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Plot - William Foster (Douglas), also known as D-FENS, is an unemployed and divorced ex-engineer for the defence industry. On this particular day all he wants is to make it home to see his daughter on her birthday, but obstacles continue to crop up in his path, eventually pushing him over the edge. When he finds himself gridlocked in LA traffic, his frustration becomes so much that he abandons his car where he sits and sets off on foot. As he tries to make his way home, numerous examples of modern society and everyday injustices continue to beset him. D-Fens responds by going on a streak of violence, one that nobody can put together except for Detective Prendergast (Duvall), a retiring cop. Prendergast follows D-Fens' trail all the way to Venice, and a final face-off.
A powerful, incendiary film. It takes the structure of a classic vigilante flick but it takes the story off into much deeper and thoughtful territory. This is certainly no entry in the Death Wish series. Douglas' vigilante does not respond to merely criminal acts, he confronts the annoyances and rudeness of society. Falling Down is no simple revenge fantasy, it's much too downbeat for that. The film dances back and forth between being a social commentary and the absolute blackest of comedies.
If you want just one reason as to why you should see this film it's Michael Douglas. He is on absolutely dynamic form in this, delivering a real powder-keg of a character in D-Fens. The basis for that name by the way comes from the man's licence plate, D-FENS; inspired by his previous job at a nuclear defence facility, where in his own words he was helping to “protect America.”. I don;'t think it's any mistake that it takes us a while to find out his name or that he is rarely addressed with it. He feels so obsolete now that he doesn't feel people even notice him anymore, or pay him the respect he deserves. So why do we need to know his name? Douglas switches so easily from making D-Fens seem like a pathetic loser one minute, to being truly unnerving as a psychotic madman. While he may be extremely unsettling, there is also something darkly hypnotic about Douglas' performance. There's a real sadness and sense of sympathy about the man. He no longer feels valued in this world and all he wants to do is go home but people keep getting in his way.
Opposite him you have his life paralleled by Robert Duvall's L.A.P.D. detective. On the verge of retiring he is another apparently redundant individual. And Duvall also happens to deliver an excellent performance as the put-upon Pendergast. Set to no longer be a cop he is obsolete; he seems impotent to the whims of his wife that are forcing him to retire and still crushed by the death of his young daughter. His captain even tells him to his face that he think he's a coward and is sick of him. Life has given him a bit of a kicking. And yet whereas D-Fens has snapped under the pressures that society has forced upon him, Duvall's Pendergast is somehow managing to hold it all together. It is unavoidable that Pendergast's scenes may seem a bit lifeless compared to the intensity of D-Fens' thread, but Duvall's performance ensures that they remain engaging. While the story predictably build to a final face-off between the two men.
Falling Down is interesting in that it doesn't really come to an obvious, clear conclusion. At least not in my eyes. Throughout the film I was going back and forth about how I was meant to feel about this guy. I mean has he just completely lost it and he's an evil scumbug? Or is he the only one who can see the truth and is willing to do something about it? Perhaps his glasses have a similar effect to Roddy Piper's sunglasses in They Live; they allow him to see what is really going on all around us. When he is confronted at the film's finale by Duvall's cop, rather taken aback D-Fens earnestly asks,“Am I the bad guy?” It's a good question. And one we may ask ourselves on occasion throughout the film. Perhaps revealing something about our own character. He's worked hard throughout his life doing an honourable job, had a family and had never caused any trouble and this is how he's been rewarded. After all it's not hard to picture anyone else doing the same, had they put in many years of hard work just to be told you were no longer required; that you were irrelevant. It could easily breed a depression that would fester into madness. Ok so perhaps he is the villain of the piece, but he is also a victim. We are shown the kind of societal elements that have contributed to his descent into madness. As a result we have a degree of pity for this man, even if we never reach the level of condoning his actions. A large part of the uncertainty certainly arises due to Douglas' tremendous performance which gives the character such depth that we may just be in danger of liking him.
Along the path of his Homer's Odyssey-style travels, D-Fens comes across numerous situations and issues - Racism. Bigotry. Gangs. Violence on the streets. Unemployment. Commercialism. Capitalism. Inflation. Immigration. Oppression under the Establishment. Corporations sucking the humanity from its employees - Wait a minute.......have I been transported back in time to 1993? It wouldn't be an entirely unreasonable assumption to come to given how closely our current climate of recessions and layoffs mirrors that of the film. Falling Down indites society as whole as being flawed in terms of its social and economical ways, from the small individual to the large conglomerate, with D-Fens' targets including violent gangs, an overcharging Korean shopkeeper, rude drivers, obstructive fast-food workers who are sticklers to the rules instead of taking the people into account, rich golf-course snobs and most memorably a neo-Nazi shop-owner played to chilling effect by Frederick Forrest. They are all largely caricatures, standing in for elements of society as a whole.
Dressed in a short-sleeved white shirt and tie, wearing slacks and glassses, and carrying a briefcase, D-Fens is the epitome of the generic white male professional, and eventually act as a symbol of the 'angry white male' phenomenon. I imagine that it in the picket-fenced world of the 1950s he's the kind of individual who would have prospered and been treated with a great deal of respect. But times have moved on and he's been left to mourn the loss of the classic American way. And that deterioration of American society can be evidenced everywhere throughout the film; from its crumbling infrastructure and graffiti-covered property, to the level of customer service and the liars on the street who try to fleece you of your money rather than do a honest day's work. At every stop along his journey, D-Fens is confronted by the downfall of society. Indeed D-Fens does not even set out with any evil intentions, things just happen to him and escalate. In fact he doesn't even have a weapon. It's only along the way, with society being what it is, that weapons find their ways into his hands. He begins by taking the baseball bat from the Korean store owner and from there on he acquires an ever-escalating arsenal, from a switchblade to a gun, to a whole bag of guns.
For all its biting satire, social commentary and occasionally tense, grim interludes Schumacher keeps the story accessible by including a sizeable amount of humour (even if it mostly veers towards the very dark) and largely just keeps it an entertaining experience, very much in the tradition of your average crime/action flick when it focuses on the police side of the story, right down to the cliché of Duvall's cop who is one day away from retirement; with the film playing into this notion as his fellow officers tease him about how he's going to get killed because it's his final day. The film is quite impressively directed by Schumacher throughout, particularly its opening sequence which is apparently an homage to Fellini's 8 ½. It sees Douglas' D-Fens stuck in a horrific traffic jam, going nowhere, and Schumacher really piles on the agony. We can really get a palpable sense of the stifling heat, the discomfort and the fury that is building up within the character as lots of tiny little irritations of life begin to pile up one on top of another until it becomes unbearable. Ebbe Roe Smith's brave, provocative script also deserves a lot of credit.
Conclusion - It's hard to believe that Falling Down comes from the same man that just four years later would inflict Batman & Robin upon the world. If you've already set your judgement of Schumacher in stone as result of that debacle you may want to give this one a shot. It may just change your mind. It's a compelling, thought-provoking film featuring a colossal showing from Michael Douglas as a man mired in despair and desperation.
Another 90s flick, although this time I'm not entirely happy with the review. It was one of those that I have every so often where I seem to write a lot without really getting to the point of what I'm trying to say.
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Year of release
1993
1993
Directed by
Joel Schumacher
Joel Schumacher
Written by
Ebbe Roe Smith
Ebbe Roe Smith
Starring
Michael Douglas
Robert Duvall
Barbara Hershey
Rachel Ticotin
Tuesday Weld
Michael Douglas
Robert Duvall
Barbara Hershey
Rachel Ticotin
Tuesday Weld
Falling Down
+
Plot - William Foster (Douglas), also known as D-FENS, is an unemployed and divorced ex-engineer for the defence industry. On this particular day all he wants is to make it home to see his daughter on her birthday, but obstacles continue to crop up in his path, eventually pushing him over the edge. When he finds himself gridlocked in LA traffic, his frustration becomes so much that he abandons his car where he sits and sets off on foot. As he tries to make his way home, numerous examples of modern society and everyday injustices continue to beset him. D-Fens responds by going on a streak of violence, one that nobody can put together except for Detective Prendergast (Duvall), a retiring cop. Prendergast follows D-Fens' trail all the way to Venice, and a final face-off.
A powerful, incendiary film. It takes the structure of a classic vigilante flick but it takes the story off into much deeper and thoughtful territory. This is certainly no entry in the Death Wish series. Douglas' vigilante does not respond to merely criminal acts, he confronts the annoyances and rudeness of society. Falling Down is no simple revenge fantasy, it's much too downbeat for that. The film dances back and forth between being a social commentary and the absolute blackest of comedies.
If you want just one reason as to why you should see this film it's Michael Douglas. He is on absolutely dynamic form in this, delivering a real powder-keg of a character in D-Fens. The basis for that name by the way comes from the man's licence plate, D-FENS; inspired by his previous job at a nuclear defence facility, where in his own words he was helping to “protect America.”. I don;'t think it's any mistake that it takes us a while to find out his name or that he is rarely addressed with it. He feels so obsolete now that he doesn't feel people even notice him anymore, or pay him the respect he deserves. So why do we need to know his name? Douglas switches so easily from making D-Fens seem like a pathetic loser one minute, to being truly unnerving as a psychotic madman. While he may be extremely unsettling, there is also something darkly hypnotic about Douglas' performance. There's a real sadness and sense of sympathy about the man. He no longer feels valued in this world and all he wants to do is go home but people keep getting in his way.
Opposite him you have his life paralleled by Robert Duvall's L.A.P.D. detective. On the verge of retiring he is another apparently redundant individual. And Duvall also happens to deliver an excellent performance as the put-upon Pendergast. Set to no longer be a cop he is obsolete; he seems impotent to the whims of his wife that are forcing him to retire and still crushed by the death of his young daughter. His captain even tells him to his face that he think he's a coward and is sick of him. Life has given him a bit of a kicking. And yet whereas D-Fens has snapped under the pressures that society has forced upon him, Duvall's Pendergast is somehow managing to hold it all together. It is unavoidable that Pendergast's scenes may seem a bit lifeless compared to the intensity of D-Fens' thread, but Duvall's performance ensures that they remain engaging. While the story predictably build to a final face-off between the two men.
Film Trivia Snippets – Iron Maiden's song, “Man on the Edge”, is inspired by this movie. /// Of all the films he's been in, Michael Douglas considers this to be his favourite performance that he has ever produced. /// Perhaps unsurprisingly given its subject matter, Ebbe Roe Smith's script was turned down by every studio in Hollywood. It was only when Michael Douglas stumbled upon the script and called it one of the best he'd ever read that things started to get moving. /// Falling Down was filmed throughout Los Angeles, and during the filming the 1992 LA riots broke out. The riots, sparked by the acquittal of the police officers in the Rodney King case, highlighted many of the racial, social and economical tensions that the film itself was portraying.
Along the path of his Homer's Odyssey-style travels, D-Fens comes across numerous situations and issues - Racism. Bigotry. Gangs. Violence on the streets. Unemployment. Commercialism. Capitalism. Inflation. Immigration. Oppression under the Establishment. Corporations sucking the humanity from its employees - Wait a minute.......have I been transported back in time to 1993? It wouldn't be an entirely unreasonable assumption to come to given how closely our current climate of recessions and layoffs mirrors that of the film. Falling Down indites society as whole as being flawed in terms of its social and economical ways, from the small individual to the large conglomerate, with D-Fens' targets including violent gangs, an overcharging Korean shopkeeper, rude drivers, obstructive fast-food workers who are sticklers to the rules instead of taking the people into account, rich golf-course snobs and most memorably a neo-Nazi shop-owner played to chilling effect by Frederick Forrest. They are all largely caricatures, standing in for elements of society as a whole.
Dressed in a short-sleeved white shirt and tie, wearing slacks and glassses, and carrying a briefcase, D-Fens is the epitome of the generic white male professional, and eventually act as a symbol of the 'angry white male' phenomenon. I imagine that it in the picket-fenced world of the 1950s he's the kind of individual who would have prospered and been treated with a great deal of respect. But times have moved on and he's been left to mourn the loss of the classic American way. And that deterioration of American society can be evidenced everywhere throughout the film; from its crumbling infrastructure and graffiti-covered property, to the level of customer service and the liars on the street who try to fleece you of your money rather than do a honest day's work. At every stop along his journey, D-Fens is confronted by the downfall of society. Indeed D-Fens does not even set out with any evil intentions, things just happen to him and escalate. In fact he doesn't even have a weapon. It's only along the way, with society being what it is, that weapons find their ways into his hands. He begins by taking the baseball bat from the Korean store owner and from there on he acquires an ever-escalating arsenal, from a switchblade to a gun, to a whole bag of guns.
For all its biting satire, social commentary and occasionally tense, grim interludes Schumacher keeps the story accessible by including a sizeable amount of humour (even if it mostly veers towards the very dark) and largely just keeps it an entertaining experience, very much in the tradition of your average crime/action flick when it focuses on the police side of the story, right down to the cliché of Duvall's cop who is one day away from retirement; with the film playing into this notion as his fellow officers tease him about how he's going to get killed because it's his final day. The film is quite impressively directed by Schumacher throughout, particularly its opening sequence which is apparently an homage to Fellini's 8 ½. It sees Douglas' D-Fens stuck in a horrific traffic jam, going nowhere, and Schumacher really piles on the agony. We can really get a palpable sense of the stifling heat, the discomfort and the fury that is building up within the character as lots of tiny little irritations of life begin to pile up one on top of another until it becomes unbearable. Ebbe Roe Smith's brave, provocative script also deserves a lot of credit.
Conclusion - It's hard to believe that Falling Down comes from the same man that just four years later would inflict Batman & Robin upon the world. If you've already set your judgement of Schumacher in stone as result of that debacle you may want to give this one a shot. It may just change your mind. It's a compelling, thought-provoking film featuring a colossal showing from Michael Douglas as a man mired in despair and desperation.