This dogged crime tale was one of the first—and best—films to bring queerness to the Oscars

Welcome back to our queer film retrospective, “A Gay Old Time.” In this week’s column, we’re revisiting 1975’s Dog Day Afternoon, one of the first films with LGBTQ+ themes and characters nominated for an Oscar.

The history between the Oscars and queer film has always been a tricky and complicated one. For many decades, films with queer themes or openly gay actors struggled to get in the radar of the Academy at all, let alone earn a nomination or take the trophy home.

It’s not until recently, as LGBTQ+ narratives and performers have made their way into the mainstream, that the Oscars have begun to embrace them with more regularity. It’s a long and tumultuous history that certainly deserves its own separate examination. 

Your dose of fabulosi-TEA

Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.

Daily

Weekly

As we lead into the 96th Academy Awards this weekend, we take a look at one of the few films that managed to not only be recognized in the major categories at a time when this kind of representation barely existed, but is now canonized as one of the great films in American cinema history: Dog Day Afternoon.

The Set-Up

In 1972, a man named John Wojtowicz went into a Chase Bank in New York City alongside an accomplice with the intent of pulling off a quick robbery. However, as things rapidly spiraled out of his control, the heist turned into an hours-long hostage negotiation that made national headlines and became a media frenzy.

This story was later chronicled into a Life magazine article, which became the basis of the 1975 Sidney Lumet film Dog Day Afternoon, starring Al Pacino in what is considered to be perhaps the best performance from one of the all-time greats.

Although the film changes some facts from real life, and most likely took some creative liberties with how everything played out (Wojtowicz himself condemned the adaptation later on), Dog Day Afternoon is a tightly plotted, adrenaline and tension-driven, impeccably-acted film. Although there are plenty of stakes and “action” that carry the story forward and never lets any momentum die, Lumet’s direction and Frank Pierson’s script make sure to keep the characters and their relationships front and center at all times. 

Pacino’s Sonny, the movie’s version of Wojtowicz, subverts any tropes and expectations of what a bank robber should be, and the dynamic with his accomplice Sal (John Cazale), the detective negotiating his demands (Charles Durning), and the Greek chorus of bank employees that he keeps as hostages, become the unlikely heart of the film and its main source of emotion (and surprisingly, a lot of humor, too).

Sticking It To The Man

What makes Dog Day Afternoon soar so highly is that, yes, it’s a perfectly executed crime thriller; a remarkable piece of mainstream, four-quadrant entertainment. But lying underneath it all is a complex human drama; an examination of the frustration, anger, and impotence that the “small man” has bubbling inside against the societal systems that keep bringing him down.

As we spend more time with Sonny, his humanity starts to come to the surface through hostage negotiations and his interactions with the media circus that is developing outside the bank, and we learn of his backstory and intentions that led him there. He and Sal are Vietnam War veterans who have been unable to reintroduce themselves into society; they fought a pointless battle and their efforts have given them nothing in return, even landing them in jail for a while. Sonny is unable to hold onto a job, has a fraught relationship with his family, is an absent husband and negligent father, and feels like society has been systematically designed to keep him down.

Pushed To The Margins

We also come to realize that Sonny is queer, and that the whole reason he is robbing this bank is to be able to pay for the gender reassignment surgery of his partner, Leon (Chris Sarandon). The film makes this “reveal” without any fanfare, commenting on it in a way that the real characters most likely would. Overall, Sonny’s sexual orientation and romantic relationship is treated as yet another emotional layer of his character; something that actually embeds him with more humanity—rather than stripping him of it, like other queer narratives at the time tended to do.

Sonny’s queerness also puts the entire movie and its themes in a completely different lens. While the Dog Day Afternoon‘s ideas—about how underprivileged individuals are continually stamped down by the powers that be—stand regardless, the fact that Sonny is also a queer man gives an additional layer to the kind of people that are pushed to the margins and ignored, and the frustration, rage, and call to arms that eventually explodes from within.

It’s a portrait of the hurt, neglected man, yes, but the movie truly excels when it’s a portrait of the hurt, neglected queer man.

The Last Call

In what is perhaps the movie’s best scene, Sonny and Leon are finally able to communicate through a phone call. The cops tracked Leon down to a hospital, where he had been staying after a suicide attempt, and Sonny reveals his intentions behind the robbery.

The call steps away from the incredible situation taking place; it doesn’t focus much on the robbery, or the hostages, or how their lives may be in danger. It’s about them, their relationship, and their inevitable breakup. It’s about two people that are no longer on the same page, and the painful truth that they must separate. The fact that the film was able to naturally insert such an honest portrayal of queer love—and heartbreak—in the middle of its action is utterly remarkable.

All In A Dog Day’s Work

Dog Day Afternoon was nominated for six Oscars (including Best Picture, Director, Actor for Pacino, and Supporting Actor for Sarandon), and won for Pierson’s Original Screenplay. It’s a testament that audiences are indeed able to respond to and recognize films with deeply queer themes embedded onto their fabric if they are done thoughtfully. This is a lesson that still seems to evade the Academy today, and it’s the rare case that sometimes looking back is the best way to move forward.

Dog Day Afternoon is available for digital rental or purchase via Amazon prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu, and YouTube TV.

Related:

Outed at the Oscars, backstabbing soap stars & more awards-season films to stream this weekend

Ahead of the Academy Awards, check out these contenders that brought all the drama of awards season to the big screen.