20 Absolutely Insufferable Film Characters Who Didn't Deserve THAT

Dog Day Afternoon is a true 1970s classic, and one of the many great things about it is the balanced way it depicts the bank robbery at its centre. Specifically, it doesn't just humanize the hostages and the police officers, but it also allows Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale), the two robbers, to work as distinctly fleshed-out individuals on-screen. 

Are they good people? Hardly, but they are well-developed and even somewhat sympathetic characters, so their fates at the end of the movie carry an unmistakable air of sadness. However, while Sonny is justifiably sent off to prison, Sal is shot in the head without warning, and you know what? This didn't feel like the right way to resolve things. 

While Sal was armed, he was just sitting in the car at the time, and it's unlikely he would ever have been able to bring himself to hurt any of the hostages. And yes, it was his fault for robbing a bank in the first place, but at the same time, he deserved a fair trial like Sonny as opposed to being summarily executed on the spot. For the record, Dog Day Afternoon is actually based on a true story, and Sal's real-life counterpart, Salvatore Naturile, met exactly the same fate.