Dog Day Afternoon

Sometimes Bank Robbers are polite. Too polite for their own good.

I recently viewed, for the first time, the fantastic film Dog Day Afternoon starring Al Pacino, John Cazale, Brian Dunning and a wonderful patchwork cast of peripheral characters.

The 1975 film recounts the actual attempted robbery of the East Third Street New York, NY branch of the Chase Manhattan bank by John Wojowicz and Salvatore Naturille on August 22, 1972. When the robbery was compromised, Wojowicz and Naturille held seven employees hostage for 14 hours.

The film is very dynamic and I felt like I was in the bank myself. It was one of those films where I become so enveloped in the film that two hours seems to stretch forever upon first viewing, but forever in a good way, not a boring way. In that way where passage of time becomes ambiguous.

The fantastic aspect of the film is how many different dynamics come to light about the main characters. Chris Sarandon plays the main characters pre-op transexual wife who was actully committed to a mental institution prior to being procured by police for negotiation methods. That really happened.

Robberies aren't as interesting as they used to be. The hostages warmed up to Wojowicz. And not in a Patty Hearst syndrome kind of way.

Believe it or not the situation was actually complicated by the fact that within a few hours of the police standoff it was clear that Wojowicz would never have considered harming any of the hostages in any way. His partner however, was nervous, had recently been to prison, and was a very unpredictable man if the situation would have gotten intensified.

Excellent film.