Overrated and boring - Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Discussion

[–] sukey51 14 years ago

When are people going to realize how lame it is to simply say that a movie is "boring"?

If it would be boring to a 5-year old, then are we supposed to assume that: (a) you have the attention span of a 5-year old, or (b) you are a great film critic with awesome insight?

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] hornetsfan16 14 years ago

lol way to make an assumption based on absolutely nothing - if someone has an opinion contrary to yours then out comes the troll.

I agree with the original poster as not much did happen in the movie and I found it boring at times, not to take away anything from the acting. The movie felt monotonous throughout and did not feel like it was building to anything. I see that a lot of people enjoyed it but I found it confusing. If this was meant to be a crime/thriller/drama, I did not understand the moments of comedy early on during the heist. Maybe people appreciate it more due to the fact that it was something that they witnessed in the media during the time - "Just a theory"

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[–] Howlin Wolf 14 years ago

I like it as a character study of people under extreme stress... I'm not big on 'plot' in movies, to be honest. I wasn't even alive when all of this took place.

Love United. Hate Glazers.

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[–] aicfan85 12 years ago

Look. Good movies aren't for everyone. Movies that are made for everyone suck. Dog Day Afternoon has a different kind of pacing because it was made almost 40 years ago. People who have been raised on nothing but a diet of movies from Star Wars--on are never going to be able to appreciate a naturally paced character based movie. It's as simple as that. They aren't stupid, but their attention span can't deal with the editing language of older movies. I like older movies, LOVE Dog Day Afternoon, but even I sometimes feel when the editing has slowed down and I start to get impatient because I am younger and my brain has been trained for faster editing. But I find when I watch a lot of older movies in a row it gets easier and easier.

So what I would say to people who call this movie boring is, stop paying attention to the "slowness" of the movie, and look at the performances, look for why the camera is lingering. What is the cinematic language that is trying to be conveyed? If there is less dialogue, then what emotions are being portrayed with the body language? Disconnecting just because of the pace of an older movie leads to giving up on a lot of great films.

With all that said, I don't think this movie is slow at all. It's perfectly paced, very funny and really exciting.

"some movie quote"

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[–] mah11 11 years ago

"character-based movie"
I totally agree with that. :)

A man can convince anyone he's somebody else, but never himself.

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[–] vinceanity1574 14 years ago

Cool story...

That is all

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[–] DoubleFeature86 14 years ago

NO

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=41470442

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[–] JoshIMayesALT 14 years ago

OP, I think you just don't appreciate and enjoy flicks that have extremely realistic dialouge, lack of a soundtrack, and lack of action.

For me, I was in suspense the whole entire movie, and was touched by the end.

And Hornet, were you referring to the *beep*-ups in the beginning as comedy? If not, what parts were you referring to?

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[–] peachy_starr 14 years ago

I felt the complete opposite, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I didn't really want it to end, its a brillant movie.

Lester - It's a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself.

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[–] hornetsfan16 14 years ago

lol to tell you the truth I watched the movie just before I made my post so I have forgotten quite a bit - needless to say it was not very memorable for me but the whole interaction between the robbers and the bank tellers seemed ridiculous.

I can understand the dumb sidekick moments I guess with Cazale but mainly my qualm was with some of the demands made by the bank tellers and how Pacino meets them. The whole friendly relationship ruins the mood for me.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] hornetsfan16 14 years ago

You can make your assumptions regarding my views - seems to be whenever someone doesn't think a critically acclaimed movie is great then their arguement is faulty or they're characterised as a simpleton among the masses who just wants to see big crashes and shiny lights. Everyone's a critic lol - don't try to say that you were unbiased regarding my views when clearly you explored the view that I was easy to please a great deal more thoroughly.

Ultimately the movie seemed monotonous and I guess this is a reflection of the length and boredom with being stuck in a bank for a whole day, yet I still believe this could have been explored better i.e. with more emotion. The movie may be factually accurate as you say, telling a story of an unconventional bank robbery, yet I did not feel engaged. When you compare it to something like "The Man who wasn't there" which tells the story of an entirely unremarkable character yet achieves it so powerfully - they are leagues apart

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] VinnieJones 14 years ago

I think your being a bit of an arse saying whoever doesn't like this doesn't like intelligent films. I loive intelligent films but I thought this film was good, nothing more, nothing less.

It was interesting to see Sonny develop as a character, see him go through each stage of the movie all the while getting more desperate and scared.
However there are plenty of better films out there than would put this film on a simple 7/10 type rating just because it doesn't come close to them.

For example is this anywhere near as good as Taxi Driver?

I don't think it is underrated, I don't find it overrated either.
I would never recommend it as a must see for anyone but I would recommend watching it if you have the time.

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[–] mandrakeroot 14 years ago

This is easily as good as Taxi Driver, if not better. Don't get me wrong Taxi Driver was an excellent movie, but DDA is also an excellent, arguably flawless movie. Now there are no facts to confirm or dispute which film is better so it's merely a matter of opinion.

All I'll say is that with no soundtrack, mostly one location, two gun shots, and many (some lengthy) phone calls, Dog Day Afternoon manages to be a more exciting, suspenseful, and fascinating movie then Taxi Driver was. De Niro was amazing in Taxi Driver, but IMO Pacino gave what is likely the greatest performance ever. Taxi Driver was a lengthy story which gave us a lot of time with Travis Bickle to understand his character, the fact that Sonny was fully fleshed out in a movie that spans less then 12 hours is just more impressive to me.

And finally - Dog Day Afternoon was based on a true story. Let's not forget that people. I know it's not completely accurate to what actually happened, but expecting something else, or something flashy and "action-based" wasn't gonna happen.

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[–] jkingqm-1 12 years ago

mandrakeroot "All I'll say is that with no soundtrack, mostly one location, two gun shots, and many (some lengthy) phone calls, Dog Day Afternoon manages to be a more exciting, suspenseful, and fascinating movie..."

Isn't it amazing how a movie that seemingly might have all of those working against it is so good?

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[–] camelotontheavon 12 years ago

>my qualm was with some of the demands made by the bank tellers and how Pacino

>meets them. The whole friendly relationship ruins the mood for me.

And if Hamlet had listened to the Ghost and immediately killed his uncle it would be a one act play.

If Sonny and Sal had gotten the correct information on the bank drop, loaded up their sacks and left the heist would have taken 15 minutes.

The interactions between the robbers and the bank tellers are the heart of the movie. Sonny sees himself as a Robin Hood figure and he wants everyone else to see him that way.

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[–] katentek 14 years ago

No it isn't.

"In a universe so full of wonders human beings have managed to invent boredom. Quite astonishing."

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[–] darkshines99 14 years ago

I absolutely love this film and if anything I think it's underrated- often when I tell someone it's one of my favourite films they haven't heard of it.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] ignorantwordtwister 14 years ago

to each his own, but do you like any of Lumet's films? Perhaps you just aren't a fan of his style. He loves melodrama. I think this is a great film and for 1975 was very controversial.

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[–] tyagi_sameer 13 years ago

i suppose you have no good taste when it comes to good movies.
Pity!

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[–] shayanelong 13 years ago

I disagree 100 percent.The Movie's definitely underrated.Only one Oscar and I think Pacino deserves way more than he received for this performance.Movies like that has mad Pacino one of the best ever.

And I can't really think how come it could be boring.You can call this movie anything but boring.2 Hours of movie with lots of great conversations and more than 5 stories.The pace changes each 15-20 minutes and new characters add up once in a while and I'm sure if you just watch Sonny at first 5 minutes carefully , you'd not leave your seat for whole 2 hours.

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[–] Cable-Hogue_2099 12 years ago

Pacino should have won the Oscar for this one, his perfomance is so charismatic, and it feel so vividly real, the way he handles being at the center of this media circus, half ejoying it, half stressed out, half under a complete delusion is masterful. The intonation of his voice, the way he moves his face, its a masterclass, However, I can definitely see how the movie could be considered boring. It's mainly improvised, the cinematography is dull, and it is a film which is primarily based of conversations. Very stagey, and very staid, and everything takes a long time to happen. I loved it, but I can see how people could find it boring.

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