American Cinematographer - June 2006 - 24

by society, and the emotional and finan¬
of marital relationships.
Kemper's well-choreographed

cial pressures

camerawork relies

on

constant move¬

ment, yet the technique never seems
ostentatious or obvious; the cinematog¬

rapher respects the film's nonfiction
origins (it is based on a true story) by
allowing the characters' actions and
emotions

Dog Day Afternoon opens with a
series of shots that are superficially
simple yet convey a number of themes
and emotions. Cutting between images
of Manhattan's majesty and its poverty,
director Sidney Lumet and editor Dede
Allen include
the fate of

one

one

shot that foreshadows

of the film's main char¬

composition in which the beau¬
tiful city can be seen in the background
while a cemetery occupies the fore¬
ground. The tension between what the
city promises and what it takes away is
just one of the many issues explored in
this complex and enduring masterpiece.
acters, a

the

moves.

vated

sources.

with

fluorescents

The bank

scenes are

lit

(except for one
sequence that takes place during a
power outage), and night exteriors are
sourced by police searchlights, car head¬
lights and other practicals. Within this
naturalistic scheme, Kemper positions
sources

in

a manner

place inside a bank that
being robbed by Sonny (Al Pacino),
a gay man who needs money to
finance his partner's sex-change opera¬
tion. Yet the movie is

never

static,

thanks to the breadth of ideas and the

kinetic camerawork

by director of
photography Victor J. Kemper, ASC.
Frank Pierson deservedly won an Oscar
for his screenplay, which uses a
confined time and space to explore a
wealth of subjects, among them the
media's influence on public perception,
the desperation of those marginalized

ing footage of the director and his team
location during the shoot.

on

The DVD also includes

a

feature-

length audio commentary by Lumet, and
although the filmmaker's remarks are
engaging and passionate, they cover a
great deal of the same ground exam¬
ined in the two documentaries. Never¬

theless, this is

a

fine edition of a classic

movie that deserves

a

place on any film

lover's shelf.
-

Jim

Hemphill

are few moments
lighting, composi¬
tion, and performance come together as
effectively as they do in Sonny's climac¬
tic dictation of his will.)
in cinema in which

Warner Home Video's new, two-

disc

special edition of Dog Day After¬
noon offers a sharp, vibrant transfer that
is a significant improvement over the
previous, no-frills DVD edition of the

equally impressive, and the manipula¬
tion of sound to express point of view is
one of the movie's strengths; the
complex sound design mirrors the cine¬
matography's ability to foster the illusion
of reality while subtly shaping and alter¬
ing that reality.
Kemper and Lumet discuss their
work on the film in a terrific hour-long
documentary on the second disc. "The
Making of Dog Day Afternoon" is a fourpart exploration of the film's writing,
casting, shooting, and editing that
features superb interviews with all of
the principal collaborators. The filmmak¬
ers are articulate and passionate about

is

Lumet: Film Maker," contains fascinat¬

that enhances the

Dog Day Afternoon

of it takes

Pierson as they describe how they
approached various narrative and tech¬
nical challenges on the picture. A
second brief documentary, "Sidney

story's drama. (There

film. The clear monaural soundtrack is

confines itself to limited locations. Most

20 June 2006

motivate

12

Like Lumet's first feature,

Angry Men,

to

Kemper also adheres to an organic light¬
ing approach in which all of the illumi¬
nation comes from realistically moti¬

Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Special Edition
1.85:1 (16x9 Enhanced)
Dolby Digital 2.0
Warner Home Video, $26.98

the movie, and there are many lessons
to be learned from Lumet, Kemper and

All the President's Men

Special Edition
(1976)
1.85:1 (16x9 Enhanced)
Dolby Digital 2.0
Warner Home Video, $26.98
In the

early morning hours of

June 17, 1972, several men were

caught breaking into the Democratic
Party headquarters at the Watergate
Hotel in Washington D.C. When Wash¬
ington Post reporters Bob Woodward
and Carl Bernstein began working on
the story, neither expected it to become
an expose of one of the biggest political
cover-ups in United States history. The
pair eventually co-wrote the book All
American Cinematographer - June 2006

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