Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 crime drama directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Frank Pierson, based on the Life magazine article, “The Boys in the Bank,” by PF Kluge and Thomas Moore. The movie stars Al Pacino and John Cazale, with James Broderick, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar, Lance Henriksen, and Carol Kane.
The movie was inspired by the real-life 1972 robbery of a Brooklyn branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank, as perpetrated by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile, who also held the bank employees hostage for twelve hours. Dog Day Afternoon was a critical and box-office success, nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards, six BAFTAs (winning Best Actor for Pacino and for Best Editing), and six Oscars, winning Best Original Screenplay. The film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, and it was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress.
Here is a link to quotes from the movie.
Unlike Reservoir Dogs–another movie about a heist gone awry, one I wrote about here and interpreted as allegorical of “free market” capitalists (the thieves) in conflict with those capitalists more in favour of state regulation (the cops)–I see Dog Day Afternoon as a heist gone awry that’s allegorical of a failed attempt at a socialist revolution. It’s a kind of Paris Commune, but much smaller in time and space. Rather than taking control of an entire city over a period of a little over two months, this ‘revolution’ takes control of a bank for half a day’s time.
The main reason that the mastermind of the robbery, Sonny Wortzik (Pacino, based on Wojtowicz), needs the money is to pay for a sex change operation for his wife and lover, a transwoman named Leon Shermer (Sarandon, based on Elizabeth Debbie Eden, originally Ernest Aron). Also, as Sonny tells a reporter on the phone during the robbery/hostage situation, he can’t get a decent-paying job without a union, and he doesn’t have a union card. Even during the pre-neoliberal era of welfare capitalism in the US, the poor had it hard.
In spite of being bank robbers and hostage holders, Sonny and his partner, Sal Naturile (Cazale), are humane to their hostages: they never hurt them, they allow an asthmatic guard, Howard (played by John Marriott, and based on bank guard Calvin Jones), to be freed and thus give him the chance to get medical attention, and Sonny even pays for pizza for the hostages, and allows them to use the bathroom.
Furthermore, Sonny appeals to the crowd of onlookers outside, winning over their sympathy by shouting “Attica!” This shout, improvised by Pacino, reminds the people of the excessive use of police force to put down a prisoner rebellion in the Attica Correctional Facility in 1971, which caused widespread distrust of cops, reinforcing public dislike at the time of law enforcement, government corruption, and institutional violence. Sonny also throws bank money in the air, making the grateful crowds scramble to get their hands on it.
All of these acts of Sonny’s demonstrate that he, far from being a common thug, is an underdog and a man of the common people. All of this is why I say this robbery is symbolic of revolution.
The movie begins with shots of scenes of everyday life in the Brooklyn area, with Elton John’s “Amoreena” heard in the background, the only music heard in the movie. We see the common people on the streets and in their neighborhoods, we see workers outside, people in cars during rush hour, people relaxing in such places as the beach, people shopping in markets, etc. Seeing all of this gives us a sense that the movie is about the people, not about the powers-that-be, whom we’ll soon come to dislike intensely.
There is originally a third robber, Stevie (played by Gary Springer and based on Robert Westenberg); but right when the caper starts, he loses his nerve, apologizes to Sonny and Sal, and leaves, making a hard situation that much harder for the two remaining thieves. To make matters even worse, Sonny has been given the wrong information about how much money will be in the bank: the daily cash pickup has already happened, and there’s only $1,100 in cash!
One last bit of help that Stevie gives to Sonny and Sal is to tell them that one of the employees is hiding under a desk by the window that Stevie was passing by. Noting her timidity, Sonny decides to nickname her “the Squirrel”; actually, her name is Jenny (Kane). He makes her get out from under the desk and join the other bank employees, who are standing by a wall.
Except for the usual, inevitable changes that a movie adaptation will make of the original story, Dog Day Afternoon manages to follow the events as described in “The Boys in the Bank” quite closely. Among the few significant changes are those of the characters’ names, except for Sal’s and an FBI agent’s.
In the real heist, John and Sal were similarly gentle with the hostages, even making them like their captors. Shirley “the Mouth” Ball–Sylvia “Mouth” (Allen) in the movie–while shocked at the foul language of the robbers, nonetheless liked them enough to say, “If they had been my houseguests on a Saturday night, it would have been hilarious.” She was the “Mouth,” according to John, because she was the talkative one, just as Sylvia is in the movie.
Similarly, bank manager Mulvaney (Boyar, based on bank manager Robert Barrett) is a diabetic who needs medical help at one point towards the end of the story, just as Barrett did; and when John–just like Sonny–is willing to let him leave the bank to see a doctor, the manager opts to stay where he is. Barrett said that they had “a kind of camaraderie” with their captors. Some might call this Stockholm Syndrome, and perhaps it was in the real-life situation; but in the movie, this camaraderie is part of the theme of how Sonny and Sal are, if you will, the people’s thieves, Robin Hood and his merry men robbing the rich and giving to the poor.
There’s a photo in the Life magazine article showing Ernest Aron in a hospital gown, being escorted by the police from the hospital Aron had been staying in to see John. This image is clearly copied in the movie, with Leon Shermer dressed the same way and with long, frizzy hair in the wind.
In spite of Leon being presented as a “male transvestite,” to use the words of the Life article, and referring to Leon with masculine pronouns, as would have been standard back in the 1970s (and a laughing cop predictably refers to her as “a queer”), the movie is remarkably sensitive and progressive in its attitude towards transgender people, that is, by the standards of the time. The feminine mannerisms Sarandon employs are not over-the-top or stereotypical to the point of making a transphobic farce of the character, and we’re made to sympathize with the plight of “a woman trapped in a man’s body,” according to Leon’s psychiatrist. Sarandon was even nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
While the reasons are debatable as to John’s robbery of the bank being mainly to pay for Ernest Aron’s sex-change operation (some say he really needed the money to pay off debts to the Gambino Mafia), Sonny’s reason excludes any mention of the mafia, and so he becomes much more sympathetic as that Robin Hood robber I mentioned above. His and Sal’s robbery, as symbolic of a socialist revolution, thus demonstrates how vastly superior a socialist government would be to a capitalist one.
In the latter form of government, revenue is generated to maximize profits, while the government exists to protect the interests of the bourgeoisie and their imperialism abroad. In the former kind of government, revenue is generated to provide for the people’s basic needs: housing, healthcare, education, employment, and food.
Helping transgender people get the gender-reassignment surgery they need to feel fully the sex they know they are in their minds is part of that needed healthcare. Then they can walk the streets, use public washrooms, etc., without fear of transphobic prejudice and violence…even though they should already be free of such fears without the surgery.
Providing for basic needs is also crucial to minimizing crimes like Sonny’s and Sal’s armed robbery, for when all of those basic needs are met, there’s no urge to commit most crimes in the first place.
A fatal mistake that Sonny makes early on in the robbery is to burn the register in a trash can. Smoke gets outside, causing suspicion, and soon the bank is surrounded by police, forcing Sonny and Sal to take the bank employees hostage.
Police Detective Sergeant Eugene Moretti (Durning, based on Louis C Cottell) tries to negotiate with Sonny, leading to his shout of “Attica!”, getting cheers from the crowd. Note that while Moretti–flanked by the other cops, who will include FBI agents Sheldon (Broderick, based on Richard J Baker) and Murphy (Henriksen, based on James Murphy)–tries to be as diplomatic as he can, often scolding his cops to back off with their aggressive pointing of their guns at Sonny, the agenda of all these cops is clear: nab the criminal scum, which will include killing Sal.
Sonny’s shout of “Attica!” was a then-publicly-well-known reference to how the state and local police shot and killed thirty-nine people (twenty-nine inmates and ten correctional officers and civilian employees) to retake control of the Attica Correctional Facility after the 1971 prison riot. The point is that we see a clear contrast between the brutality of the authorities vs the clamouring of the people for more rights, since the Attica prisoners rioted with demands for better living conditions and political rights, something akin to what I’ve tried to demonstrate as Sonny’s motives for robbing the bank.
Sonny’s demands include a vehicle to the airport so he and Sal can board a jet and flee the country (bizarrely, Sonny thinks of going to Algeria, though Sal, not realizing he’d still be in the US, wants to go to Wyoming), as well as pizzas for the hostages and to see his wife at the bank, hence the summoning of Leon. We also learn that, apart from Leon, Sonny also has an estranged wife, Angie (played by Susan Peretz, Angie being based on Carmen Wojtowicz), and some children by her.
When Sheldon takes control of the situation, the bank’s lights are shut off, indicating more aggression from the powers-that-be. Leon, however reluctantly, is persuaded to talk to Sonny on the phone. We learn that Leon was hospitalized because of a suicide attempt, so we can see that Sonny, desperate to prevent Leon’s death, needs the bank money for the sex-change operation, out of love for her, who nonetheless doesn’t want to join Sonny and Sal in their escape attempt. Sonny will later show more love to both wives by arranging for his life insurance to go to both of them; he dictates his will to Sylvia.
During his phone call with Leon, Sonny tells the eavesdropping cops that she has had nothing whatsoever to do with the robbery, since she fears the cops will make her an accessory to the crime and put her in a male prison, where she knows she won’t survive.
By night time, members of the LGBT community arrive out by the bank to show solidarity with Sonny; they chant, “Out of the closet, into the streets!” and “Sonny’s all right!”, knowing of his relationship with Leon from the TV news. Speaking of his relationship with Leon, his phone discussion with her parallels, in a number of ways, his phone call with Angie and his talk with his mother outside the bank at night: they tell him of how crazy he’s being, how upset they are with him, their pain over not feeling loved by him, etc. My point is that the relationship with Leon is portrayed as essentially no different from that of Angie and his mother; it isn’t treated as a farce just because Leon is transgender–it’s a genuine relationship with a nuanced expression of feelings.
As the time approaches for Sonny and Sal to be taken to the airport with the hostages, Sheldon talks with Sonny, speaking of how the cops will deal with Sal, which is a foreshadowing of how the plan has always been to kill him, and that Sonny will simply be arrested. Sonny imagines the Feds hope he’ll betray Sal, which of course he won’t do.
When they all get in the vehicle, Murphy will be driving. Sal tends to point his gun at Murphy, who repeatedly asks him to point it upwards, fearing hitting a bump, the gun going off, and Murphy killed; this was said by the real Murphy, according to the Life magazine article. Actually, Murphy just wants a clear shot at Sal, Murphy having a pistol hidden in the vehicle.
They all arrive at Kennedy Airport, and a hostage is allowed to go free. Sheldon is standing by the vehicle, and Sal has his gun pointed up. Murphy gets his pistol and shoots Sal in the forehead (according to the article, he shot Sal in the chest). This killing seems unnecessary, as not only is Sal’s gun safely pointed up, but Sheldon has grabbed Sonny’s rifle; a simple command of “Freeze!”, and if Sal were to lower his gun to shoot, then Murphy’s shooting of him would have been necessary (Murphy didn’t need to move fast until his pistol was visible). We see here another example of the ACAB use of excessive force, as with the suppressing of the Attica riot.
Sonny, of course, is arrested, and he has to do time in prison; he weeps as he sees Sal’s body taken away on a stretcher, and the movie ends. This violent thwarting of the robbers’ plan seems parallel to the suppressing of the Paris Commune, in which 10,000 to 20,000 Communards were killed during “Bloody Week.” It’s all a lesson in how, in order to overcome the oppression of the powers-that-be, one must never underestimate their propensity to use violence to get their way.
