Al Pacino on Dog Day Afternoon at 50: It plays more today than it even did then'

"I'm so sad about Redford, says Al Pacino, a day after the death of Robert Redford, his fellow octogenarian actor. I liked him so much. He was such a sweetheart. Perhaps it is because he is currently filming King Lear that Pacino is preoccupied with our collective crawl toward death. He recently rewatched his younger self in Dog Day Afternoon,"

"a Hollywood classic that celebrates its 50th anniversary on Sunday, and was struck by how many of the cast are now gone. It hits you, seeing all those people in Dog Day, the 85-year-old says by phone from Los Angeles. Can you imagine how you feel? Wow. It's like a dream. You're dreaming. You have a dream of someone and you're so happy about the dream and then you wake up and they're not there any more? They don't even exist in three dimensions anyway."

Al Pacino expresses sadness over Robert Redford's death and reflects on aging and mortality. He rewatched his younger self in Dog Day Afternoon and was struck by how many cast members are gone. Cinema preserves performers in two dimensions, allowing audiences to revisit raw, vulnerable performances forever. In Dog Day Afternoon Pacino plays Sonny Wortzik, who, with partner Sal, attempts a Brooklyn bank heist to fund Sal's gender-transition surgery; the botched robbery becomes a chaotic hostage situation amid a media frenzy. The film, directed by Sidney Lumet, won an Oscar for Frank Pierson's screenplay. Pacino had just played Michael Corleone and was initially reluctant to take the role when approached by Martin Bregman.

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