On a hot Brooklyn afternoon, two optimistic losers set out to rob a bank. Sonny (Al Pacino) is the mastermind, Sal (John Cazale) is the follower, and disaster is the result. Because the cops, crowds, TV cameras and even the pizza man have arrived. The "well-planned" heist is now a circus. Pacino and director Sidney Lumet, collaborators on Serpico, reteam for this boisterous thriller that earned six Academy Award nominations and won an Oscar for Frank Pierson's streetwise screenplay. Based on a true incident, Dog Day Afternoon "is one of the big ones, swarming with energy, excitement and drama" (Gene Shalit, NBC-TV).