[8]

Director Sidney Lumet showcases a true story ripped from the headlines, about two amateur bank robbers who started a media sensation that exploded further when the public learned of their unusual circumstances. Al Pacino stars as the master-mind of the heist plan that goes to hell and Charles Durning costars as the police captain who tries to manage the 24-hour siege. What’s most remarkable about this story is the robbers’ unexpected courtesy toward their hostages and law enforcement, as well as the reason Pacino’s character needs the money — to pay for his lover’s sex change. Lumet’s unadorned, fly-on-the-wall approach neither sensationalizes nor condescends to any of the material or its characters. Dog Day Afternoon is a mesmerizing mash-up of the gritty and the oddly touching, the darkly comic and the emotionally tense. Frank Pierson took home the Academy Award for his original screenplay, while the film also earned nominations for Best Picture, Director, and Editing (Dede Allen). Pacino was nominated for Best Actor and Chris Sarandon (Fright Night, The Princess Bride) was nominated for his supporting role as Pacino’s exasperated boyfriend. With John Cazale and Carol Kane.

The Breakfast Club (1985)

September 16, 1985

[10]

Writer/director John Hughes had more box office hits than you can shake a stick at, and while many of them were fun and irreverent fare (like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or Weird Science), one sticks out above the crowd — his crowning achievement: The Breakfast Club. It’s a low-concept, small-scale production — practically a filmed stage play — about five disparate teenagers who suffer Saturday detention together. There’s the jock (Emilio Estevez), the princess (Molly Ringwald), the nerd (Anthony Michael Hall), the bad boy (Judd Nelson), and the weirdo (Ally Sheedy) — all kids who would never spend one minute of time together under any other circumstances. But tossed together in their school library under the watch of their vindictive principal (Paul Gleason), they are forced to get to know one another.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

July 9, 1967

[9]

Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway star as the legendary real-life bank robbers in Arthur Penn’s volatile Bonnie and Clyde. With its anti-hero point of view and graphic violence, this film helped lead the charge for grittier, more realistic fare that cropped up throughout the ’70s. While the film certainly sensationalizes the criminals, it also humanizes them. It’s easy to see how a bored waitress like Bonnie Parker would fall for a handsome bad boy like Clyde Barrow (I mean, who wouldn’t get in a car with smoking-hot Warren Beatty?) And since the two only robbed banks, they became folk heroes to a working class destroyed by foreclosures. I also like that the film suggests Clyde is impotent. It’s refreshing to see a tough guy with flaws and foibles, and it also makes the romantic relationship more interesting than most.