"Falling Down"
Joel Schumacher's Falling
Down is a blatant social commentary on the predicament the United
States is in. Why do immigrants come to this country and then not learn to
speak English? Why does food cost so much money? How come the food
from fast food joints doesn't look anything like the pictures on the
menu? Why does everyone seem to be in a perpetually grouchy state of annoyance and frustration? Falling Down came out in 1993 but its
pervasive themes resonate still to this day.
Bill "D-FENS" Foster
(Michael Douglas) isn't just having a bad day in L.A. It's apparent that
he has reached his breaking point. The sweltering heat, the ridiculous
traffic congestion, and the irritating construction work are what finally makes
Bill snap. He has had enough and decides to get up, leave his car, and
proceed to walk from Pasadena to Venice Beach because he wants to see his wife
and little girl. Along the way Bill encounters a number of colorful,
stereotypical characters, putting himself into some rather uncomfortable
situations. Each sequence demonstrates Bill's disgust over what America
has become. He speaks his mind and tries to be reasonable but the other
characters refuse to listen to him. Each scene concludes with Bill
getting what he wants. Also in the process he acquires better, sometimes
bigger, weapon upgrades that he can later use for defense or as an intimidation
factor for the next person that dares cross his path.
While is Bill making his way
through L.A., robbery detective Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) is having
quite the time trying to make heads or tails of all these reports coming in of
a white guy wearing a white shirt and tie seemingly to be on some sort of
rampage. All Predergast wants to do is go home
too. Who can blame him though, it’s his last
day before retirement. As the story continues to unfold and Predergast
starts to connect the dots, Bill, our sort of hero we've been cheering for all
this time because of sticking it to society, may not be as great as we think.
Now it's only a matter of time before Bill finally makes his way back to his
family.
Douglas gives a superb
performance as a man who has seriously lost it. His character displays a
range of emotions indicating that he is fed up with everything and everyone,
but at the same time though, Bill shouldn’t be viewed as some kind of
monster. Should he? I was cheering
for Bill and his vigilante cause. There have been many times during a
film that I wished the characters on screen would get what's coming to
them. Douglas' character gave me that feeling. Being a complete and absolute jerk to
someone should have its consequences and then relishing in those
consequences I think is something to pump your fist about. In some ways
Bill's story is like a video game come to life in a real world setting.
But, there also has to be order
to chaos. I liked Duvall's role as the keeper of the peace. His
role as the cop isn't particularly anything special; in fact it's downright clichéd.
I didn't have a problem with that though. Prendergast has to exist.
He is the yin to Bill's yang. Just because Whammy Burger stops serving
breakfast at 11:30 doesn't mean you should actually bring an Uzi up to the
counter. Prendergast keeps this film grounded in reality instead of
crossing over into the realm of fantasy.
The film moves along with one
inciting incident after another keeping our attention up until the third
act. Douglas does a fine job of having Bill walk that fine line between
crazy and psychotic. It's only until we learn more and more about his
character and his past that all our sympathies that had accumulated for him in
the film's first and second acts suddenly seem to dissipate. The
character we were once rooting for has the tables turned on him in a deflating
but logical manner. The first and second acts are so enjoyable though
that we just sort of have to accept the outcome for Bill's actions. I
don't know where else screenwriter Ebbe Roe Smith could have taken the
character.
Falling Down is an intensely
acted and well-crafted thriller that plays out as an entertaining
"what if" kind of flick. Filled with several good scenes which
have some great lines of dialogue that will leave you nodding your head in
agreement throughout, the film gives us a portrait of a man dealing with a
society that has pushed him over the edge.
But this is a society that has problems we can relate to in one way or
another. Never preachy in its ideas is the film because we know them to
be all too true. Still thematically relevant as ever, Falling Down is
unyielding in its approach to point out our societal flaws. It's an
interesting look at a character's descent into madness in the concrete jungle
of Los Angeles. Even though no one is holding a jump net to catch Falling
Down, this films doesn't make a mess when it finally hits the pavement.
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