "Leon Shermer", not Ernest Aron).

The movie is known for its famous line "ATTICA! ATTICA!", which made #86 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes". After looking at a poster of Pacino in his bedroom, another fictional character, Tony Manero (played by John Travolta), also uttered the line in the film , released in 1977. In the opening scene of Swordfish, Gabriel Shear (also played by Travolta) discusses the merits of the portrayal of hostage situations in movies, using Dog Day Afternoon as an example.