Dog Day Afternoon
Dog Day Afternoon is a 1975 American biographical crime drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by Martin Bregman and Martin Elfand. The film stars Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Broderick, and Charles Durning. The screenplay is written by Frank Pierson and is based on the Life magazine article "The Boys in the Bank" by P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore. The feature chronicled the 1972 robbery and hostage situation led by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile at a Chase Manhattan branch in Brooklyn.
Dog Day Afternoon
Thomas Moore
- September 20, 1975 (San Sebastián)
- September 21, 1975 (United States)
125 minutes[1]
United States
English
Elfand brought Bregman's attention to the article, who proceeded to negotiate a deal with Warner Bros. and clear the rights to use the story. Pierson conducted his research and wrote a script that centered the story of the robbery around Wojtowicz. The cast was selected by Lumet and Pacino, with the latter selecting past co-stars from his Off-Broadway plays. Filming took place between September and November 1974, and the production was finished three weeks ahead of schedule.
Upon theatrical release on September 21, 1975, Dog Day Afternoon was a critical and box office success. The film was nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards and six Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2009, Dog Day Afternoon was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Plot[edit]
On August 22, 1972, first-time crook Sonny Wortzik, and his friends Salvatore "Sal" Naturile and Stevie attempt to rob the First Brooklyn Savings Bank. The plan immediately goes awry when Stevie loses his nerve and flees. Sonny discovers they arrived after the daily cash pickup, and find only $1,100 in cash.
Sonny takes the bank's traveler's checks and burns the register in a trash can, but the smoke raises suspicion outside, and the building is surrounded by police. The two panicked robbers take the bank employees hostage.
Police Detective Sergeant Eugene Moretti calls the bank and Sonny bluffs that he is prepared to kill the hostages. Sal assures Sonny that he is ready to kill if necessary. A security guard has an asthma attack and Sonny releases him as a display of good faith. Moretti convinces Sonny to step outside. Using the head teller as a shield, Sonny begins a dialogue with Moretti that culminates in his shouting "Attica! Attica!" to invoke the recent Attica Prison riot. The crowd begins cheering for Sonny.
Sonny demands a vehicle to drive himself and Sal to the airport so they can board a jet. He also demands pizzas to be brought for the hostages, and for his wife to be brought to the bank. Sonny's partner, Leon Shermer, arrives and reveals that the robbery was intended to pay for Leon's sex reassignment surgery, and divulges that Sonny has children with his estranged wife, Angie.
As night sets in, the bank's lights are shut off as FBI Agent Sheldon takes command of the scene. He refuses to give Sonny any more favors, but when the bank manager Mulvaney goes into diabetic shock, Sheldon lets a doctor inside. Sheldon then convinces Leon to talk to Sonny on the phone. Leon had been hospitalized at Bellevue Hospital after a suicide attempt. Leon turns down Sonny's offer to join him and Sal in their escape, and Sonny tells the police that Leon had nothing to do with the robbery.
Sonny agrees to let Mulvaney leave, but the manager refuses to leave his employees. The FBI calls Sonny out of the bank to talk to his mother, who fails to persuade him to give himself up. Back inside, Sonny dictates his will to one of the hostages, acting as a secretary, leaving money from his life insurance for Angie, and for Leon to have the surgery.
When the requested limousine arrives, Sonny checks for hidden weapons or booby traps, and selects Agent Murphy to drive him, Sal, and the remaining hostages to Kennedy Airport. Sonny sits in the front beside Murphy with Sal behind. Murphy repeatedly asks Sal to point his gun at the roof so Sal will not accidentally shoot him.
As they wait on the airport tarmac for the plane to taxi into position, Sal releases another hostage, who gives him her rosary beads for his first plane trip. Murphy again reminds Sal to aim his gun away. Sal does, and Sheldon seizes Sonny's weapon, allowing Murphy to pull a revolver hidden in his armrest and shoot Sal in the head. Sonny is immediately arrested, and the hostages are freed.
The film ends as Sonny watches Sal's body being taken from the car on a stretcher. On-screen text reveals that Sonny was sentenced to twenty years in prison, that Angie and her children subsisted on welfare, and that Leon was a woman living in New York City.
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Life published in its September 22, 1972 issue a chronicle of the robbery. The feature, written by P. F. Kluge and Thomas Moore, was titled "The Boys in the Bank". It detailed the holdup and the hostages' eventual fraternization with their captors.[22] The authors compared Wojtowicz's appearance to that of Dustin Hoffman or Al Pacino.[23] The feature caught the attention of producer Martin Elfand.[2] Elfand took it to Martin Bregman, who piqued the interest of Warner Bros.' executive Richard Shepherd.[24] Elfand hired Kluge and Moore to interview the people involved in the story. Before the script was written, Elfand wanted to ensure he had signed releases by all the interviewees for the story rights. After the negotiation, each hostage received $600 (equivalent to $4,100 in 2023); one hostage asked for more money and was not included in the script. Initially, Westenberg was offered $2,000, but he turned it down following the advice of his lawyer, as he was still serving a two-year sentence. After his release, he settled for $750.[2] Wojtowicz received $7,500 (equivalent to $51,500 in 2023) for the rights to the story. From the money, he earmarked $2,500 to Eden's reassignment surgery.[17] News outlets reported Wojtowicz was granted one percent of the film's net profit;[25] Bregman later denied that his company, Artists Entertainment Complex, granted Wojtowicz a percentage of the gross. Bregman added he would give him $25,000 if the film performed as well as Serpico (1973) at the box office.[26] Wojtowicz's lawyer, Mark Landsman, retained $3,500 of the payment he received.[26] Meanwhile, Warner Bros paid for Naturile's funeral.[27] The working title of the film was The Boys in the Bank.[28] The budget was set at an estimate of $3.5 million (equivalent to $24.02 million in 2023),[2] or $3.8 million (equivalent to $26.08 million in 2023).[3]
Frank Pierson was hired to write the screenplay. Aside from Kluge and Moore's research, Pierson conducted his own. He contacted journalist Randy Wicker, who covered the story of the heist for gay publications, and provided technical assistance regarding Manhattan's gay nightclub scene.[27] Pierson decided he wanted to center the story around Wojtowicz, who refused to receive Pierson in prison while he was in a financial dispute with Warner Bros. Pierson analyzed the tapes of the interviews and news articles about the robbery and approached those involved for additional information. Pierson could not define Wojtowicz's character because a different impression was left on each of the interviewees. The project overwhelmed him, but he could not quit, as he had spent his cash advance. Pierson reviewed his material and found the unfulfilled promises Wojtowicz made as the common trait. Pierson viewed them as "the story of the bank" and the failure of the robbery. Pierson finished the screenplay by Christmas 1973.[29] Author Leslie Waller later worked on a novelization of the Pierson script, to be published after the release of the film by Dell Publishing.[30]
Casting[edit]
With the finished script, Bregman met with director Sidney Lumet and Pacino in London.[29] Pacino, who was at the time represented by Bregman, agreed to play the role. He then backed out, and Dustin Hoffman expressed interest. Bregman did not meet with Hoffman; he felt Pacino could bring the "sensitivity" and "vulnerability" needed for the role.[24] After more discussion, Pacino accepted the part but then rejected it again. Bregman attributed it to Pacino's use of method acting and said it "might have been a world [Pacino] did not want to explore". Bregman added that "no major star had ever played a gay".[31] He wanted to make the film with Pacino. The actor backed out of the project a third time and told Bregman he wanted to return to the theater. He said he would "never make the adjustment necessary for the movies".[31] Pacino again returned to the project and attributed his behavior to stress and drinking, and that he needed "a life outside work".[31] Lumet mentioned the characterization of Sonny Wortzik's (Wojtowicz) "insane framework of life" as the stress factor for Pacino.[31] In a meeting before the rehearsals, Pacino asked Pierson and Lumet to tone down Sonny Wortzik's behavior; his request was rejected.[31] Eden described Wojtowicz as "a very domineering person",[27] and added: "he is good-natured ... but sometimes went overboard ... and he terrified me".[32] Wicker later said that the screenplay of Dog Day Afternoon portrayed Wojtowicz to be "more rational than he really was".[33]