mattbaume
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Bonus video! Dog Day Afternoon is Based on a True Story (That's Probably a Lie)
🕑 Added 2025-03-16 16:00:19 +0000 UTCHello there!
The film Dog Day Afternoon opens by saying that it's based on a true story, and it is: The events of the movie unfold almost exactly as they did in real life, with a bisexual bank robber holding up a bank and telling everyone that he needs the money to pay for his wife to get (in the parlance of the time) a "sex change operation."
There's just one problem with that, which is that the real life robber was probably lying. I've been combing through a lot of interviews, articles, and archival footage, and I think the real story is a bit darker than "I robbed a bank for queer love."
Backup link in case the embedded video doesn't work: https://youtu.be/kjrsvjVkQ_U
Comments
Delenn Irving
Well, "Guy robs bank to pay for Trans wife's surgery" definitely sounds better than "Guy robs bank to pay back mob for wedding to trans woman he's been beating." It explains a great deal, in fact.
Matt Baume
Yup! He is VERY unsympathetic in real life -- a more faithful film adaptation would be much harder to watch.
Sky
What I like about fiction is that you know it's fiction. What I dislike about "based on a true story" or documentaries is that it's reality turned fiction by people who intentionally or unintentionally distort reality to fit the story they want to tell. Nobody wants to watch a documentary that is boring. Man, who has secret wife, robs bank to pay for her sex change operation is the salacious story that people would rather hear than man robs bank to pay back mob loans. In the former story he is more of a misguided robin hood figure and in the latter he becomes a lot less sympathetic.
