Toronto Review: ‘The Dog,’ About Gay Bank Robber John Wojtowicz, Is a Mt-See Documentary For Fans of ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ – IndieWire

Contents:

• SPECT ROBBERI OF 21 MEN HE MET THROUGH GRDR GAY HOOKUP APP ARRTED BY FBI
• TORONTO REVIEW: ‘THE DOG,’ ABOUT GAY BANK ROBBER JOHN WOJTOWICZ, IS A MT-SEE DOCUMENTARY FOR FANS OF ‘DOG DAY AFTERNOON’
• PATRONS OF NYC GAY BAR PACATED AND ROBBED OF THOANDS VIA FACIAL REGNN ON THEIR PHON
• DGGGS, DEATHS AND ROBBERI PUT NEW YORK’S GAY COMMUNY ON EDGE

SPECT ROBBERI OF 21 MEN HE MET THROUGH GRDR GAY HOOKUP APP ARRTED BY FBI

While the ary, he’d had his first gay enunter durg basic trag, urty of “a hillbilly by the name of Wilbur, ” before beg sent off to Vietnam. He separated om his wife 1969 and joed the Gay Activist Alliance addn to takg up wh a strg of male lovers.

He reced Bobby Wtenberg and Salvatore Naturale (whom he had both met prevly at a gay bar) to help him wh the heist, but the tr was far om profsnal. Wojtowicz also had issu wh the stg of his wife, statg that the film ma Carmen “look horrible and ferred that I left her and wd up the arms of a Gay man bee of her. Met Derrick Patterson March on Grr, the gay sex hookup se, and ved him to his room at the Beverly Hilton Beverly Hills.

TORONTO REVIEW: ‘THE DOG,’ ABOUT GAY BANK ROBBER JOHN WOJTOWICZ, IS A MT-SEE DOCUMENTARY FOR FANS OF ‘DOG DAY AFTERNOON’

District Court) Several of the victims told thori they believed Patterson was targetg gay men as a hate crime; one specified a homophobic slur he ed.

When he was arrted, however, Patterson was rryg two $20 bills and a $5 bill that were nsistent wh sh taken om the victim’s home, and police found a stun gun near the spot where he was ptured, acrdg to the victim believed Patterson was “targetg gay men and that he is a victim of a hate crime, ” Maloney FBI spects Patterson was workg wh at least one acplice.

Workg as both an unofficial “Dog Day” sequel and unnventnal overview of New York gay culture om the past 40 years, “The Dog” b archival footage, still photographs, and ttaments om many of those who knew Wojtowicz well to nstct a vivid acunt of his strange trajectory. Wojtowicz posns himself as the rare ant activist for gay rights. ” That inoclastic attu rri “The Dog” through an ocsnally scrappy but never ls than pellg overview of the uneass through which gay activism was sublimated to the fabric of Amerin society durg the perd of upheaval when Wojtowicz gaed his fame.

PATRONS OF NYC GAY BAR PACATED AND ROBBED OF THOANDS VIA FACIAL REGNN ON THEIR PHON

But rather than turng Wojtowicz to a symbol, “The Dog” foc on flhg out his orig story, om his rellectns of experiencg his first homosexual enunter durg ary service to his half-hazard associatn wh the Gay Activists Alliance. More than anythg, Wojtowicz, whose real story is immortalized the brilliant new documentary The Dog, is an curably romantic crimal, and the "who" and "what" ponents of his story aren't nearly as tertg as the "why" of over the urse of 10 years by directors Allison Berg and Frank Kerdren, The Dog (which hs theaters today and iTun Augt 15) terweav extraordary archival footage of the robbery, 1970s-era terviews, early film of what was then simply the gay liberatn movement, rellectns om gay activists who know Wojtowicz, and a of terviews wh the man Wojtowicz wh his mother, Terry WojtowiczWojtowicz was an unlikely gay rights pneer New York Cy, at a time when he says gay upl uldn't publicly hold hands, even the famoly queer Greenwich Village. He had his first gay sexual experience while servg the Vietnam War.

He left his first wife to immerse himself gay culture, got volved wh the Gay Activists Alliance shortly after the Stonewall rts, and though mostly the background, 1971 helped anize one of the earlit same-sex marriage protts, when seasoned gay activists and groups like GAA didn't want to touch the Wojtowicz, who was nicknamed Ltlejohn (he says 's bee he has a "ltle prick"), believed love and marriage. The Dog embraced that persona and left prison as that not before fallg love aga, wh Geie Heath, a gay man he met at Lewisburg Pennentiary. Three men who vised a New York Cy gay bar were robbed of thoands of dollars g facial regnn accs on their phon, the New York Police Department nfirmed on three men, who were their late 30s and 40s, vised a Chelsea gay leather bar, The Eagle NYC, on separate nights October and November and were each robbed of $1, 000 to $5, 000, acrdg to the NYPD’s puty missner of public rmatn.

”The police spokperson said the cints at The Eagle NYC and Hotel Chantelle are not related to any other pattern of robberi happeng the recent robberi bear a remblance to the s, reported by NBC News November, of Jul Ramirez, 25, a social worker, and John Umberger, 33, a polil nsultant, who were targeted siar fashn and suffered unexplaed the separate evengs of their aths, Ramirez and Umberger were seen leavg New York Cy gay bars wh groups of men before their bank acunts were draed of thoands of dollars g facial regnn accs to their phon, acrdg to their fay members.

DGGGS, DEATHS AND ROBBERI PUT NEW YORK’S GAY COMMUNY ON EDGE

I'm gay. Gay liberatn right down your throat, " says Jeremiah Newton, a iend of Aron's, the documentary.

At that moment, Wojtowicz's first wife, Carmen Biful - a woman, and still his legal marriage partner - was on the beach wh their two children, unaware that the robbery beg rried out by an "admted homosexual", as the news reports put , was her hband's work. So I don't see why gays n't do that.

Bee of their illic nature at the time, many gay bars, cludg Stonewall, were n by anised crime. " Few the gay muny stood by Wojtowicz. "Nobody seemed to re, " says Randy Whicker, a fellow member of the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) prsure group, and a rare exceptn.