‘Dog Day Afternoon’ explained: Why do Sonny and Sal take hostages?
One of Sidney Lumet’s crowning achievements as a director, the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, is enough to put anyone off trying to rob a bank. The movie charts the unsuccessful attempt of two small-time criminals to rob a local savings bank in Brooklyn, New York.
The story, developed by Thomas Moore and scripted by Frank Pierson, plays to Lumet’s strengths as a director. It allows for the unusual rhythms and camera angles of his filmmaking to capture the tension and atmosphere of a high-street stick-up gone awry. Lumet is aided by two irresistible performances by Al Pacino and John Cazale and by the fact that the story he’s telling really is true.
Dog Day Afternoon is based on the attempted robbery of a real Brooklyn bank by John Wojtowicz, Salvatore Naturile and Robert Westenberg just two years before the movie was shot. Unfortunately for these real-life participants, their story ended the same way the film does, with one of the two main protagonists dead and the other arrested.
In the fictionalised on-screen version, as in the true story, the robbers take hostages from inside the bank they’re holding up, take them to John F Kennedy Airport and demand that they be fed. But why does the hostage situation occur?
“This is too much”
When the two lead characters, Sonny Wortzik, played by Pacino, and Sal Naturile, played by Cazale, begin their robbery, they are deserted by their accomplice Steve. This leaves them overwhelmed by the situation and even more on edge.
To make matters worse, once they have secured the shop and instructed bank employees to open the branch’s vault, it turns out there’s barely any cash for them to steal. “They picked it up this afternoon. There’s only 1100 dollars,” an employee tells Sonny, whimpering in fear.
“I can’t believe it,” Sonny exclaims, checking all the lockers of the vault. “There’s no money here,” he confirms. “Too much. This is too much!” As a result, he completely loses his nerve and makes a fateful mistake.
Sonny burns the bank’s cash register to destroy evidence of their robbery. But the smoke from the fire permeates the locked door and windows of the branch, alerting passers-by and local law enforcement that something is wrong.
While Sonny and Sal round up bank employees to lock them into a safe area so they can complete their robbery, the telephone rings. The bank manager answers and tells Sonny it’s for him. The police are on the phone. “I’m looking you right in the eye,” a detective tells Sonny.
Armed police surround the building. As Sonny hangs up the phone, he and Sal slump to the floor. They know they’re trapped. The robbery has failed. Under extreme pressure, they decide the only way they’ll get anything out of the situation other than lengthy prison sentences is by taking bank employees hostage.
As Sonny tells the police when they try to negotiate with him to give up the hostages, “They got me on kidnapping, armed robbery. They’re gonna bury me, man.” With nothing to lose and their backs to the wall, he and Sal continue with the hostage situation and extract what demands they can out of it.
During the negotiations, Sonny also incites a crowd that has gathered in the street to watch the events unfold into a frenzy by shouting “Attica!”. He’s referring to a prison uprising that took place in New York the year before the film is set, which was a major blow to the authority of the state’s law enforcement.
Sonny, in particular, seems to thrive on the public exposure the hold-up is bringing him, as the adrenaline pushes him to take things further and further. In the end, though, it isn’t Sonny who pays for what’s happened with his life. Out of the two of them, Sal happens to be the one police shoot dead as they diffuse the situation and secure the release of the hostages.
