Directors: Allison Berg, Frank Keraudren
MPAA Rating: NR
In 1975 director Sidney Lumet released an unconventional heist film by the name of Dog Day Afternoon, which starred Al Pacino as an unlikely bank robber trying to snag some money to pay for a sex change for his transgendered girlfriend. The story seemed outlandish and far ahead of its time, but as the old saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction.
Now, The Dog takes a look at the life of John Wojtowicz, the man who inspired the film. Through interviews from Wojtowicz himself, family, friends and some great archival footage, we get to know the backstory of “the Dog” and the strange path his life has taken.
Wojtowicz proves to be a fascinating documentary subject, mostly due to his unwavering earnestness and confidence in front of the camera. He’s the type of character that loves telling his own story and isn’t afraid to admit that he’s a pervert and a criminal.
At one time he was married with two children, yet frequently stepped out on his wife with both men and women and was one of the earliest leaders of the gay rights movement in New York. Although he stayed with his female wife, he met and got married to a transgendered woman named Ernie and subsequently married her as well. He was also a Republican who served in Vietnam, and if that’s not enough, he robbed a bank after getting out of prison then made money by signing autographs outside the very bank he robbed.
Although it’s been years since I’ve seen Dog Day Afternoon, I’ll never forget the odd character Pacino played on screen. This is very much like Wojtowicz, whose enigmatic personality was simply impossible to pin down. That being said, while the film is an interesting and thorough watch, it seems like one could just pop in a copy of Dog Day and get nearly the same story.
For all the offensive alpha-male rhetoric Wojtowicz spits throughout the film, there’s an underlying tenderness to his story that somehow makes it all okay. People were able to quickly forgive him for robbing a bank and having three wives and being kind of a dirtbag because he did most things out of love for the people in his life. Or maybe he was just a sex addict trying to get laid all the time, but I’d like to believe the former.
One area that the film never really explores is that of his children and his father. It’s possible his children didn’t want anything to do with the movie, but I would like to know more about their relationship and how their father’s infamy affected their lives. Wojtowicz’s dad is briefly mentioned a couple times, but it also feels like that could be a relationship that fills in some of the blanks of how John became the man who robbed a bank for love.
The Dog is an interesting journey into the life of an interesting man. Although it may not be the most necessary doc this year, it was incredibly entertaining and an absolute must-see for fans of Lumet’s classic.
