The “bullshit” 1975 scene Al Pacino refused to shoot: “We had a big argument”
American cinema changed gears in the New Hollywood period, welcoming an exciting era of increased experimentation in the mainstream.
Thanks to the easing of the Hays Code in the late 1960s, many themes that were incredibly taboo and simply unfathomable in the golden age of Hollywood were given a chance to thrive on the big screen.
People craved stories that felt more true to life, even if that meant more violence or controversy, and one of the defining films from the tail end of the era was Sidney Lumet’s bank robbery crime drama Dog Day Afternoon, which stood as one of mainstream American cinema’s first movies to include a transgender female character and LGBTQ+ representation.
The film was based on the true story of John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile, who robbed a bank and held a group hostage in order to secure money to fund a gender-affirming operation for Wojtowicz’s partner, Elizabeth Eden, with Al Pacino starring as Sonny Wortzik, inspired by Wojtowicz, while John Cazale played Sal Naturile.
The movie quickly earned acclaim, including a nomination for ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards, winning Frank Pierson ‘Best Original Screenplay’, and became a landmark moment in the queer canon, even if, in retrospect, certain choices, like casting a man to play Eden, perhaps wouldn’t be made today.
Still, it was revolutionary, and Pacino was happy to be part of such an important film, even if he didn’t really go into it with the conscious decision to change history, once writing, “I try to stay away from things that are controversial, and I find myself in controversies anyway. If people think that I helped to advance a particular issue of representation, that’s fine. If there is credit or blame to go around, I don’t feel entitled to any of it. All I know is, I play a role to find as much humanity as there is that I can portray.”
Yet, during filming, he had to ensure that a certain scene that he considered “bullshit” wouldn’t be added to the movie, because he thought that it would cheapen the message. There was a sequence in which Sarandon, who played Eden, kisses Sonny outside of the bank while dressed as Marilyn Monroe, in the script, but Pacino was of this opinion, “This is absurd. It didn’t happen that way”.
He understood why the scene was there, but he didn’t like it, saying, “I guess the filmmakers wanted to pump up the volume on the situation, but it was bullshit. Not only was it not true, it was overly exaggerated, a comedic send-up of some sort that minimised the situation.”
So, after a “big argument”, Lumet finally compromised, and instead, a scene where the characters communicate over the phone, which is what really happened, was filmed, with Pacino recalling, “He let us work out the dialogue of that phone call through improvisation, which he would then use to write the scene. That is Lumet magic.”
