Bonus video! Dog Day Afternoon is Based on a True Story (That's Probably a Lie)
Hello there!
The film Dog Day Afternoon opens by saying that it's based on a true story, and it is: The events of the movie unfold almost exactly as they did in real life, with a bisexual bank robber holding up a bank and telling everyone that he needs the money to pay for his wife to get (in the parlance of the time) a "sex change operation."
There's just one problem with that, which is that the real life robber was probably lying. I've been combing through a lot of interviews, articles, and archival footage, and I think the real story is a bit darker than "I robbed a bank for queer love."
Backup link in case the embedded video doesn't work: https://youtu.be/kjrsvjVkQ_U
Comments (7)
Well, "Guy robs bank to pay for Trans wife's surgery" definitely sounds better than "Guy robs bank to pay back mob for wedding to trans woman he's been beating." It explains a great deal, in fact.
What I like about fiction is that you know it's fiction. What I dislike about "based on a true story" or documentaries is that it's reality turned fiction by people who intentionally or unintentionally distort reality to fit the story they want to tell. Nobody wants to watch a documentary that is boring. Man, who has secret wife, robs bank to pay for her sex change operation is the salacious story that people would rather hear than man robs bank to pay back mob loans. In the former story he is more of a misguided robin hood figure and in the latter he becomes a lot less sympathetic.
Yup! He is VERY unsympathetic in real life -- a more faithful film adaptation would be much harder to watch.
I need to rewatch it, and see one of your streams some day. My (gay, teen) son said (in response to something playing on the TV): "Did you know gay marriage isn't legal in Japan?" I said: "Well, it wasn't legal her until (very quick search) 2015." Him: "I was already born when it became legal?!?" He thought it was "probably in the 70s." It blew his mind. It made me a little sad to think he didn't know that history yet (despite my efforts!), but it made me happy to think that he just assumed it had been legal for a long time and wasn't something he had to think about.
It's amazing how quickly something becomes "it's always been that way" ... which is nice, because it shows just how easy it is to live with change. But also I think that also makes it easy to forget how fragile those victories are.
This was (disappointingly 😄) educational about the real Wojtowicz! But it also explains why he isn’t considered a heroic, iconic figure in the LGBTQ+ community. I still adore the movie and how easy it was to love Pacino and Cazale’s characters!
Yeah I get the impression that the more people knew about him, the more distance they wanted to put between them & him! A very different energy from what we see in the film.