Falling Down

(source: tmdb.org)

Anyone can have a bad day when everything seems to go wrong and is feeding pent up frustrations. Yet, not anyone can react to such situations with rage and even fewer people can go over the line in such extreme and irrational way as main character of Falling Down, 1993 action drama known as the best and the most controversial film in the career of Joel Schumacher.

The plot is set in Los Angeles and begins when William “D-Fens” Foster (played by Michael Douglas), former employee of defence company, gets stuck in traffic. Intense heat, malfunctioning air conditioner and inability to move make him impulsively leave the vehicle and continue his travel on foot. His aim is to come to home of his ex-wife Elizabeth (played by Barbara Hershey) and attend birthday of his young daughter Adele (played by Joey Hope Singer). The path leads through various section of the city where he encounters various people with which he often gets into conflict, which results in violence. This brings attention of Sergeant Martin Prendergast (played by Robert Duvall), old LAPD detective who is just about to get retired. He tries to catch Foster before his actions result in bloodshed.

Falling Down had more than decent results at the box office and mostly positive reviews, but nowadays is best known as some sort of time capsule that perfectly summed up zeitgeist and major cultural, economic and political issues of early 1990s America. In the main character and his plight many recognised the generational conflict reflected in 1992 presidential election, which has replaced George H. W. Bush and the old order with Bill Clinton as embodiment of brave new post-Cold War world. Foster, whose haircut looks perfect for 1950s and early 1960s, is representative of the old world, based on patriotism and duty, embodied in white picket fences, nuclear family and American Dream. But all that began to disappear in 1990s when the need for people building missiles to protect America from Communists ceased; people like Foster became redundant and lost their jobs, families and sense of purpose. Foster during his travels encounters people who, one way or the other, made mockery of his values – Korean immigrants, Latino gangbangers, heartless corporate employees and arrogant rich golfers. Due to racial issues, made especially relevant after 1992 Los Angeles riots, some critics found Falling Down an expression of “white man’s anger” and accused the film of promoting vigilantism and extreme right-wing views. Such criticism, however, is far from justified; the only person who happens to completely understand Foster and his frustration happens to be black bank protestor played by Vonide Curtis-Hall. When Foster encounters actual bigotry in form of neo-Nazi surplus store owner played by Frederic Forrest, he rejects his views in the most clear and violent ways.

Accusations that Falling Down might pander to vigilantism come less because of the script and more due to brilliant performance by Michael Douglas in what is arguably the best role of his career. He plays Foster as a clear victim of bad circumstances and evokes sympathy by the audience, many of which could have found themselves in similar situation as suddenly redundant defence company employee. Yet, Douglas doesn’t shy away from showing that his rebellion against society, regardless how justified it might be, is not only futile but dangerous and self-destructive. Script by Ebbe Roe Smith underlines this point by having Foster’s counterpart in the form of Sergeant Prendergast, old, jaded character who suffered in life even more than Foster but never crossed the line and, despite everything, tried to do the right thing. Robert Duvall, another formidable actor, plays Prendergast wonderfully and makes him a film’s moral anchor, delivering what is one of the best roles of his career. Douglas and Duvall easily overshadow the rest of the cast, made of diverse actors among which only Tuesday Weld stands out as Prendergast’s frustrated wife.

Schumacher directs the film well, putting various Los Angeles locations to good use with the help of Andrzej Bartkowiak’s cinematography. Film, despite occasional detour towards black comedy, maintains mostly melancholic tone, very much like great revisionist westerns in late 1960s and early 1970s. This is, especially near the end, one of film’s problems, because the finale becomes rather predictable and when it actually happens in the form of armed showdown between Foster and Prendergast, looks a little bit too Hollywood-like. Despite that, Falling Down still looks surprisingly good, and not only in comparison with many films with similar themes that were coming from Hollywood at that time. Subject might be a little depressive and perhaps a little too close to home for some viewers, especially in our very uncertain times, but this film nevertheless deserves recommendation.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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Falling Down is a film that I love, despite feeling like I morally shouldn't. It's a guilty pleasure to say I enjoy a film in which a man who has lost it all is slowly consumed by his madness, then wreaks havoc upon those who briefly act as an inconvenience in his day.

William Foster (Michael Douglas) is a now unemployed and recently divorced middle-aged man; it's his daughters birthday and he hopes to attend her party and be a good father, but his day doesn't start out particularly well -- his car breaks down on the Los Angeles Highway, forcing him to ditch it by the road and start a walk across the city.

What I love about Falling Down is that it makes the viewer feel for William Foster, he can very easily be perceived as the hero that is finally saying enough to the city's degeneracy that infests it, punishing those who get in his way during his trek to the party. William Foster can be perceived as a vigilante, as well as the victim.

Our protagonist looks down upon the world of capitalism: those who are in poverty, low-paying fast-food workers, and immigrants with not-so-great jobs, it makes him feel unwelcome, in a city that is displaying nothing but hate as it lives in its recluse, depressive state. The problem is that William Foster is a victim of capitalism, as is everyone else, but he is taking it out on those who are just as caught up it as he is.

Falling Down is simply a story that shows what can happen to anyone once all is lost; once someone is staring into an empty future; a future that seems to only fall even further into nothingness. It shows how someone can just crack and ascend into madness as they want nothing but to escape the nothingness they feel trapped in. It's an act of desperation. An act to free themselves from society, by punishing society.

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