Dog Day Afternoon

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.[18] The authors compared Wojtowicz's appearance to that of Dustin Hoffman or Al Pacino.[19] The feature caught the attention of producer Martin Elfand.[2] Elfand took it to Martin Bregman, who piqued the interest of Warner Brothers' executive Richard Shepherd.[20] 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 $3,700 in 2021); 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 $45,800 in 2021) for the rights to the story. From the money, he earmarked $2,500 to Eden's reassignment surgery.[13] News outlets reported Wojtowicz was granted one percent of the film's net profit;[21] 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.[22] Wojtowicz's lawyer, Mark Landsman, retained $3,500 of the payment he received.[22] Meanwhile, Warner Bros paid for Naturile's funeral.[23] The working title of the film was The Boys in the Bank.[24] The budget was set at an estimate of $3.5 million (equivalent to $21.36 million in 2021),[2] or $3.8 million (equivalent to $23.2 million in 2021).[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.[23] 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.[25] Author Leslie Waller later worked on a novelization of the Pierson script, to be published after the release of the film by Dell Publishing.[26]

With the finished script, Bregman met with director Sidney Lumet and Pacino in London.[25] 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.[20] 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".[27] 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".[27] Pacino again returned to the project and attributed his behavior to stress and drinking, and that he needed "a life outside work".[27] Lumet mentioned the characterization of Sonny Wortzik's (Wojtowicz) "insane framework of life" as the stress factor for Pacino.[27] In a meeting before the rehearsals, Pacino asked Pierson and Lumet to tone down Sonny Wortzik's behavior; his request was rejected.[27] Eden described Wojtowicz as "a very domineering person",[23] and added: "he is good-natured ... but sometimes went overboard ... and he terrified me".[28] Wicker later said that the screenplay of Dog Day Afternoon portrayed Wojtowicz to be "more rational than he really was".[29]

Much of the cast consisted of actors Pacino performed with in Off-Broadway plays.[30] Pacino asked Lumet to cast John Cazale as Sal Naturile,[31] whose was the only name that did not change for the film.[32] Pacino had worked with Cazale on Israel Horovitz's play The Indian Wants the Bronx, and then in the 1972 film The Godfather.[33][34] Lumet was not initially convinced he should cast Cazale. He was thirty-nine years old,[35] while Naturile was eighteen years old at the time of his death, but the director agreed after meeting him.[32] Penelope Allen starred as Sylvia "Mouth" (based on Shirley "Mouth" Ball),[19] and had worked with Pacino before on Scarecrow.[36] For the role of Wortzik's mother, Pacino asked Lumet to cast Judith Malina, co-founder of The Living Theatre.[37] Lumet wanted to portray the difference between a street police officer and one with an office job. Charles Durning[38] and James Broderick[30] were cast as Moretti and Sheldon respectively, though Lumet initially decided on Durning being the bank manager and Broderick playing Moretti until Pacino intervened. Because Durning was also working on Robert Wise's Two People, Lumet and Wise had to coordinate his schedule, as he flew between California and New York.[39] Lumet did not worry about Broderick's recasting because of his reputation for method acting.[30] Sully Boyar was cast as bank manager Mulvaney (based on Robert Barrett).[19] Chris Sarandon convinced Lumet and Pacino during his reading and was cast as Leon Shermer. Lumet asked him to shift the focus of his characterization to "a little less Blanche DuBois, a little more Queens housewife".[30]

There were three weeks of rehearsals,[40] and the name of the project was changed to Dog Day Afternoon. Pierson flew from Los Angeles to New York at Lumet's request. Pacino refused to kiss Sarandon in a scene as he thought it was "exploitative"; he felt that the script kept "pushing the gay issue" on the audience.[25] He expressed the view that viewers already knew the characters were homosexual and wanted to convey the failure of the relationship instead. Pierson agreed; he realized the couple did not actually kiss and that they had actually carried on a phone conversation. Pierson modified the scene to include the call.[25] The National Gay Task Force approved of the script. Ronald Gold, then director of the organization, welcomed it as "sensitive and tasteful".[2]

Filming took place between September and November 1974.[41] The opening montage shows New York's traffic, bridges, beaches, and neighborhoods before moving to a view of the Manhattan skyline from a cemetery.[36] Lumet wanted to convey "a hot boring day, a dog day afternoon".[42] The director shot the footage from a station wagon, and ended in front of the bank, showing the robbers.[42] The footage was silent, as Lumet decided that he did not want a score for the film. The director felt that "he could not reconcile trying to convince an audience that this really happened ... with putting a music score into it".[39] Editor Dede Allen played Elton John's composition "Amoreena" in the editing room. Lumet added the song to the film, which comes out of the getaway car's radio.[39]

Most of the film took place inside of the bank. Lumet discarded the idea of building a studio set; instead, the director found a street with a warehouse on the lower floor of a building that used to be an automotive workshop. The crew built a bank set with movable walls, which allowed Lumet to place the cameras as he desired, and to use long lenses to shoot from a distance. The warehouse's location also allowed Lumet to transition freely between the bank and the street, and he avoided changing film locations,[43] and allowed the street to be visible from the inside of the bank.[42] The scenes were shot on Prospect Park West, between 17th and 18th streets.[32] The bus line that ran through the street was re-routed for filming, and the second story of the building housed the production offices and catering.[42]

Pacino and Allen, re-entering the bank on a scene

To capture Pacino's movements in a natural fashion, and to allow the actor greater mobility, Lumet integrated the use of roller skates and wheelchairs for the cameramen in the panoramic shots. Lumet would order the camera operators to be pulled as Pacino acted to make the scene look "naturalistic", and "like it was shot by television cameramen, fighting their way through the crowd".[44] He wanted the production to have the appearance of a newsreel.[39] The film featured close-ups centered on Sonny and the situation in the bank.[45]

Two different cameras were used to cover the negotiations from Durning and Pacino's side.[42] Lumet and cinematographer Victor J. Kemper relied on long shots to depict the point of view of the police, and the robbers' "entrapment".[45] Lumet wanted to use the light available on the set to avoid additional luminescence. He fitted the bank with extra fluorescent lamps to achieve desired exposure, and he used other fluorescent lamps of lower power as fill light in close-ups. The film required seven nights of filming. Lumet needed the neighbors' cooperation for the use of their fire escapes to hold additional lights. The production was challenged by the weather, as temperatures dropped.[46] On the day of the heist in August 1972, the temperature reached 87 °F (31 °C) when the robbers entered the bank.[47] The film was shot during the fall; to avoid having their breath be visible, the cast placed ice in their mouths to even out the temperature.[42] Lighting was provided for the scenes by emergency vehicles, that were specially fitted with four 7,500 watt lamps. The white brick façade of the building provided light reflection. An existing lamp post was utilized, and its lighting reinforced to keep the crowd visible. Emergency lights were used on set in scenes where the power was shut off by the police.[42]

Pacino shot the first scene wearing sunglasses, but he asked the director to re-shoot it after watching the dailies, as he felt that Sonny "wanted to get caught".[48] He also shaved off a moustache he grew for the role after the replay.[42] Lumet allowed the cast to ad-lib lines with the condition that they did not deviate greatly from the script by Pierson.[19] The production team had recorded improvisations during the rehearsals that were added to the script.[39] Lumet wanted the dialog to "feel natural",[49] and he encouraged the actors to wear their own clothes and to not use makeup.[49]

A crowd of three to four hundred extras was hired. Meanwhile, Lumet asked the neighbors to appear in the film by watching from their windows. The director offered to relocate to a hotel for those who did not want to be disturbed by the shooting. The crowd grew as filming progressed, and pedestrians joined the actors.[42] Lumet directed the crowd and "whipp[ed] them up to a frenzy". By the second week, he felt that the crowd could improvise on its own. To amplify the effect in the film, he utilized hand-held cameras.[50] In regards to the project while it was filming, Lumet said "It's out of my hands. It's got a life of its own".[40] In a scene on the street, before Pacino left the bank, assistant director Burtt Harris whispered to him to ask the crowd about Attica. Pacino then improvised the complete dialog with the crowd.[48]

Lumet decided to shoot the phone conversations Sonny had with his wife and Leon back-to-back. As Pacino acted the scene, he increased the intensity of the portrayal. While both conversations lasted a total of fourteen minutes, Lumet's camera could only shoot ten at a time, and he had to bring a second camera.[51] For the scene, Lumet separated Pacino from the rest of the bank with a black velvet mask to isolate him. He left a hole for both cameras, and for himself to look in.[39] Lumet wanted a second take. An exhausted Pacino accepted, and he kept the same intensity. At the end of the scene, Lumet and Pacino cried. The director later remembered it as "an amazing moment, as good a moment of directing as I've ever had in my life".[51]

The call between Pacino and Sarandon was improvised.[40] Lumet felt that Sarandon "had great taste", and that the actor would not resort to "homosexual clichés".[42] He deemed the humor of his improvisation as "genuinely funny", and that it was not "laughing at a gay character".[42] Sarandon felt that the conversation was welcomed by the audiences because it "wasn't about a drag queen and his boyfriend", and that it reflected two people that were "trying to come to grips with what is wrong in their relationship."[42] The film was characterized by its "light comic touch",[52] and according to critic David Thomson, for its "ear and instinct for comedy".[53] In Pierson's script, Wortzik's question regarding which country Sal wanted to escape to did not have a scripted response, but Cazale improvised by answering "Wyoming".[31] Lumet had to cover his mouth, as he nearly interrupted the scene by laughing.[30]

The start of the final scene at the bank was shot on a 40 °F (4 °C) night with wind. Pacino was sprinkled with water to simulate sweat;[23] Lumet mixed the artificial sweat himself, as he felt that the makeup crews often used it in excess, or that it was insufficient. The director used a mixture of glycerin and water that he learned to make during the shooting of 12 Angry Men. The mixture lasted longer and allowed him better continuity throughout the scenes.[39]

Harris directed the scene of the caravan that headed to Kennedy Airport from a helicopter. A plane and squad cars on the tarmac were used.[42] Senator Jacob Javits, an acquaintance of Lumet, facilitated the negotiations with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The production team was given one day to shoot in an area of the airport that was not a terminal.[39] The international flights that headed to the main runway had to go around the shooting location. Lumet directed the scene at the airport from the ground. He chose to cut from the close-up after Sal was shot and a gun was held to Sonny's head, to a long shot; the view presented a panorama of the scene at the airport. Lumet centered on Pacino and ordered the crew to roll Cazale on a stretcher to be visible by the actor. Pacino used the image to improvise his reaction.[42]

The shooting was completed three weeks ahead of schedule.[41] After editing the film, Lumet and Allen felt that the slow-paced scene of Sonny writing his testament conflicted with the rest of the fast-moving sequences, so they decided to restore six to seven minutes of discarded footage to balance the tempo of the film.[54] Lumet stated the scene of the last will was the reason for his decision to work on the film;[42] he considered it "moving", but worried about the audience laughing at it.[39] His worries were based on what he considered "the defensive attitude on sexual subjects": to avoid it, he focused on portraying emotional performances by the actors throughout the film.[39] Lumet had access to the footage of Wojtowicz and Eden's ceremony, originally broadcast by Channel 5 at the time of the robbery, which featured Wojtowicz in his army uniform presenting a wedding ring with a flash cube to Eden, who wore a wedding dress. Wojtowicz's mother and eight male bridesmaids were present. Lumet planned to use it in the film; the scene would have featured the footage broadcast on a television in the bank, but he decided not to include it, as he felt it would be "unrecoverable" and that the audiences would not "take the rest of the movie seriously".[39]

Wojtowicz's wife, Carmen, received $50 (equivalent to $300 in 2021) from Artists Entertainment Complex for her contribution to the story. She signed the documents to Wicker, who recorded in exchange a tape with her account on behalf of the company. The depiction of her character, Angie, in the film affected her, as she felt she was deemed "repulsive". The novelization of Dog Day Afternoon described her as "a fat cunt", "no-good pusbag" and a "guinea broad", among other pejorative terms.[22] In the film, Angie laments her weight gain as the reason for Sonny's distance.[36] Wojtowicz was also angered by her depiction in the film, and defined his then-wife as "a sweet kid".[3] Pierson declared that the character was presented "farthest from the truth", and that he could not "stand how [Lumet] casted the role", or how Peretz portrayed her. He further stressed his disappointment at the publicity campaign that presented the film as a "true story", and remarked its differences with the Life article.[38] Pierson presented a complaint to the Writers Guild of America.[38] Kluge, a coauthor of the Life feature, believed the filmmakers "stayed with the surface of a lively journalistic story" and that the film had a "strong, fast-paced story" without "reflection" or "a contemplative view of life".[76]

Carmen took legal action against Warner Bros. On behalf of her, and her daughters Carmen and Dawn, Wojtowicz filed an Invasion of Privacy lawsuit for $12 million. The appellate division of the New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of Warner Bros, as the court determined that the true names or pictures of the family and robbers were not used in the film or the book.[77] Wojtowicz then sued the studio for one percent of the earnings he claimed were included in the deal for the use of his story;[21] he received $40,000 (equivalent to $178,900 in 2021) after lawyer's fees were deducted. The New York Supreme Court ordered that $100 (equivalent to $300 in 2021) were to be given weekly to Carmen Wojtowicz, plus $50 weekly for both children. The rest of the money was placed in escrow of the New York State Crime Victims Compensation Board to pay for the claims of the victims of the 1972 robbery.[78]

The 1977 Italian film Operazione Kappa: sparate a vista was loosely based on Dog Day Afternoon.[96] The 1987 Hong Kong action film Yan man ying hung (People's Hero) was a remake of the film.[97] For his audition on The Simpsons, actor Hank Azaria used an imitation voice based on Pacino's Dog Day Afternoon character. It was the base for the final voice of Moe Szyslak.[98] A bank robbery featuring Sonny and Sal was featured on The Simpsons' episode "I Don't Wanna Know Why the Caged Bird Sings".[99] In 2006, Marcia Jean Kurtz and Lionel Pina reprised their Dog Day Afternoon roles as Miriam Douglas and a pizza delivery man in the heist thriller film Inside Man.[100]

The names of several television series episodes referenced the film, including All in the Family,[101] Welcome Back, Kotter,[102] Alice,[103] St. Elsewhere,[104] Sledge Hammer!,[105] Hill Street Blues,[106] Perfect Strangers,[107] The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,[108] The New Lassie,[109] Kenan & Kel,[110] King of the Hill,[111] Bob's Burgers,[112] Supernatural,[113] and 2 Broke Girls.[114] The shout "Attica! Attica!" was also reproduced in multiple films and television series.[115]