Welcome to The Double. As always, if we had a theater this is what we would have on the marque for Friday and Saturday night. Today, The Double is paying tribute to New York like only The Daily Grindhouse can: Tough, gritty, and full of Pacino as directed by Sidney Lumet. That's right ladies and gentlemen, today it’s SERPICO and DOG DAY AFTERNOON.
First up, Pacino stars as Frank Serpico taking on corruption in the rank and file of New York's finest. Lumet almost redefined realism with this film. The locations are all popping with energy and Pacino delivers a performance that is both sensitive and troubled. His character has real difficulty trying to reconcile the point of his work in a department that is more corrupt than a bookie on the street. In a lesser film this would have been presented by lengthy monologues but Lumet let's Serpico burn slow and work through the situation. .
Frank Serpico: The reality is that we do not wash our own laundry - it just gets dirtier.
Many of his fellow officers considered him the most dangerous man alive - An honest cop.
Now the film you came to see, DOG DAY AFTERNOON. Arguably Sidney Lumet’s best film and Pacino's best performance (I like him in this more than THE GODFATHER films), and considering when it was made, it took guts to take this story to the screen. Al Pacino is Sunny, a gay man holding up a bank to get money for his boyfriends sex change. Lumet used shots of everyday people in opening credits followed by a shot of Pacino and his pals (one of which is played by John Cazales who worked with Pacino in THE GODFATHER) sitting in their car, waiting to hit the bank just at closing time. He thought this was the only way to make the audience at the time identify with Pacino, he was just another guy in a car.
This film is fascinating study of not only the celebrity that can follow criminals once the media gets a sniff of the story, but also about the curious bond that happens between hostages and the hostage taker. The people in the bank grow to like Sonny, in fact they care about what happens to him which is what makes this film so fascinating and one of my favorite films of all time. So let’s complete our New York tribute with DOG DAY AFTERNOON.
Sonny: I don't wanna talk to some flunky pig trying to calm me man.
Det. Sgt. Eugene Moretti: Now you don't have to be calling me pig for...
Sonny: [Notices other officers moving toward him] What is he doing?
Det. Sgt. Eugene Moretti: [shouts at officers] Will you get back there!
Sonny: What are you moving in there for?
Det. Sgt. Eugene Moretti: [Runs toward closing officers] Will you get the fuck back there! Get back there will you!
Sonny: [Addresses other officers moving toward him] What's he doing? Go back there man! He wants to kill me so bad he can taste it! Huh? ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA!
[Yells it too cheering crowd]
Sonny: ATTICA! ATTICA! REMEMBER ATTICA?
The robbery should have taken 10 minutes. 4 hours later, the bank was like a circus sideshow. 8 hours later, it was the hottest thing on live T.V. 12 hours later, it was all history. And it's all true
Here’s to good watching this weekend, salute!
See you on forty deuce,
G
