Dog Day Afternoon is a funny one. Based loosely off a true story about a bank heist, the film is nonetheless far from a gritty, realistic crime drama. Al Pacino's first-time crook Sonny Wortzik attempts to rob a bank with his two idiot friends, in order to pay for his wife's sex reassignment surgery. Things go wrong almost immediately as one of his accomplices, Stevie, freaks out when the last of the trio, Sal, pulls a gun. Sonny allows Stevie to scarper and they carry on the robbery as a duo, where they realise they've arrived after the daily cash pick-up and there's only $1,100 left in the vault. To compensate, they first nab a bunch of of traveler's cheques (which turn out to be useless) and then, once they realised the bank is surrounded by police, decided to take everyone inside hostage. It's a farcical comedy of errors, albeit grounded in a real-life setting. Like Rio Bravo/Lobo/Precinct 13 et al, it's mainly about what happens in a confined space, as a bunch of mismatched characters are forced to interact (along with Sonny and Sal's own quirks the hostages include a guy who has an asthma attack and another who's diabetic, both of whom have to be attended to). Which sounds like a pretty good premise for just a straight comedy, huh? Maybe one with another surprisingly diverse cast? Well, step forward Airheads, the 1993 comedy starring Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler and, um, Steve Buscemi, for some reason? In Airheads the situation escalates even quicker than in Dog Day Afternoon. In this case it starts of with a pretty crummy band called The Lone Rangers who hope to make their big break by getting a local radio station to play their demo tape. When the DJ refuses, the three of them end up taking him and the rest of the station hostage until they agree, and things start getting out of hand. Airheads is more of a straight comedy than Dog Day Afternoon, but each deals with a group of would-be criminals who end up in way over their heads, despite having pretty simple goals, and each film serves as a commentary on popular culture and the status quo. So that's what Adam Sandler and Al Pacino have in common.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
