Dog Day Afternoon: A surprisingly relevant heist movie turns 50

If you travel to the address of the Brooklyn bank that Al Pacino holds up in the classic thriller/comedy/drama Dog Day Afternoon, you’ll find a private apartment building in a desirable neighborhood that doesn’t much resemble the ramshackle city block depicted in that movie half a century ago. (It might, however, turn up on the big screen nearby; the Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park down the street shows frequent revivals.) This makes sense; urban blocks rarely stay the same for one decade, let alone five. But Dog Day Afternoon itself feels like less of a time capsule than contemporary viewers might expect, especially for a movie based on actual events.