Double Feature: Desperate Man Double (Dog Day Afternoon & The Mist)

All times are desperate times. I’m not saying they have to be but they sure do seem to be. There are few idyllic epochs that someone could point to as non-desperate but overwhelmingly, times tend to be desperate. Also, those few epochs are probably only idyllic for, like, one group of people, and everyone else was on edge with their head on a swivel.

I say this just to bring up that the following double feature is about desperation beyond comprehension. This is not just panic brought on by the looming spectre of war or anxiety fed by an infinite stream of bad news; these films are not about the possibility of a disaster but the fruition of one. They are, undoubtedly, from very different angles in both tone and content, not to mention one is based on a true story and the other, a Stephen King novella. Despite these exteriors variations, the core, the shared sentiments, remain intact. These are movies about reacting to nightmares.

Dog Day Afternoon (1975, dir. Sidney Lumet)

If you’re reading this piece, I’m going to make the assumption that you know the broadstrokes to Dog Day Afternoon. Most people who are interested in film have encountered this movie. Al Pacino plays Sonny whose plan to rob a bank went a little sideways. What we’re going to look at here is the tangible patina of desperation that coats this movie from head to toe.

First of all, there is a humid feeling in this film. Everyone looks sweaty, and even through the screen, the relentlessness of the New York summer sun is evident. Sonny and his partner in crime Sal (John Cazale of Godfather fame) are wild-eyed and sleep deprived. Pacino especially plays that well; his face was suited for being in a state of abject panic.

The gathering crowd outside layers another slab of desperation on top of Dog Day… . It’s not just a group of rubber-neckers trying to glimpse a snapshot of tragedy but an incensed population, a rabble who have been hearing horror stories pertaining to the treatment of prisoners and are ready to turn on the police. Pacino screaming, “Attica!” into the heavy, humid summer air is a famous scene for a reason: the audience gets to see the Russian nesting doll of desperation that is this movie. Sonny and Sal are in the bank surrounded by cops, the cops are outside surrounded by a crowd on the edge of being a mob. There’s a set of eyes staring down the neck of each character we’re watching.

For Sonny, there is no calm moment, though one could certainly make an argument for the very end. He was prompted by desperation from the inception of the plan to the disaster it became. There’s also the reality of his life before the films starts where he’s estranged from his wife and kids and is in love with a man who wants to undergo a gender reassignment. He’s not starting from a place of simplicity and comfort. Sonny has been stewing in desperation for so long that robbing a bank to pay for his partner’s surgery seemed like a viable option. The plan unravels faster than Sonny but in Pacino’s performance, we can see the growing realization of how deep the trouble is in every flinch of his face.

Dog Day Afternoon is desperation being used as a force to make plans and decisions. With The Mist, the desperation is a creeping sensation, one that people want to ignore in the hopes that the situation causing it will resolve itself.

The Mist (2007, dir. Frank Darabont)

It doesn’t matter if you watch the black and white director’s cut or the color version if we’re talking about desperation, I just happened to see it in theatres recently in black and white.

The Mist, like most Stephen King properties, takes place in a small, bucolic town in Maine. When a strange mist settles over everything, a cross-section of the population is trapped in a grocery store as giant monsters ravage the area and try to get in. The people in the store split into factions, including an almost cult-like group that are convinced this is the real end times. David (Thomas Jayne) and several other characters are the voice of reason throughout the movie, doing their best to keep everyone safe and as sane as possible. 

With each plot development, the different factions react with varying degrees of desperation. David’s group makes desperate decisions based on getting what is necessary while the end-times cult makes their decision based on what they believe will appease the biblical wrath. When it’s revealed that the mist and the monsters are linked to the army base nearby, the last surviving military man is forced out by them as sacrifice. 

The collection of people trying to survive are weighing the outcomes of two bad options throughout the course of The Mist, while those surrendered to the armageddon only have to react. They are both clawingly desperate but how it manifests is two completely separate beasts. 

David and the survivors who are just trying to get through this make the incredibly difficult decision to leave the grocery store since it’s anyone’s guess as to what else is out there and what help (if any) they can find. When the ultimate moment of desperation presents itself, David and the ones with him decide that this is the end of the road and that there’s nothing left to do but die quickly and painlessly. David shoots everyone including his son but doesn’t have a bullet for himself. Moments later, the mist starts to lift and a battalion of emergency vehicles and soldiers make their way past him.

Both these movies feature a male protagonist who comes within inches of resolution. Sonny, though not as optimal as committing a crime and getting away with it, is lulled into the false idea that he’ll be on a plane heading out the states right before the trap is sprung and Sal is shot. David and his crew have nothing to look forward to yet pull the trigger on themselves seconds too early. They move from desperate act to desperate act, from stuck inside and staring out at chaos to devastation. The best they can come up with is worst case scenarios but they react and plan and pivot and put their only options into motion, all while hoping it will somehow work out.