Review of The Dog (2014) by Walter M — 23 Aug 2014

Meet John Wojtowicz.

If the name does not sound familiar(and no reason why it should), then it is definitely worth mentioning that he was the inspiration for the movie "Dog Day Afternoon." And he comes off as very much a character himself in this highly engaging documentary. But it was not always that way, as he started off as a Goldwater Republican and got married. Four years later, he campaigned for Eugene McCarthy.(Vietnam would do that to a guy.) At the same time, he was also becoming attracted to other men, involving himself in the nascent gay rights movement of the early 70's, partially just to get laid.(He describes himself as 'perverse.' I would amend that to 'polymorphously perverse.') By the way, some of those protests involve same sex marriage.

And that's where Liz Eden, nee Ernest Aron, comes into the picture, Joe's lover who he married in something of a mock ceremony. In fact, he robbed the bank to pay someone to break her out of a psych ward where she was being held on suicide watch. The demand to pay for her sex change operation would come out of the siege at the bank which is no longer there, nor is there any kind of plaque.

So, was Joe a revolutionary or just yet another garden variety common criminal? Depends on who you ask. In any case, he was definitely reckless and it was lucky more people were not killed, as the intense media coverage knocked the even more criminal Richard Nixon off the nightly news. In the end, Joe served his time and Liz got her operation. But since this is not a fairy tale, nobody lived happily ever after.