Few filmmakers had a better 1970s than Sidney Lumet. Although he was more prolific than most of the decade's top directors, he knocked out 11 films over a 10-year period, and do find time to helm one of the worst musicals in movie history (a badly botched adaptation of 'The Wiz'), when Lumet got the material right he made classics like 'Serpico', 'Dog Day Afternoon' and 'The Network'.

There is no more electrifying film in Lumet's oeuvre than Dog Day Afternoon. Based on a true storythe 1975 critical and commercial hit centers on a Brooklyn bank robbery by Sonny Worczyk, an amateur con artist desperate to pay for his lover's gender-confirmation surgery. When the heist quickly goes south, Sonny and his associates find themselves stuck holding hostages while cops swarm the building. A defiant Sonny struggles to negotiate an escape as he plays with the crowd of onlookers gathered outside the bank, but the noose continues to tighten around his neck the longer the ordeal drags on. It is a thrilling and nerve-wracking drama that takes one unexpected twist after another on its way to a tragic conclusion.

At his best, Lumet was an ace director of actors. At the beginning of each production (as described in his indispensable book "Making Movies"), Lumet built during a rehearsal period so he could work with his performers in a more intimate setting, as if directing a stage play, before bringing his actors in front of the cameras. On Dog Day Afternoon, this process allowed him to get unusually authentic turns from world-class actors like Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning and Chris Sarandon. If you've seen the movie, you'll never forget Pacino's Sonny dismissing bystanders in Brooklyn with his “Attica!” chant, nor will you ever shake that pulsating ending. It's a remarkable showcase of actors and, being recorded over 50 years ago, we've sadly lost most of the performers who made him sing (including Casale, who died too soon from cancer at the age of 42). So let's take a moment to celebrate two brilliant actors from the film who are still quite active today.

Sarandon's portrayal of Leon Shermer in transition was only his second film gig (after rising to fame on the CBS soap opera "Guiding Light") and proved to be a major breakthrough for the actor (who, in case I'm wondering, was married to Susan Sarandon at the time). Sarandon earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and immediately began booking lead roles in films such as "Criminal" and "The Sentinel." However, by the mid-1980s, it was clear that the performer was better suited to hit the villainy of Jerry Dandridge in the original Fright Night and Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride.

Sarandon continued to work steadily in the 1990s, where she found by far her most memorable character as the voice of Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas. While he's since been busy with film and TV work (on shows like "ER," "Orange Is the New Black" and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"), Skellington has become prominent in popular culture only thanks to the film's classic status. on vacation and Sarandon's participation in nine video games voicing the character (including The Nightmare Before Christmas: Auggie's Revenge, Kingdom Hearts and, most recently, Disney Speed storm"). At 82, Sarandon hasn't stepped in front of a camera since 2016, so if he's officially retired, he's certainly earned it.

It is widely regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, Pacino has already earned three Oscar nominations (for The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and Serpico) when he landed the role of bank robber extra Sonny Worczyk. It was his second and final collaboration with Lumet, and would have easily been his first Best Actor win had he not run into the saw as Jack Nicholson in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (an Oscar sensation that swept the top five awards at The Academy that year).doing a crime, we come to sympathize with him when we learn why he wants the money.a full meal of a play that cements God Pacino's acting status.

"Dog Day Afternoon" was also the highlight of Pacino's early career. He began chasing more demonstrative roles that were less nuanced than the characters that made him a star. This led him to the monstrous gangster Tony Montana in Scarface, where he disappeared under a thick Cuban accent and dazzling physicality. It's a monumental performance, but it was also a preview of Pacino becoming a parody of himself after winning Best Actor in 1993 for Scent of a Woman. There have been masterful portrayals since then (in films like "Carlito's Way," "The Insider" and, most recently, "The Irishman"), but Pacino seems to have lost the element of surprise — what happens when you turn 84. Still, with a whopping six projects currently in post-production, there's always the chance that a master like Pacino will throw a curve ball or two (perhaps in Lear Rex, where he'll play Shakespeare's titular king opposite a cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Rachel Brosnahan and Peter Dinklage).