Banks can make many a person uncomfortable. So combine sweltering summer heat with a bank robbery, and you’ve got a really awful day. Dog Day Afternoon, directed by the recently departed Sidney Lumet, is based on a true story recounting Sonny Wortzik’s (Al Pacino) desperate plight to steal enough money to pay for his male partner’s sex-change operation. From the get-go, almost everything that can go wrong — one of his accomplices loses his nerve, there’s barely any money in the bank — does go wrong. Hostages are taken, enough police appear to arrest the entire tristate area, and Pacino’s Sonny simmers away, pent up with self-destructive energy. The longer the movie goes, the sweatier all concerned become.
