Storyville (1997)

Season 19: Episode 6

An extraordinary portrait of eccentric New Yorker John Wojtowicz, the inspiration behind Al Pacino's character in the iconic 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon. Director Sidney Lumet's daylong saga, in which Wojtowicz took a bank hostage in the hopes of raising money for his trans lover's gender confirmation surgery, hardly exaggerated the actual 1972 event, but only captured one piece of a much larger story. Filmed over a ten-year period, the documentary chronicles wider aspects of Wojtowicz's life in the years leading up to his death. With jaw-dropping honesty, Wojtowicz describes how his excessive libido led him to have multiple female and male lovers, his own interviews interweaving with gripping archive footage of the robbery, 70s-era interviews and the early gay liberation movement. It all combines to create a larger-than-life persona - by turns lover, husband, soldier, activist, mama's boy and bank robber.