Directed by Sidney Lumet
My rating: 4 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Warner Bros.)
Al Pacino and John Cazale are inept bank robbers who find themselves surrounded by police when something goes wrong. Using the employees as hostages, Pacino negotiates with the police while the whole thing plays out on television. Crowds gather on the streets and cheer him on as he shouts "Attica", a reference to the 1971 prison riot that played out in a similar manner and resulted in innocent deaths. In a bizarre twist, Pacino admits he did it to pay for the sex change operation of his lover. As the night wears on, the police give in to their demands for a bus to the airport for a waiting jet. Pacino is a live wire, a phenomenal performance that is both believable and sympathetic. One of my favorite scenes is when Sonny is showing one of the hostages
how to handle his rifle in a military drill, they show complete trust in each other. Watch how the crowd outside changes when it is revealed he is a homosexual, or the slurs hurled at the bus by a motorist on the way to the airport. And what about Sonny's silent complicity with the FBI to target his partner? What about the complicity of the police, and especially the media, in their crime? The film has withstood the test of time, and multiple viewings, because it is much more than just a bank robbery gone wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment