The classic crime thriller that influenced Denzel Washington's Inside Man

2006 was a good year for Denzel Washington on the big screen, as he starred in two high-grossing, high-quality thrillers: “Deja Vu” and “Inside Man.” Like “Deja Vu” was “Vertigo” as a time-traveling action movieInside Man was director Spike Lee's 21st century update of Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon.

Written by Richard Gerwitz, “Inside the Man” follows a hostage situation during a robbery at a Manhattan bank. Washington plays NYPD hostage negotiator Detective Keith Frazier as he goes up against the bandit leader Dalton Russell (Clive Owens). The story didn't start with Lee (Ron Howard was first in talks to direct Inside Man), but he made it his own. “Inside Man” is definitely more of a crowd pleaser than something like “Do The Right Thing,” as it turns out, it's also Lee's highest-grossing film to date, but it's absolutely a Spike Lee movie.

Lee's range as a director comes in part from his breadth of knowledge about movies. When he's not directing, he teaches film classes at his alma mater, New York University. Lumet is one of Lee's filmmaking idols, and he relished the opportunity to make a film in the same vein as Lumet's classic Dog Day Afternoon.

Released in 1975, “Dog Day Afternoon” was based on a real 1972 bank robbery/hostage situation in Brooklyn. John Wojtowicz (renamed Sonny Wortzik and played by Al Pacino in the film) and Salvatore Naturile (played by John Cazale) attempted to rob a Chase Manhattan bank because Wojtowicz wanted money to pay for his wife Elizabeth Eden's gender reassignment surgery. Reports suggest there may have been additional motives, including mob involvement, but the film focuses on Sonny's efforts to help his lover “Leon Shermer” (Chris Sarandon) come into his own.

Promotional materials for “Dog Day Afternoon” emphasize that it is a true story. The film's tagline, which appeared in several abbreviated forms on various posters, reads:

“The robbery should have taken 10 minutes. 4 hours later the bank was like a circus sideshow. 8 hours later it was the hottest thing on live TV. 12 hours later it was all history. And it's true.”

“Inside man” is no true story, but as a piece of filmmaking, how does it compare to “Dog Day Afternoon”?

Spike Lee is a New Yorker, and many of his films (including “Inside the Man”) are set in his hometown. Adapting David Benioff's 25th Hour, he added a new layer to the story by using it to explore a New York that had just been rocked by 9/11. Lumet was also a New Yorker; he worked on Broadway as a young man, and despite his prolific filmmaking career, he never left Manhattan for Hollywood. “Dog Day Afternoon” is a quintessential New York movie: The film opens with a montage of Brooklyn on what is supposed to be the hottest day of the year, and you can feel the unbearable humidity in every frame. Of course it's one of lee's favorite movies as he described it to film critic Emmanuel Levy.

In the same interview, Lee said he felt Gerwitz's script for Inside Man was “a modern take on this kind of movie (meaning 'Dog Day Afternoon.') The surface-level comparisons are obvious—both are about a bank heist that escalates in a hostage situation, but the perspectives are different..

“Dog Day Afternoon” is about robbers and their misadventures. Most of the movie is a slow-boiling pressure cooker where Sonny knows he's damned but can't quite accept it yet. The movie ends with – spoilers ahead — Sal is dead and Sonny is arrested. Inside Man, however, is told from the perspective of the police, while the robbers are masked and enigmatic. (Lee told Levy that Washington had a hard time fighting off a masked Clive Owen at times.) Instead of pillaging FUBAR when it starts, Dalton Russell's crew devises an elaborate plan and sticks to it, coming out on top. no scotch. “Dog Day Afternoon” is a drama of errors, while “Inside Man” is a slick thriller machine.

However, this does not mean that Lumet's influence on Lee is diminished. Speaking to Vulture in 2017Lee mentioned that he showed “Dog Day Afternoon” to his cast and crew before they made “Inside Man,” which was both an “homage” to Lumet and gave the crew an idea of ​​what they were making. They even got a cameo from the original movie: In “Dog Day Afternoon,” Lionel Pino plays a pizza delivery boy who gives food to Sonny and his hostages.

Warner Bros.

30 years later he played the same role in the movie “Inside Man” (only then the pizza boxes had bugs inside so the police could eavesdrop on the robbers).

Lee and Washington are teaming up again to remake Akira Kurosawa's High & Low. and I'm sure they can do this movie justice like Lumet and “Dog Day Afternoon” with “Inside Man.”