NateWatchesCoolMovies
Everyone's had the moment where they're at the absolute end of their rope and feel like taking drastic or violent action against whatever is grinding your gears. Whether it's a hot day in horrendous rush hour traffic, a particularly irritating lineup at Starbucks or an especially dense customer service worker, you just feel like saying 'screw it', and decimating the place with anything you can lay your hands on. In Joel Schumacher's Falling Down, Michael Douglas does just that on a sweltering LA summer day. His character, who remains nameless save for the moniker 'D-Fens', is a business man on his way home who just… snaps. Throwing a tantrum on the LA overpass, he quickly loses it, arms himself with a high velocity shotgun and proceeds to vet out every mundane annoyance, pet peeve and irksome scenario he can find. Whether it's brutal catharsis he's looking for, a cure for the doldrums of daily life or simply raging against that emptiness we all feel deep down, he keeps his reasons to himself, and let's every other aspect of his character run wild. Holding up a fast food joint because they stopped serving breakfast five minutes too early, massacring homeless punks who foolishly harass him, his crusade sprawls across the valley and beyond, a righteous purge of monotonous, infuriating trivial concerns that soon has the attention of LA's finest in the form of veteran Detective Robert Duvall and his crass, obnoxious lieutenant (Raymond J. Barry). It's also revealed that Douglas's personal life leading up to his break was rocky at best, with a job going downhill and hints of violence towards his wife and daughter. Quite drastic is the meltdown though, but it's not quite a character study, he's almost used more to pick away at the decays in society, a tool for exposing tears in the cloth we take for granted every day. His story is kind of like when you load up Grand Theft Auto on your console and completely ignore the missions in favour of a personalized war on anything that moves. His war happens to be against those little nagging inconveniences that seem like no biggie until they add up and you just go postal. It's darkly funny stuff, but quite harrowing when you look at the big picture and the actual damage he's doing to the city. Douglas is courageous here, it takes reckless abandon to go for a role like this, and he owns it in crew cut, well dressed fashion, a costume choice that absurdly clashes with the big metal cannon he totes. The film never takes sides either, recognizing both the bizarre consumerist nightmare we wade through everyday and it's ability to dampen your spirit as well as the sickening extremes he goes to, challenging you to walk a line and look at both sides. Hard hitting stuff.
TonyMontana96
(Originally reviewed: 21/01/2017) When I see "a Joel Schumacher film" on the front cover I am always optimistic, I did love 1987's The Lost Boys but 1997's Batman and Robin was so bad it could have been a career ender, however I'm proud to announce this picture is one of his finest. Michael Douglas gives a solid, strong performance which shows the true extent of how far a man can be pushed before he loses it, I also admired Duvall's performance as a retiring cop with a rather rude wife. The acting is decent all round with the exception of some schmuck who kept thinking he was something special with ladies and being rude to Duvall, his name does not matter at this moment in time. The picture moves at a brisk pace, and the outcomes of every situation are grounded and most certainly believable, including a slightly sad but well-crafted conclusion. You can empathise with Douglas's character, he may be a bit crazy but he wasn't always unhinged and tense and maybe that has something to do with a restraining order his selfish wife put on him so he couldn't see his daughter. However it's exciting to see what happens next, which is what makes Schumacher a decent filmmaker, he knows how to keep a picture entertaining, for better or for worse. Having said that, I did like most of the dialogue but there was a few lines that bothered me such as when are protagonist's mother yells "What do you want, I'll set the dogs on you" this is aimed at two random people that knock on her door that just so happen to be police officers, I was astonished at what I was hearing. We all know it's unlikely anyone would answer their door in such a manner. Then later on Duvall's character lets his wife know he is going to be slightly late, she replies with "What am I dog vomit", which is just awfully written dialogue in plain sight, you can't forget it because she practically yells it at the top of her voice. Falling Down may have a few flaws, but it's nonetheless a very well-directed picture with respectable performances from Academy award winners Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall.
ironhorse_iv
We've all had bad days. And oftentimes, a day that starts out horrible just keeps getting worse, snowballing into a really awful day. This is how 1993's crime thriller, 'Falling Down' begins. Directed by Joel Schumacher & taken place on, one of the hottest days in Los Angeles, California's history; the film written by Ebbe Roe Smith, the film tells the story of an defense worker, William Foster (Michael Douglas) trying to get home for his daughter's birthday party, only to get frustrated with the various flaws he sees in society, which starts to unravel him, until he suffer from a major to psychotically and violently unstable mental breakdown. Without spoiling the movie, too much, I have to say, that, the English Hard Rock Band, Iron Maiden got it right with this man. He was truly on the edge, with each step gets closer to losing his head. Even if, we can't condone his extreme actions, as least, some of us, can relate to the issues, he had to deal with. Everybody, at least, had one of these days. If you can't relate to his struggles, as least, you can understand, the frustrations that Det. Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall), had to deal with on his last day on the force on figuring out the mystery, who is this madman, is all about. Both of these character's stories, make 'Falling Down', a very intriguing, yet challenging movie, worth watching. Added to that, is the wonderful use of music by James Newton Howard that set the mood, and powerful visual cinematography from Andrzej Bartkowiak under Schumacher's direction. Sunny LA has never look, so bleak and hopeless, before. Great use of desaturated and low tech camera-work and shooting at rundown locations. Also great use of symbolism and metaphors throughout the film, like the running use of the lyrics of 'London Bridge' & others. However, I do have to say, the film isn't with some faults & I'm not talking about the minor nitpicking goofs. I'm talking about how the film was notorious criticize by critics at the time, for its treatment of minorities; mostly with how they show Korean and Latino Americans as thugs. It got so bad, that Warner Brothers canceled the release of 'Falling Down' in South Korea & certain Latin America countries following boycott threats. In my opinion, while I can understand the reasons, why minorities groups like Korean & Latino American Coalition got anger. After all, the film was made, during and released just after the 1992 Los Angeles Riot where Koreans and Latinos were targeted by police and looters. In truth, there was plenty of positive, Hispanic & Asian Americans characters in the film, like Detective Brian (Steve Park) & Detective Sandra Torres (Rachel Ticotin). Both characters were played by Korean and Latina performers. If anything, if you look at the majority of negatively characters, throughout the film. Most of them, were portray with white actors. Plus, as a minority, the portrayal weren't as bad, as people back then, make it out to be. Compare to other films back then, it's pretty tame. I just think, these groups are just missing the point. The film is trying to tackle the struggles, of trying to get along, despite cultural differences, language as well, as the economic conditions, in which, many of us, Americans, lived under. Honestly, if there is any real faults for this film, it wouldn't be their use of harsh-language & violence; if anything, it would be, due to the fact, that the film couldn't stop itself, being label as the negative 'angry white racism man' movie. While, on the surface, the film might look like the stereotypically disproportionally portrayal of an older White Americans, having animosity toward minorities; in truth, the film is nothing like that. We sees, throughout the film, William Foster getting along with a number of minorities. Some good examples are the 'Under Construction' scene, where a young unnamed black kid (Valentino Harrison) teach him, how to use a bazooka and the scene with the not economically viable man (Vondie Curtis-Hall). There is even, a scene where Foster disagree with a Neo-Nazi Surplus Store Owner (Frederic Forrest) about race. Because of that, I can't say, Foster is a racism character, nor can I say the movie glorifies lawbreaking. Of course, we see many elements of our society that contributed to his madness. However, the movie never condones his actions as the right thing to do. He's never the hero. If anything, Robert Duvall's character, is. Despite that, I do have to say, portrayal Foster is probably the best role, Michael Douglas has done, since 1987's 'Wall Street'. You really do see, the unbalance nature of his character, trying to figure out, what is right and what is wrong in a world that he views is upside down. You see his alienation, disgust and mounting rage against what he perceives to be an increasingly unfair and depersonalized world. However, I can't say, the same with Robert Duvall's character. His performance was a bit, too similar to the role, he played in 1988's 'Colors'; still interesting, but in the end, he really didn't stand out as much as Douglas does. After all, Douglas's character inspired the creation of the one-episode character Frank Grimes from The Simpsons 23th episode "Homer's Enemy," on Season 8 and received a parodic homage song in Foo Fighters' video for "Walk". In the end, the dark comedy of this movie really does payoff; both tragedy and humorous. Either way, it's a film that inspires quite a bit of discussion and debate. That's one thing, I love about this movie. It makes you think. Depending on who you ask, this film is either social commentary on the dangers of capitalism, and the ignorance of the citizen under it or the call to arms for conservatism against the dangers of liberalism. All these arguments have merit and it could be any of this. That's why, this is one movie that is worth seeing.
