Dog Day Afternoon
EEUU, 1975
Director: Sidney Lumet
Screenplay: Frank Pierson
Genre: Crime/drama
Soundtrack composer: David Shire
Editing: Dede Allen
Production: Martin Bregman and Martin Elfand
Main cast:
Al Pacino (Sonny Wortzik)
John Cazale (Sal Naturile)
Charles Durning (Sergeant Moretti)
James Broderick (Commissioner Sheldon)
Chris Sarandon (Leon Shermer)
Sully Boyar (Mulvaney)
Carol Kane (Cashier Jenny)
Plot
Sonny, Sal, and Stevie are three small-time criminals in Brooklyn. One summer afternoon, they enter a bank with the intention of robbing it. But it soon becomes clear that they are not exactly professionals. Their “brilliant” plan is doomed to failure from the very beginning. Assuming they are not going to become millionaires, they will at least try to avoid going back to prison.
The police quickly surround the building. But the two remaining robbers (the third deserted already) have taken the branch manager, the security guard, and the cashiers hostage. They try to negotiate their escape…
Commentary
A portrait of a failed robbery with hostage-taking and connotations of sharp social criticism, as well as many humorous touches. The robbers are poor losers who are not even taken seriously by their hostages. But outside the bank where the “robbery” is taking place, the perception of the event is very different: On the one hand, there is a huge police presence (practically an army of snipers and officers from all units); on the other, the press, seeking to exploit the sensationalism of the event; and thirdly, we have the “public,” as the whole of Brooklyn has gathered in the vicinity to witness the “show.” It is comical to see how Sonny, the “leader” of the “gang,” becomes a kind of heroic figure for that audience.
The film accurately depicts the behavior of the urban masses, thirsty for morbid curiosity and strong emotions (but without getting involved, always as spectators, only as voyeurs). The only civilian who dares to intervene (the boyfriend of one of the hostages) is booed by the crowd and arrested by the police! Every time Sonny comes out to negotiate with the officers, he is cheered like a rock star. In one scene, he starts handing out bills to the gathered crowd like Robin Hood, which increases the frenzy of the masses and the ensuing chaos.
We also see a reversal of roles between police and criminal: here it is the robber who searches the FBI agent to check that he is not carrying any weapons, when the latter wants to go in to check that the hostages are okay. The media, for its part, seeks to exploit the morbid fascination of this grotesque situation. Especially when it is discovered that Sonny, in addition to having a wife and children, has a homosexual lover (to whom he is also “married”) whom he wanted to pay for a sex change operation (!) – and apparently that was his main motivation for carrying out the robbery.
Sal is concerned that the media will say he is homosexual and insists that this be denied (as if there weren’t more important things to deal with at the moment!). And here comes one of the best lines in the film—which perfectly captures the critical message towards the “media”—as Sonny replies, “It’s a freak show anyway… Whatever they say doesn’t matter.” This tendency toward manipulation, sensationalism, and distortion of the facts, which is almost ubiquitous today, already existed in the 1970s.
Social criticism is intertwined with many hilarious situations that border on absurd humor (for example, they ask for a plane to be prepared to take them “to Algeria”). Or one of the hostages tells one of the robbers not to be afraid… – Because, deep down, what we have here is a tragicomedy.
The events depicted in the film can be viewed from several different perspectives: Sal feels more cornered and frightened by the situation than the hostages themselves; Sonny, although frustrated and under great pressure, does not give up hope of making an adventurous and fantastic escape. The police act in a cold, calculated, and strategic manner (although they often appear ridiculous). The media capitalizes on the situation. And the “audience,” the residents of Brooklyn, enjoy the show as if it were a football game. Some even demonstrate with banners in support of their idol Sonny! Perhaps the filmmakers intended to draw an analogy between this sheep-like audience and us, the viewers of the film…
The great Al Pacino gives a superb performance in his role as the histrionic and bumbling amateur bank robber. His gloomy and depressed sidekick Sal is played by John Cazale, whom we know best for playing his brother (Michael/Pacino’s) Fredo Corleone in “The Godfather.” And in “The Godfather,” incidentally, there is another brother named Sonny—like Pacino’s character in this “Dog Day Afternoon” that we are discussing.
The story told in this film is based on real events: the robbery attempted by John “Sonny” Wojtowicz (a Vietnam veteran) and Salvatore “Sal” Naturile, who in 1972 tried to rob a bank in Brooklyn, taking several hostages for 14 hours. The media reported that Sonny, a divorced father, wanted to get money to pay for a sex change operation for his homosexual partner, who identified as a woman and would later be called Elizabeth Eden. But other sources claim that the real motive for the robbery was that Sonny had debts with the Mafia, specifically with the Gambino family (which operated in that same area of Brooklyn).
An interesting detail is that Wojtowicz and Naturile had seen “The Godfather” in the cinema that same day, shortly before the robbery – a film starring Al Pacino and John Cazale, actors who would later play THEM in “Dog Day Afternoon”!!
Furthermore, inspired by the film, during the robbery, Wojtowicz passed a note to the cashier that said “this is an offer you can’t refuse”… Once again, we see the synchronicities between cinema and real life, which always intersect and intermingle, until it becomes impossible to distinguish whether real life influences cinema, or whether it is the other way around.
Reality surpasses fiction, but fiction often contributes to creating reality…
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