Sidney Lumet, our most popular director on the podcast to date, is one of the great underrated directors of the 70s. Though his films lack a distinctive authorial voice like Martin Scorsese or Brian De Palma, he nonetheless endures as one of the decade's most prolific directors. Previously, we've discussed both 12 Angry Men (1957) and Network (1976), and today we look again to his brilliant filmography for another socially conscious and candid portrayal of a controversial subject matter. Dog Day Afternoon is a portrait of a true-crime story about a desperate man driven to robbery in hopes of providing his lover with the operation they require. It's a film about class barriers and a wayward generation lost in a post 60s world, seeking purpose and place in all the wrong ways. It's a tense, provocative film that is a snapshot of a transitional time in the culture's history, candidly captured by Lumet's brilliant eye.

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