The classic crime thriller that influenced Denzel Washington’s character, “The Inside Man.”

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

Written by Richard Gerwitz, “Inside Man” follows a hostage situation during a bank robbery in Manhattan. Washington plays Detective Keith Frazier, an NYPD hostage negotiator, facing off against the leader of the robbers, Dalton Russell (Clive Owen). The story didn’t start with me (Ron Howard was in talks to direct Inside Man first), but he made it his own. “Inside Man” is certainly more crowd-pleasing than something like “Do The Right Thing,” as evidenced by it being Lee’s highest-grossing film to date, but it’s certainly up there with Spike Lee.

Lee’s range as a director comes in part from his breadth of film knowledge. When he’s not directing, he teaches film classes at his alma mater, New York University. Lumet is one of Lee’s stars in the film industry, and he relished the opportunity to produce a film in the style of Lumet’s classic “Dog Day Afternoon.”

“Dog Day Afternoon” was released in 1975 Based on a real 1972 bank robbery and hostage situation in Brooklyn. John Wojtowicz (renamed Sonny Wortzick and played by Al Pacino in the film) and Salvatore Naturelle (played by John Cazale) attempted to rob the Chase Manhattan Bank because Wojtowicz wanted money to pay for his wife Elizabeth Eden’s gender confirmation 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), become herself.

Promotional materials for “Dog Day Afternoon” emphasize the fact that it is a true story. The film’s tagline, which appears in several shortened forms across various posters, reads:

“The robbery was supposed to take 10 minutes. After 4 hours, the bank was like a circus sideshow. After 8 hours, the biggest thing was live. After 12 hours, it was all history. And it’s all true.”

“Inside Man” is no A 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 Man) are set in his hometown. When he adapted David Benioff’s novel The Twenty-Five Hour, he added a new layer to the story by using it to examine a New York City rocked by the events of September 11. Lumet was also a New Yorker. He worked on Broadway as a young man, and despite a 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 the hottest day of the year, and you can feel the unbearable humidity appearing in every shot. naturally It’s one of my favorite movies, As described by film critic Emmanuel Levy.

In the same interview, Lee said he felt Gerwitz’s screenplay for “Inside Man” was a “contemporary version of that kind of movie (i.e. ‘Dog Day Afternoon).'” On a superficial level, the comparisons are obvious — both are about a bank robbery that escalates into a Hostages — but the views are different..

“Dog Day Afternoon” is about thieves and their mistakes. Most of the film is a slow-boiling pressure cooker, as Sonny knows he’s cursed but can’t accept it yet. The movie ends with – Spoilers ahead – Sal died and Sonny was arrested. However, “Inside Man” is told from the point of view of the police, while the robbers are masked and mysterious. (Lee Levy told me that Washington sometimes found it difficult to manipulate the masked Clive Owen.) Instead of pulling off the FUBAR heist the moment it began, Dalton Russell’s crew devised an elaborate plan and stuck to it, thus coming out on top and clear of Scott. “Dog Day Afternoon” is a drama full of errors, while “Inside Man” is a great thrill machine.

This is not to diminish Lumet’s influence on Lee. Speaking to Vulture in 2017Lee mentioned that he showed “Dog Day Afternoon” to his cast and crew before they made “Inside Man,” which served as a “tribute” to Lumet and gave the crew an idea of ​​what they were making. They even recorded a small clip from the original film: In “Dog Day Afternoon,” Lionel Pino plays a pizza delivery boy who delivers food to Sonny and his hostages:

Warner Bros.

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

Lee and Washington team up again for a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s “High & Low.” I’m confident they can do this film justice in the same way they did Lumet and Dog Day Afternoon with Inside Man.