THE DOG – The Review

Directed and produced by Allison Berg and Frank Keraudren
With John Wojtowicz, Liz Eden, Theresa Wojtowicz, Carmen Wojtowicz, Stan Thaler, Donnie Fazekas

Any movie geek who has been around for any length of time must have seen Dog Day Afternoon, one of the seminal movies from the 1970s, the movie that put Al Pacino in the top rung of movie actors and one of the classic movies on Sidney Lumet’s resume.  Dog Day Afternoon is also one of the most loved and quoted from New York movies.

Movies filmed in New York City are their own special breed, especially crime movies, the French Connection, The Seven Ups, Prince of the City, King of New York, Crazy Joe, The Godfather franchise,  a long and distinguished list.  Dog Day Afternoon joined that line up in 1975 and recreated a media circus that surrounded a bank robbery that went very wrong on a hot summer day in Brooklyn.

Dog Day Afternoon was based on a true story about John Wojtowicz, a Vietnam Veteran, who planned on robbing the bank to finance a sex change operation for his gay lover, Ernest Aron, who eventually was surgically changed into Liz Eden.

Here we get the whole story, as told by John himself, who never gets tired of talking about himself, in THE DOG an absolutely fascinating, jaw dropping documentary being released this month on vod and dvd.

Folks, you have to see this thing to believe it.

First off let me say I love New York City.  I’ve been there enough times to know I love the city and also enough to know I could never live there.  And I love people from New York.  During my time in the Navy in the late 1970s I served with ship mates from all over the Eastern seaboard, especially New York and New Jersey.  Wonderful people, but they sure do love to talk.  Which brings us to John Wojtowicz (don’t ask me to pronounce it, he pronounces it several times in the course of the documentary and I swear I heard it differently every single time!) who claims to be Brooklyn Italian (with that name?)

During my time in the Navy I ran a television station on board an aircraft carrier and we showed Dog Day Afternoon several times.  Every time we broadcast that movie I would hear from New Yorkers who had either been there, knew somebody who had been there, saw the whole thing on television, kept their money in that bank, all of that and so much more.

In the course of THE DOG we learn all about John ( I am NOT going to retype that last name every time!), maybe too much.  This guy is full of contradictions, full of hot air too.  He was a Goldwater Republican at the start of the 60s, joined the Army and served in Vietnam.  Switched to a Eugene McCarthy Democrat when he saw the very real possibility that he might get killed in Vietnam.  Married and Fathered two children by a young woman named Carmen, who we hear a great deal from, John is also openly, proudly gay.  The word bisexual is never spoken by him, other witnesses yes, but John never says that.

After the  Stonewall riots John became very active in the gay rights movement, changing his name to LittleJohn Basso, Little John because he had a small penis (you see what I mean about too much information?)

We hear a lot from John’s Mother, Theresa, whose New York accent is so thick she is subtitled throughout the documentary.  John’s Mother tells us that she knew all about John’s sexual misadventures before he ever told her.  She claims to have followed him into Greenwich Village and spied on him through the windows of gay bars.

John is not at all shy when talking about his sexual orientation, he liked to fuck, he enjoyed women as much as men but found it easier to get sex from men.  He was, mostly, a top, until he went to prison after the robbery and learned about life on the bottom.

When hear a lot from John about his sex habits.  He was not only a gay activist early on he was a very ahead of the curve proponent of gay marriage.  He wanted a sex change for Ernie in order to marry him.   Which he did, before the operation.  In one of those ironic curve balls that happen in real life Ernie could not get the sex change because the bank robbery went all wrong, but got the money and the operation anyway with money John received from the movie.

While John was in prison the warden was not going to allow the movie to be shown.  John got Dog Day Afternoon shown anyway and became a huge celebrity in his own right.  In fact long before the movie was even being planned John was a huge media celebrity.  We hear from several witnesses, including personnel who worked at the bank who say, and rightly so, that John should not be making money and earning celebrity status because of a majorly botched bank robbery.  The guy was a criminal, and not a very good one, and obviously mentally unhinged.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter, THE DOG is fascinating from start to finish.  We hear from Ernie before and after becoming Liz Eden.   We hear from yet another wife of John’s, a transvestite he met and was protected by in prison.  We also hear from John’s psychiatrist who advises that John’s Mother, Terry was the real love of his life, and that in his opinion, yes, John was a whack job.

Whatever else he was John was a fascinating character.  And I say was because in the course of the documentary we see John lose a drastic amount of weight and then reveal that he is dying of cancer.  Our last glimpses of John are as unsettling as watching Roger Ebert deteriorate in Life Itself.

We also meet John’s brother Tony, mentally challenged and placed in a home, Tony gets to pal around with John and they get a day to go to Coney Island.  Tony’s speaking voice is so thick he is sub titled also.

Their day together at Coney Island is sweet, sad, touching and heart breaking.  As is every moment of this incredible documentary.  Yes John broke the law and put people’s lives in danger,  he also gave Al Pacino the role of a lifetime and got for himself a lot more than the 15 minutes of fame Andy Warhol spoke of.  John loved his family, loved his life and loved people of both sexes.  Dog is heartfelt, sincere and never panders, this is not an exploitative documentary, far from it.

If you love the movies and more importantly if you love people you have got to see THE DOG.

THE DOG opens in theaters August 8th and On Demand August 15th.

Website: drafthousefilms.com/film/the-dog