I remember a few years back watching television and hearing about the popularity of car chases in Los Angeles. Being from the East Coast, I didn't know much about the situation aside from the fact, that almost every day there was apparently car chases where the police would go after the "bad guy" and every local station would air it live on television for everyone to see. According to an article from 2003, in the year before their were over 700 police chases, "most of them offering hours of live television coverage." It got to the point where city officials had to urge the media to stop publicizing these pursuits. (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/27/1046064169270.html?oneclick=true).
When we discussed the film this week and the media spectacle surrounding the events at the bank that day, I couldn't help but think of these chases. I believe that the car chase is the equivalent of the bank robbery then- just as people in the movie gathered around their TV sets to see what would happen to Sonny, people in 1994 sat for hours watching OJ Simpson being tailed by police in his bronco as he attempted to flee to Mexico. It is interesting how viewers are interested in these real life events to the point where they find entertainment in crime. It goes beyond watching a Law and Order to watching the real thing play out before their own eyes. And it is interesting how this phenomena continues to this day. It appears that people will always find fascination in these situations and the media plays off of this.
Also, on a different note, if anybody is interested, when I was researching the true events of the story (most of this stuff is on Wikipedia) these are the main differences between the film/what really happened, in addition to interesting facts:
-Sonny's real name is John Wojtowicz; Leon's is Earnest (but he went by the name Elizabeth Eden)- John was sentenced to 20 years in prison but served only 14 years; John died in 2006 of Cancer
-Eden's sexual reassignment surgery was funded by John selling his story for $7,500. Eden died in 1987 of AIDs related pneumonia.
-John had left his wife 2 years before meeting Eden
-John never spoke to his mother and they wouldn't let him speak to his wife (her name was Carmen)
-Sal was only 18 years old at the time of the crime (but John Cazale, who was in his late 30's at the time was cast at the request of Pacino); Sal was the only person involved in the robbery with a criminal history- he had been arrested for several different things including drugs and burglary- and had been abused in prison which was a source of anxiety for him during the incident (and a probable reason why he did not want to go back to prison)
-Also, Sal had fired the single shot out the back of the bank, though it was Pacino's Sonny character who fired the shot in the film; while the shot was provoked by police attempting to enter in the film, the incident was unprovoked in real life
-John based his plan off the Godfather which he had seen earlier that day (incidentally, both Pacino and Cazale, were both in that film)
-Also, random actor facts: John Cazale was actually engaged to Meryl Streep but died in 1978 at age 42 from bone cancer before they could marry; Chris Sarandon who played Leon was Susan Sarandon's first husband
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