ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA!
EVERYthing was political back then. No matter how badly bungled.
And Murphy’s Law might have been thought up here.
But underneath it all lies the guy’s motive: hearthfelt and…surreal.
We get ourselves into predicaments way, way beyond explaining to others. Even to the point it gets way, way beyond explaining to ourselves. Sure, you can just call the guy a loser but that just says more about you than it does about him. Though he sure as hell isn’t one of the winners here.
IMDb
[b]Based on the real-life story of John Wojtowicz. On 22 August 1972 he and Salvatore Naturile attempted to rob a branch of the Chase Manhattan Bank on the corner of East Third Street and Avenue P in Brooklyn. They held nine bank employees hostage for over 14 hours. Wojtowicz was trying to get money for his lover, Ernest Aron, to have a sex change operation. Naturile was killed in the standoff and Wojtowicz received 20 years in a federal penitentiary. Wojtowicz was paid $7,500 plus one percent of the net movie profits for the movie rights for his story. He gave $2,500 to Aron to have the operation. Aron had the surgery and changed her name to Liz Eden. She died of AIDS in 1987. Wojtowicz was released from prison after serving 20 years. He died of cancer in 2006.
The entire film is mostly improvised, though around the script. After rehearsing the script for weeks with his cast, Sidney Lumet took the improvisations that were made while rehearsing and made that the official screenplay.
John Cazale was cast at Al Pacino’s insistence, despite being nowhere the age of the real Sal, who was 18 at the time. Sidney Lumet was opposed to the idea because the actor was clearly inappropriate for the part. However, when Cazale came in to read for the part, Lumet was sold on him within 5 minutes.
The bank’s manager Robert Barrett later said he had more laughs in that one night than he’d had in weeks, while teller Shirley Bell said if they’d been her houseguests on a Saturday night it would have been hilarious.
The real life incident became a part of police training on how to deal with hostage situations and crowds that were out of control.[/b]
wiki
Although Dog Day Afternoon was released nationally in 1975, it is based on events that took place in Brooklyn three years earlier, in 1972. During this era of thick and extremely heavy opposition to the Vietnam war, “anti-establishment” Sonny repeatedly reminds people he is a Vietnam veteran and repeats the counter-cultural war cry of “Attica!” in reference to the 1971 Attica Prison riots.[15] Another point made clear in the film is that Sonny never quite adjusted to civilian life after Vietnam.
DOG DAY AFTERNOON
Directed by Sidney Lumet
[b]Sonny: What the fuck you tryin’ to do? Trip the alarm? Use the spur key? Use the other one…
Mulvaney: I must of been outta my mind.
Sonny: Well, you get your mind right. I’m a Catholic and I don’t wanna hurt nobody, but goddamn it, don’t you play no games with me. Unnastand?!?
…
Sonny [to head teller]: Cheer up, you’ll be the veteran of a robbery. The bank sends you a dozen red roses, you know that?
…
Sonny: Sal, I’m sorry about this. But we can get outta this thing. There’s a way outta this.
Sal: Are you serious? About throwin’ a body outta here if we have to?
Sonny: Well, I stalled him for a while. When it comes the time, then we’ll work it out. Okay?
Sal: But do you mean it?
Sonny: I want him to think that.
Sal: But I want to know what you think.
Sonny: We won’t have to.
Sal: I’ll tell you right now that I’m ready to do it.
…
Sheldon: Why didn’t you just wait and try to take 'em out there in the street?
Moretti: I made an error in judgment. I thought the sons of bitches would be overwhelmed with remorse at the sight of a police officer.[/b]
After the fire, this was the real fuck up here. But had he waited I wouldn’t be typing this, right?
[b]Sonny: Kiss me.
Moretti: What?
Sonny: Kiss me. When I’m being fucked, I like to get kissed on the mouth.
…
Sonny [to Moretti]: What’s he doing?
Moretti [to approaching cop]: Get back there man!
Sonny: He wants to kill me so bad he can taste it! Huh? ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA! ATTICA!
[Yells it too cheering crowd]
Sonny: ATTICA! ATTICA! REMEMBER ATTICA!
…
TV newsman: Why are you doing this?
Sonny: Doing what?
TV newsman: Robbing a bank.
Sonny: Why? I don’t know what you mean by that. I’m robbing a bank because they got money here. That’s why I’m robbing it.
TV newsman: No, what I mean is why do you feel you have to steal for money? Couldn’t you get a job?
Sonny: Uh, no. Doing what? You know if you want a job you’ve got to be a member of a union. See, and if you got no union card you don’t get a job.
TV newsman:: What about non-union occupations?
Sonny: What’s wrong with this guy? What do you mean non-union, like what? A bank teller? You know how much a bank teller makes a week?
Head teller: Not much.
Sonny: A hundred and fifteen to start, right? How are you going to live on that? I got a wife and a couple of kids, how am I going to live on that?
…
Sal: …if you’re talking about coppin’ a plea, I’m tellin’ you right now, there’s no deal. I’m never going back to prison. We got our own deal already. Do you remember the pact we made? You and me and Jackie - that night in the bar? We were talkin’ about if we get trapped in the bank, what are you gonna do…right? What did we say? What did we say!
Sonny: That we’d kill ourselves.
Sal:: Does that still go?
Sonny: We’re not there yet.
…
Sonny: Wait a minute. We’ve been looking at this all wrong. Let’s look at it the other way. Look, we gotta get a jet outta here…outta the country. We gotta get a helicopter. Okay, Sal? We get a helicopter on the roof to take us to the jet and we fly to the sunny Caribbean. Algeria. We got to look at the bright side. We got 'em by the balls, we got the hostages, we can get anything we want. They gotta give it to us. I’m flying to the tropics. Fuck the snow!
…
Sonny: Is there any special country you wanna go to?
Sal: Wyoming.
…
Pizza delivery man: I’m a fucking star!
…
Leon: I couldn’t explain why I did the things I did. So I went to this psychiatrist who explained to me I was a woman in a man’s body. So Sonny right away wanted to get me money for a sex change operation: but where was he to get that? 2500 dollars! My God, he’s in hock up to his ears already.
…
Television newsman: Phone calls have arrived from various factions of the gay community. Some in full support of Sonny and his actions, others totally condemning the present events and calling the marriage a farce, and, quote “A case of sheer exhibitionism” end quote.
…
Sal: Sonny? You hear that?
Sonny: What?
Sal: They keep sayin’ two homosexuals. I am not a homosexual. I want you to stop them saying that.
Sonny: What difference does it make. Let them say what they want.
Sal: I’m not a homosexual. Tell them to get that right. That’s going out on the TV.
Sonny: Sal, what am I supposed to do. I can’t control what they say on television. Look, Sal…forget about it. It’s a freak show to them. That’s all they’re interested in. I can’t control it.
…
Sonny: You’d like to kill me? Bet you would.
Sheldon: I wouldn’t like to kill you. I will if I have to.
Sonny: It’s your job, right? You know the guy who kills me…I hope he does it because he hates my guts, not because it’s his job.
…
Sal [pointing a gun at Sheldon]: Tell the TV to stop saying there’s 2 homosexuals in here.
Sheldon: I will, Sal.
…
Sheldon: You handled yourself real well, Sonny. A lot of men would’ve choked, and we might have had a death or a multiple death on our hands. But you handled it. I respect that. Now don’t you try to take Sal. We’ll handle him. Just sit tight and you won’t get hurt.
[Sheldon turns to walk away]
Sonny: Wait a minute… What are you talking about?
Sheldon: You just sit quiet. We’ll handle Sal.
[Sheldon leaves]
Sonny: Do you think I’d sell him out? You fuck!
…
Sonny: [talking to Sal, waiting for his wife to answer the phone] You know I can call anybody, they’d put it on the phone? The Pope, an astronaut, the wisest of the wise…Who do I have to call?
…
Mulvaney: Ladies…I want to apologize for my use of language back there.
Sylvia: What’d you say? I didn’t hear you say anything.
Jenny: He said the ‘F’ word.
Margaret: What?
Jenny: The ‘F’ word. He did. He said the ‘F’ word.
Miriam [to Margaret]: Fuck.
Margaret: I know Miriam!
Edna: Well, I’m a Christian and my ears are not garbage cans.
[the younger girls burst out laughing]
…
Maria: Sal. Because this is your first plane trip don’t be scared, okay?
…
FBI agent: Sal, keep the gun pointed up, okay?
…
Sonny: Don’t shoot me.[/b]