Falling Down
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Falling Down is a 1993 film by Joel Schumacher about the character William "Bill" Foster also known as "D-Fens" (named for his license plate), an unemployed American missile engineer played by Michael Douglas making an attempt to "go home" for his daughter's birthday after leaving his car in traffic on the hottest day of the year. As he passes through the city of Los Angeles, California on foot he finds himself alienated, disgusted and angered by what he experiences as he is accosted, overcharged and rejected. He becomes a sort of vigilante as he gradually begins to accumulate weaponry and starts to force people out of his way – with violence, if necessary.
The movie was made during the recession that accompanied George H. W. Bush's Presidency during which many engineers who had worked exclusively on defense applications in the Los Angeles and Orange County area found themselves unable to deal with unemployment. Michael Douglas took something of a risk in taking the role of such an obvious "loser", for his father Kirk Douglas had played petty heels whereas Michael played successful, or, at worst, only put-upon men.
Plot
'Tagline:' A Tale of Urban Reality.The film traces the stories of two men; William "Bill" Foster (or D-FENS, as he is known as for much of the film, by his car vanity plate, played by Michael Douglas) and Detective Martin Prendergast (played by Robert Duvall) on an especially hot day in Los Angeles. Foster, recently divorced and fired and trapped in a traffic jam, snaps and begins walking across the city toward the district of Venice and the home of his ex-wife (Barbara Hershey). As he progresses, his behavior toward other city residents becomes increasingly violent and erratic, with him obtaining more powerful weaponry at each stage, starting with assaulting an Asian store owner (Michael Paul Chan) and two Hispanic gang members, firing an automatic weapon in a fast food restaurant, killing the racist owner of an army surplus store (Frederic Forrest) and using an M72 Light Anti-tank Weapon to attack a road repair crew.
Prendergast, on his last day before retirement, also has a troubled, frustrating life. He must deal with a domineering mentally-ill wife (Tuesday Weld) and disrespect from his co-workers, with the exception of Detective Sandra Torres (Rachel Ticotin). The title of the film refers to Foster's mental collapse and Prendergast's wife's insistence that she and her husband retire to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where the old London Bridge was moved (from the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down). There is also a brief scene in which Foster buys a musical snow globe for his daughter which plays the tune London Bridge is Falling Down.
With Torres, Prendergast traces Foster's movements and rushes to intercept him before he can reach his ex-wife's house. Foster's ex-wife has a restraining order against him and has already called police several times, panicked because Foster has repeatedly and menacingly called her, announcing his plan to attend their young daughter's birthday party.
Foster and Prendergast only meet in the final minutes of the film when Foster, having lost his handgun, deliberately and rapidly draws a water pistol on Prendergast in a suicide by cop action, causing Prendergast to reflexively shoot, fatally wounding Foster. Prendergast's behavior has also become harsher over the course of the film, changing him from a mild submissive man to one who asserts himself with his wife, punches an insulting co-worker, and finally and publicly curses his supervisor ("Fuck you, Captain Yardley. Fuck you very much.") before deciding he will not retire just yet.
Social impact of the film
The two main characters of the film represent middle-aged white males who, in an era of perceived deference to the sensibilities of women and minorities, and in Foster's case the shrinking importance of defense spending following the end of the Cold War, are losing their social prominence (another possible interpretation of the film's title). The issue was sufficiently resonant to be the cover story of the March 29, 1993 issue of Newsweek with the headline White Male Paranoia: Are They the Newest Victims--or Just Bad Sports? and a photograph of Douglas dressed as Foster.In the film, though, Foster denies being a racist, even after lashing out at an Asian store owner in part because he feels the owner has not made a sufficient effort to learn English. A pivotal moment in the film comes when Foster bemusedly remarks to Prendergast "I'm the bad guy...? How did that happen?", shortly before Foster compels Prendergast to shoot him. The world had changed and Foster could not or would not adapt. Many social commentators have seized on this perceived loss of influence, presented in this film and the similarly themed 1999 movie Fight Club.
Primary cast
- Michael Douglas - William "Bill" Foster/D-Fens
- Robert Duvall - Detective Martin Prendergast
- Barbara Hershey - Elizabeth "Beth" Travino
- Tuesday Weld - Amanda Prendergast
- Rachel Ticotin - Detective Sandra Torres
- Frederic Forrest - Nick, Surplus Store Owner
- Raymond J. Barry - Captain Yardley
Falling Down into a genre
D-Fens, during his journey through multicultural L.A., shows some signs of redemption. In a military surplus shop he responds to the fascist appeal of the proprietor with a loyalty to a WWII era Americanism that he knows has betrayed him. But a straightforward redemption would have been a disappointment. The conventions of film genre made Falling Down follow the pattern of a classic Western complete with a gun duel at the end.
Trivia
- As the movie was being filmed, the massive 1992 Los Angeles riots (also known as the Rodney King riots) broke out, bringing to light many of the issues of racial, social and economic tensions portrayed in the film.
- This film is sometimes used in AP Psychology classes.
- Heavy Metal band Iron Maiden wrote a song about this movie, on the album The X-Factor. The song is called "Man on the Edge"; its refrain is the phrase "Falling Down", repeated.
- French rapper Disiz la peste wrote a song about this movie on his album Le Poisson Rouge. The song is called "J'pète les plombes". This was a major success in France.
- In the Front Line Assembly Millennium album (released in 1994, soon after the première of Falling Down) most of the samples were from this film.
- The band Screaming Mechanical Brain sampled the line "Now you're going to die wearing that stupid little hat. How does it feel?" on their track "Smash TV".
- In a minor coincidence, the release of Falling Down (which contains several references to "the point of no return") coincided with that of the Bridget Fonda action film Point of No Return, in which a character briefly recites London Bridge is Falling Down.
External links
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