Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Overlooked Movies: Falling Down

Falling Down premiered in 1993.  Maybe it's just me, but it seems as if it might have been made last week.  

Michael Douglas plays William Foster.  He'ss divorced and he's lost his job.  On the day depicted in the movie, he just wants to get to his daughter's birthday party, but the world conspires against him.    Trapped in traffic, he leaves his car and starts to walk.  At each encounter he has, his frustration builds and his reactions become more extreme.  First he gets a baseball bat, then a knife, then guns.  And he uses all of them against the people he encounters: convenience store owners, gangbangers, ordinary jerks, neo-nazis, fast-food jerks, and others.  His violent reactions escalate as his walk continues.  If you think this is all exaggerated, well, maybe so.  But have you been keeping up with the "First it was the thin mints melee . . . ." meme on this blog?

Robert Duvall plays Pendergrast, a cop on his last day on the job.  He's sort of the other side of the coin here.  He's calm and rational, even though he has as many reasons to crack as Foster does.  He's even caught in the same traffic jam.  He's also the one who realizes that all the crime reports coming in can be connected to one man, so he goes after him.  The final confrontation between the two is ironic and right out of current headlines.  I won't say why, but if you've seen the movie, you might remember what happens.

If you watched the trailer I embedded, you saw the question Douglas asks of Duvall at the end: "I'm the bad guy?"  Yes, he is, but what this movie made me realize is that so am I.  I have to admit that I could easily identify with the character and his reactions.  I just haven't acted on my worst impulses, but (and maybe I'm just a terrible person) I find it a little hard not to cheer Foster on.  Looking at Facebook these days, I see a lot of people who seem to have as much rage and frustration inside them as Foster does.  I hope they don't get a bag of guns.

Falling Down doesn't get much ink these days, but it's a movie with a lot to say about the times we live in.

10 comments:

Deb said...

Not sure if you linked to this, but just five days ago: http://m.newser.com/story/205863/burger-king-customer-arrested-after-citing-movie.html

Unknown said...

Ha. I've linked to several Burger King articles, but I don't remember seeing the reference to this movie. Thanks.

Jeff Meyerson said...

I didn't see that either, Deb. Bill, I agree that the movie could have been made today. This country (example of the day: Baltimore) seems to get worse and worse every day.

And stay off his (and my) lawn!

Jeff

Jeff Meyerson said...

Deb's story.

Jeff

Todd Mason said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Todd Mason said...

Well, of course, in Baltimore, the Police Department has been Falling Down for quite some time...rather as in LA with Rodney King's beating being the match set to the kerosene-soaked rags.

I'll suggest this makes a double feature with TARGETS.

Rex Kusler said...

This is one of my favorite movies. I could relate to it. I was a mechanical design engineer working in the defense industry boom in LA, just like the poor bastard in this movie. Engineering jobs dried up in late 1981. I was told there was a ratio of 1 job for every 8 who were out of work. In January 1982 I packed up and left town.

Unknown said...

Yes, his license plate was D-FENS, as I recall. You were smart to get out when you did instead of going his route.

Todd Mason said...

INTO THE NIGHT also uses this recession as a launching point, among others.

Todd Mason said...

(Specifically in aerospace/military engineering, I mean. My father was an engineer/manager in the FAA in these years, rocky times there as well.)