"Dog Day Afternoon" Question

[Guest evenflowDDT]

I just saw Dog Day Afternoon yesterday with my friend. It's an excellent film, with one of Pacino's best performances, but one thing bugged me about the way things went down for the ending. Why did the FBI guys shoot Sal when they got to the airport? He didn't do anything... why not shoot Sonny, since he almost incited a riot outside during the robbery and media fiasco?

 

Also, just how true to the original incident is the film? And just how did so many cops and the media get tipped off in the first place?

[Guest Ravenbomb]

Well, while Sonny was outside being the mouthpiece, Sal was the one inside that was supposedly going to kill the hostages if need be. And if memory serves, Sal was armed, Sonny was not.

 

 

And I'm not sure how faithful it is to the original events...

[Guest 5_moves_of_doom]

It was pretty damn close to the real thing. Sal getting shot first was mostly because he was the one armed, and because he was the one who was shot during the REAL thing.

 

The funny thing is, if he's still alive, Sonny is a free man right now, and has been for a few years.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

The funny thing is, if he's still alive, Sonny is a free man right now, and has been for a few years.

Yea, he had a 20 year sentence in the movie, which came out after the events, and the movie was made in '75... whoa... that's 27 years ago. How is it E.T. gets a theatrical screw-up of a "special edition re-release" after only 20 years, but Dog Day Afternoon is almost 30 and won't get any re-release or props whatsoever? Hmmmm... conspiracy!

 

Oh, thanks for clearing that up. I forgot that Sonny kept telling the police that Sal was going to shoot the hostages when he was making demands.

[Guest Some Guy]

Sal was armed, was supossedly going to kill the hostages, and was a better shot. He was in the back where the cops could get a clear shot at his head without hurting anyone else. Besides they wanted to put Sonny in jail. The cops didn't seem to like him much (understandably) and knew that he was just the follower to Sonny.

 

It is a great fucking movie, I have the DVD.

"Attica, Attica, Attica!"