True Story and Ending of Dog Day Explained

Dog Day Afternoon is a classic of crime films and some viewers may not know that it is based on a real robbery that occurred just a few years earlier. Often cited as one of the best heist films ever made, Dog Day Afternoon stars Al Pacino as Sonny Wortzik and John Cazale as Sal Naturile as two thieves who rob the First Brooklyn Savings Bank. Their plan goes awry when the police suddenly appear and surround the place. Desperate, the two take bank employees hostage, which causes a long and tense standoff.

It is one of the films that helped define Al Pacino’s career and earned him his fourth Oscar and Golden Globe nomination. Debuting in September 1975, the film was an immediate success, receiving six Oscar nominations and winning the award for Best Original Screenplay, as well as six Golden Globe nominations.. Currently it has 96% Rotten tomatoes and the public also attended, with Dog Day Afternoon earning over $50 million at the box office (via BoxOfficeMojo). To top it off, the story was based on real events that occurred just a few years earlier.

Dog Day Afternoon was inspired by a real bank robbery

John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturale robbed a Chase Manhattan bank in 1972

Dog Day Afternoon was based on a real robbery and hostage situation that occurred on August 22, 1972. On September 22, 1972, Life published an article written by PF Kluge and Thomas Moore entitled “The Boys in the Bank” and it is this article that Dog Day Afternoon used as source material (through Life). The 1975 Dog Day Afternoon came out a few years after Life The article caught the attention of producer Martin Eland, who took it to Warner Bros. executive Richard Shepherd (via TheSanFranciscoExaminer).

Dog Day Afternoon closely follows the events of this robbery. On that August day, three men, John Wojtowicz, Salvatore Naturale and Bobby Westenberg, walked into a Chase Manhattan bank in Brooklyn, New York, each armed with a shotgun. They handed the cashier a note that said: “This is an offer you can’t refuse“, a reference to the famous phrase in The godfather. Westenberg’s nerves got the best of him almost immediately, and he fled the bank before a dollar bill was even placed on the counter.

This left Wojtowicz and Naturale in a difficult situation. The situation worsened when they discovered that the safe was empty and that one of the employees had sounded the silent alarm for the police. Bystanders, press and officials soon surrounded the bank, which suddenly became the scene of a hostage situation. During the standoff, Wojtowicz repeatedly came out to talk to cops and yell at the press, portraying himself as an ordinary man who was speaking out against an oppressive banking system, buying pizza for the hostages and throwing money at the 2,000 gathered spectators (via BBC).

The standoff lasted more than 14 hours before the FBI offered to take Wojtowicz and Naturile to Kennedy International Airport with the $38,000 in cash and $175,000 in traveler’s checks they managed to steal despite the empty safe (via NYT). Agents were waiting for them at the airport, however. Naturile was shot and died at the scene, while Wojtowicz was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prisonalthough he only served five of those years.

Al Pacino’s Sonny Wortzik is based on real-life John Wojtowicz

Wojtowicz wanted money to pay for his partner’s gender reassignment surgery

John Wojtowicz, who goes by Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoonis a fascinating character in all of this. During the robbery, it was discovered exactly why he decided to rob this bank. In the middle of the negotiation, Wojtowicz demanded that his partner, Ernest Aron, be turned over to the King’s County hospital. Wojtowicz, a gay man, was robbing a bank to pay for Aron’s gender reassignment surgery. Wojtowicz had unofficially “married” in a public ceremony the previous year, despite Wojtowicz being legally married to Carmen Bifulco, with whom he also had two children.

Aron was taken to the scene, but refused to speak to her “husband”. For Wojtowicz’s part, he made it clear to the hostages that he did not intend to harm them, and they spent the 14 hours relatively relaxed, comforted by the fact that Wojtowicz really seemed like someone desperate to help his friend. Teller Shirley Ball recalled (via ATI),

“I noticed he was friendly…he had a purpose to rob the bank…he thought he would come and go.”

After his arrest and five years in prison, Wojtowicz moved back in with his mother in Brooklyn and struggled to find steady work. He tried to get a job at Chase Manhattan, using Dog Day Afternoon as a reference, claiming that no one would rob a bank if they knew he was watching it (via Squire). Wojtowicz spent his final days in social care and passed away from cancer in 2006.

How Dog Day Afternoon and the Real Story Compare

Dog Day Afternoon changes some character names

For the most part, Dog Day Afternoon is an accurate recounting of the actual hostage situationwith pseudonyms used for some real people. Wojtowicz is Sonny Wortzik, Salvatore Naturile is Sal Naturile (Cazale) and Robert Westenberg is Stevie (Gary Springer). Ernest Aron is renamed Leon Shermer in Dog Day Afternoonand she is played by Chris Sarandon. Leon talks to Sonny on the phone at Dog Day Afternoonbut in real life, Aron refused to speak to Wojtowicz.

One of the most famous scenes in Dog Day Afternoon It was completely fictional. Sonny comes out of the pew towards the watching audience and raises his fist in the air, singing: “Attica! Attica!“which is a reference to the Attica prison riot that occurred on September 9, 1971 and led to the deaths of 39 prisoners and hostages (via NPR). From what is known, Wojtowicz did not shout the name of the prison to an enthusiastic crowd. Wojtowicz’s psychology appears to be the biggest change from the real story, in that he was not consulted to play Pacino.

The true meaning of Dog Day afternoon

Dig Day Afternoon is a darkly comic look at a bank robbery gone wrong

The true meaning of the end of Dog Day Afternoon is similar to the real meaning of the real story, which is a darkly comedic commentary on whether efforts for something are really worth it in the end. In the film, and possibly even more so in real life, no one asked Wojtowicz to rob the bank. In real life and in the film, Wojtowicz was against Aron’s gender reassignment surgery, but changed his mind when she tried to kill herself out of desperation. With that in mind, It’s a little more understandable why he thought he needed to go this far.

However, it is quite clear that Aron (or Leon) never intended for Wojtowicz (or Sonny) to be involved in this crime. Everyone in his life tells Sonny that this is a bad idea, and despite the cheering crowds that create a sort of “Robin Hood” impression of Sonny, at the end of the film, his friend is shot dead, he loses all his money that he stole, he loses his partner and disappears into obscurity. Despite the supposed rectitude of his mission, Dog Day Afternoon doesn’t hesitate to show the damage that Sonny’s actions end up causing.