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Movies that feel like Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

If you loved Dog Day Afternoon, the closest films we have are Le Cercle Rouge (1970), Inside Man (2006) and Panic Room (2002). All three share Dog Day Afternoon's gritty and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

Based on the true story of would-be Brooklyn bank robbers John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile. Sonny and Sal attempt a bank heist which quickly turns sour and escalates into a hostage situation and stand-off with the police. As Sonny's motives for the robbery are slowly revealed and things become more complicated, the heist turns into a media circus.

πŸ… 94% Rotten Tomatoesβ˜… 8 IMDb β†—TMDB β†—dir. Sidney Lumetgrittycontemplativetenseplayfulunsettling

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If Dog Day Afternoon hit the spot, these will too

Le Cercle Rouge poster
Le Cercle Rouge
1970 Β· dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.9crime Β· drama Β· thriller

The same two preoccupations: police, and heist

The difference: None of the unease Dog Day Afternoon is built on

When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.

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Inside Man poster
Inside Man
2006 Β· dir. Spike Lee
πŸ… 86%β˜… 7.6crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Both rooted in New York City

The difference: Made in the 2000s, in a different era of the craft

When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.

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Panic Room poster
Panic Room
2002 Β· dir. David Fincher
πŸ… 76%β˜… 6.8crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Both are working the same pair: hostage, psychological thriller

Trapped in their New York brownstone's panic room, a hidden chamber built as a sanctuary in the event of break-ins, newly divorced Meg Altman and her young daughter Sarah play a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with three intruders - Burnham, Raoul and Junior - during a brutal home invasion. But the room itself is the focal point because what the intruders really want is inside it.

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Serpico poster
Serpico
1973 Β· dir. Sidney Lumet
πŸ… 93%β˜… 7.7crime Β· drama Β· history

Sidney Lumet working the same nerve twice

The difference: Sits closer to history than Dog Day Afternoon does

New York cop Frank Serpico blows the whistle on the rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.

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Hannibal poster
Hannibal
2001 Β· dir. Ridley Scott
πŸ… 39%β˜… 6.8crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Both keep coming back to the same thing: fbi

The difference: Critics were much harder on this one

After having successfully eluded the authorities for years, Hannibal peacefully lives in Italy in disguise as an art scholar. Trouble strikes again when he's discovered leaving a deserving few dead in the process. He returns to America to make contact with now disgraced Agent Clarice Starling, who is suffering the wrath of a malicious FBI rival as well as the media.

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Marathon Man poster
Marathon Man
1976 Β· dir. John Schlesinger
πŸ… 82%β˜… 7.4thriller Β· crime Β· drama

Both are built on the same subject: psychological thriller

A graduate student and obsessive runner in New York is drawn into a mysterious plot involving his brother, a member of the secretive Division.

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The Killing poster
The Killing
1956 Β· dir. Stanley Kubrick
πŸ… 96%β˜… 7.9crime Β· thriller Β· drama

Common ground: heist

Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.

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Rififi poster
Rififi
1955 Β· dir. Jules Dassin
πŸ… 92%β˜… 8.1crime Β· thriller Β· drama

Both land grit and stillness at once

Out of prison after a five-year stretch, jewel thief Tony turns down a quick job his friend Jo offers him, until he discovers that his old girlfriend Mado has become the lover of local gangster Pierre Grutter during Tony's absence. Expanding a minor smash-and-grab into a full-scale jewel heist, Tony and his crew appear to get away clean, but their actions after the job is completed threaten the lives of everyone involved.

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The Friends of Eddie Coyle poster
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
1973 Β· dir. Peter Yates
πŸ… 98%β˜… 7.4crime Β· drama Β· thriller

The same preoccupation in both: fbi

An aging hood is about to go back to prison. Hoping to escape his fate, he supplies information on stolen guns to the feds, while simultaneously supplying arms to his bank robbing chums.

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The Silence of the Lambs poster
The Silence of the Lambs
1991 Β· dir. Jonathan Demme
πŸ… 95%β˜… 8.6crime Β· thriller Β· drama

The same mix in both: tension, then unease

Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI's training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.

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The Parallax View poster
The Parallax View
1974 Β· dir. Alan J. Pakula
πŸ… 87%β˜… 7.1crime Β· drama Β· thriller

Both lean on grit more than on crime

An ambitious reporter gets in trouble while investigating a senator's assassination which leads to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind every event in the world's headlines.

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The Usual Suspects poster
The Usual Suspects
1995 Β· dir. Bryan Singer
πŸ… 87%β˜… 8.5drama Β· crime Β· thriller

Playful drama in both cases

Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.

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The best-reviewed films that share Dog Day Afternoon’s defining feeling.