American Realism for 2020

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2020)

This film struck me with lightning after viewing it for the first time in 2020. I assume it had the same impact on me that it did upon release for audiences at the time.
This film challenged me, and made me ask questions that most movies have not:
1. Why did every cop in Brooklyn show up armed and dressed to kill to a small potatoes bank robbery worth less than $1500?
2. Why did Sonny not run when the riot he caused distracted everyone, from rioter to pig, to media camera people?
3. Why did Attica happen? Did it cause the overreaction on this hot August afternoon?
4. Why did the hostages stick around? Was it because they wanted attention, to get their '15 minutes?'
Draw your own conclusions, you can infer from my sneaky premises above and below how I feel.
Dog Day afternoon is the 7th best film I've ever seen, only behind master works of Melville, Kobayashi, Antonioni, and Hitchcock.
If you are less than 30 in 2020, and were a young person during the Ferguson incidents in the early millennials, you'll be brought to tears in watching this, as I was.
A truly relatable film for anyone who has lived in poverty as well.
A line to leave you with:
"That guy (cop) there wants to kill me (Sonny) so bad he can taste it!"