Dog day afternoon (final draft)

Hironori Matsumoto
ENG 103 2612
Dr. Vasileiou

Dog Day Afternoon

When we see movies that say they are based on a true story, can we honestly believe what we see? I believe that books or movies can be deeply profound, when they are written with the truth. As we all know, movies are fictional; except documentary films. Mostly in order to capture our interest, make us grab our seats tight as we let the director bring more than just exact reality; (1) “Art is a lie that tells you truth”. That is a famous quote of Pablo Picasso. Movies are the ultimate art; it can provide people great entertainment instantly. We humans can be entertained visually and musically; that is the reason why people sit comfortably on their couch and watch DVDs, or buy big expensive bags of popcorn and a gigantic soda just to experience another world. While watching the movie Dog Day Afternoon, I felt like as if I were watching a bank robbery reality TV show. It was sensational, awfully funny, passionate and dramatic.
New York was known as the center of the financial world. Generally, foreigners or people outside of the U.S easily misunderstood people who lived in New York; they thought they were happy and rich, but they were truly not. People in New York struggled just as much as people who lived in underdeveloped countries. Particularly, the seventies was a decade when New Yorkers lived unhappily and faced serious problems. Often, poor people had to live with unpaid bills and in turn had limited lives. This triggered a good, innocent, young male to attempt armed robbery during a steamy hot summer and the directors and actors of Dog Day Afternoon captured this tragic day well and not only portrayed, but the movie also shaped the reality of a hot day of Brooklyn.
(1) John Wojtowicz came back as a veteran from Vietnam War who used to be the bank teller at several banks in New York. He was not a typical type to commit crime, however, his lover who happened to be transsexual tried to commit suicide several times because he could not live with his male body with female soul. His suicidal belabor took him to psychiatric hospital and it seemed to be forever and she never got better until he could become a female. John sadly could not support her/him financially, Out of his desperation; he met his final unwanted solution which was to rob the bank.
In the nineteen seventies, the whole world was becoming more rational in its approach to social, economical, and political issues. Wars seemed to be going on forever and for the first time, American patriotism decreased. There were more protests then ever before in history. People were not accepting the government’s objectives anymore and they had little reason to uphold their faith in such an institution.
The economy fell apart and did not get back together. (2)The Inflation was a huge factor in the national debt. The money spent for the Vietnam War also caused serious economical and social issues. It was hard for people to accept the debt brought on by a war that most people objected to. It was also the cause of lots of American deaths; it made many windows and fatherless children. People did not know what to do with their rage and grief.
Economically, the nineteen seventy’s created more devastation than natural disasters, like hurricanes and thunderstorm. (2)The oil crisis and energy crisis in nineteen seventy-three was caused by Arab members of the organization known as OAPEC. They made oil as precious as diamonds. This factor poured gasoline on the huge fire that was inflation.
(3) According to census, average salary of seventies was six thousand three hundred
eighteen dollars in New York City which did not satisfied a lot of people in New York City since everything became more pricy and pricy. (4)A decent family cars cost about three thousand dollars and a sex change operation cost two thousand five hundred dollars. There were so many people struggled as much as John did He was a bank teller and, generally bank tellers made about a hundred dollars. (5) Classified Ads of New York Times said that income of bank teller from a hundred dollars to a hundred fifty dollars. There was no way for John to maintain his living and to support his lover financially. No matter how much people tried to manage their living, there were so many people had unpaid bills and empty wallets in seventies and the economy did not do them a favor at all.

The stresses caused by the political and social issues made people want a release for their stress even more. People were not as willing to give up on creature comforts in such a time. It was a time where people realized that there was no need for so many injustices to be going on forever, when all people wanted was simply their basic human rights in such stressful times. It was about to time to stand up for their lives.

People finally started to think outside the box and became who they really were, rather than who they had to be. There were several significant social events that took place in the nineteen seventies. Before the seventies, it was not acceptable to be homosexual socially. Gay people nowadays can walk proudly because of their spiritual brothers and sisters in the seventies who fought for their freedom.(5) On June twenty-eighth nineteen seventy, there was the first LGBT; which was symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual march in NYC. This movement encouraged lots of gay people to stand up for themselves; to not feel ashamed about their true sexuality and sure enough, people slowly started accepting them as equal members of society. (6)Another act was the rise of feminism. Women had fought for their rights since the sixties and finally the seed of justice grew that was planted not so long ago, blossomed into a flower. It was the right time for people to vocalize that they were not happy with discrimination and fought for their freedom.

There was not justice in the world at all at the time. The world was darker and unhappier because of politicians led us to this miserable lives. (7)One of the examples and the movie stressed intentionally was Attica prison riot. The prison officers did not treat prisoners at Attica prison in NYC. Awhile the whole world was touching the boiling point, the prisoners in Attica prison felt extremely angry about their poor living condition. It was not exactly living, but torturing. Racism was everywhere, and the officers used unnecessary violence. Thus, they could not even have nice warm traditional prisoner meal every day. Then, the prisoners decided to fight for their limited freedom. There was a negotiation between prisoners and police, but it never ended, so the governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered the police to take back control with violence. It ended to have thirty nine people dead in September of nineteen seventy one. It was easier to control prisoners with pure violence than to negotiate. The world desperately needed the right leader to fix countless problems, but they just let the world breed and made people hate this country.


Sidney Lumet directed the historical film called Dog Day Afternoon. The movie was based on a true story and Al Pacino was meant to act as the main character; he looked just like the bank robber John Wojtowicz and he portrayed realistically. The plot was very simple and the movie hardly used any back ground music, yet this film powerfully moved us in different levels.
One day on a hot afternoon, the bank was about to close at normal time. Sonny Wortzik, a virgin bank robber, nervously opened the door of the bank. He had never given much thought about robbery, until his transsexual second wife came along. He/she did not want to live as a man any more. He couldn’t bear to be a male and it made him suicidal to be in a masculine body, but he couldn’t afford the sex change operation.
Sonny had no choice but thought of the only logical thing he could think of; rob a bank. Unfortunately, he robbed the bank out of desperation and could not properly plan for such. He brought his friends Stevie and Sal along to do the job, but Stevie left immediately. He got way nervous. After Sonny and Sal managed to control the bank tellers and the manager, Sonny opened the vault. The money was supposedly a lot more but they only found eleven hundred dollars.
The hostages were quite sympathetic and supportive to their situation, but eventually the police came and had them surrounded and then there were thousands of people and cameras everywhere. Some hostages began to have medical problems. Showing minor amounts of compassion, but also his intent to not harm anyone, Sonny let some hostages go and concocted a plan to get him and Sal to a jet. Before taking the hostages and fleeing to JFK air port, Sonny makes a call to his first wife and then to his second wife, the reason why he committed the crime in the first place.
Later, Sonny and Sal were almost home free; they were about to get in their get away car that would shuttle them to the airport. Sonny checked every inch of the car, and every thing seemed to be right as they were driving to the airport. But once they were about to board the plane, a gun secret gun was commandeered by one of the agents driving the car and Sal was shot in the head. Sonny was being constrained the whole time. The hostages were let go and Sonny went to the federal prison for 20 years.

Although, the movie was more dramatic and funny, it portrayed the reality of hot summer afternoon. The director carefully emphasized and shaped the reality. Socially, the movie exactly brought the energy of the people. The main reason some people surrounded the bank because they wanted to share the anger and scream for their freedom. Thousands of cheering spectators yelled and encouraged as real surrenders did. Politically, the most memorable sense where Sonny screamed to crowd “Attica Atiica”. It was one of the terrible riots and the situation related his circumstance. He yelled at the crowd as if he were a good politician about to give them real freedom. He pleased his audience and released their anger temporally. Financially, actors’ attitude toward the poor economy situation was very accurate. None of people seemed to be satisfied with their living fully because of their economic situations. A scene where the head bank-teller told Sonny how much bank tellers earned a day which was only a hundred dollars a day. It was about similar with the bank tellers in NYC earned at the time.. The director chose the location and building carefully and realistically. The neighbor seemed to be exactly poor as real in Brooklyn and the director used same type of small bank in the movie. The actors’ emotion through the movie was unbelievably real. Actors used ad lib and their own languages to enrich their acting. Especially Al Pacino took his character perfectly. I could tell easily this character Sonny was not crazy or a criminal type. He was just an ordinary guy who loved his transsexual wife and needed help. Even though, he yelled and expressed his anger several times, there were still so many movements that he was harmless and kind person. Sonny and hostages built up a good relationship. Sonny treated people nicely as John did for hostages.(10) One of the bank tellers claimed that John was mostly nice to everybody and Al Pacion acted this unbalanced emotional character through the entire movie amazingly. It was more than acting. The character was definitely alive and John Wojtowicz himself even appreciated Al Pacino’s performance. The dog day afternoon was a lie that told us the truth indeed.

Why did this historical movie without using hardly special effects or catchy background music make a huge success? I think because it was combined a reality and a tragedy. There is nothing can be more entertaining than somebody’s tragedy. Thus, John’s tragedy easily became fortunately magic on screen. I believe that people watched this movie, felt differently, but as if they similarly watched news about armed robbery. The movie was not a perfect crime and there was no happy ending. It was dark and brutal just like John and Sal ended up at JFK.The director specifically chose this plot and actors to give us a history of how unfortunate for John to be a robber for his lover. Indeed, there were some moments I could laugh, and the movie did not exactly show entire New York City, but overall the movie was realistic and it was a time machine for me to see how tragic the event was.





Work cite


(1)Cole, B.. "The Artist as Showman A Conversation with John Updike. " Humanities 1 May 2008: ProQuest Education Journals, ProQuest. Web. 23 Nov. 2010.


(2 )Pietrantonio, Silvia. "The year that never was: 1973 and the crisis between the United States and the European Community." Journal of Transatlantic Studies 8.2 (2010): 158-177. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web.24 Nov. 2010.

(3) Social explorer.com


(5)"Classified Ad 64 -- No Title. " New York Times (1923-Current file) 29 Aug. 1971,ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2007), ProQuest. Web. 17 Nov. 2010.


(6 )Park :Thousands of Homosexuals Hold A Protest Rally in Central Park. " New York Times (1923-Current file) 29 Jun 1970,ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2007), ProQuest. Web. 17 Nov. 2010.


(7) By SUSAN BROWNMILLER. "'Sisterhood Is Powerful' :A member of the Women's Liberation Movement explains what it's all about 'Sisterhood is powerful' "The goals of women's liberation go beyond a simple concept of equality" The ultimate oppressor: Man or Capitalism?. " New York Times (1923-Current file) 15 Mar. 1970,ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2007), ProQuest. Web. 23 Nov.. 2010.


(8) "Attica Took Its Name From Site of Athens. " New York Times (1923-Current file) 14 Sep. 1971,ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2007), ProQuest. Web. 19 Nov. 2010.


(9)Special to The New York Times. "Robber Sentenced In a Holdup to PayFor 'Sex Change'. " New York Times (1923-Current file) 24 Apr. 1973,ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2007), ProQuest. Web. 2 Dec. 2010.



(10)By FRANK J. PRIAL. "2 Hold 8 Hostages in a Bank in Brooklyn :2 Hold 8 Hostages in Brooklyn Bank. " New York Times (1923-Current file) 23 Aug. 1972,ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2007), ProQuest. Web. 20 Nov. 2010.