Film of the Week #61 - Falling Down

Karl Hungus

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106856/

Discuss.

mike65

In the late 80 and 90s if there was a "zeitgeist" movie on release it quite probably starred Micheal Douglas - zealous greed? marriage breakdown as nuclear war? psycho mistress? psycho killers? paranoia? fear?(and loathing?) Douglas was there in the middle of all the mayhem. Looking slightly bewildered. I dunno how he survived the angst.

In the midst of this run of "watercooler" epics came Falling Down whose central character William "D-Fens" Foster spoke to a generation in the way Peter Finches newsreader Howard Beale had to the previous generaton. He was mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, but whereas Beale was content to make his declaration from behind a desk Foster is typically 90s, words won't do shotguns will.

Falling Down succeeds thanks to the central conceit in the script and the performances. Director Joel Schumacher has a "jobbing" track record which reflects the prosaic origins of his name. Its a typcial contempory thriller construction - man gets from point a to b driven by the back story as secondary figure of authority seek his own redemption through interaction with main character. It was never going to win an Oscar for its writing then, no matter because its the very obvious nature of the plotting that helps - you enjoy the "conveyer belt of cliche" as Foster rubs up against a motley collection of charcters most of whom are designed to make him seem postively reasonable even though in Real Life TM he'd be the subject of our appalled outrage. This peaks when he fires a bazooka round down a trench and blows up a billboard. Its ludicous but you laugh in a good way.

Falling Down no awards - except at the box-office

Mike.

Beanstalk

Brilliant original film and great choice.

Everything about this film is well put together. Even the way the oppressive heat/weather pisses of Douglas's character so much. Definitely his best role.

How many times have you been stuck in traffic and wished you could just abandon the car there and then? The fast food scene sticks in my mind everytime I go into one nowadays...

I think what's really great about the movie is that Douglas' character carries out actions in the film that while are morally wrong, we all fantasize about doing sometimes...

User45701

Falling down is a fantastic film, i have always loved it, first time i watched it i was like 9 or 10 and i lked it but found a new love for it when i was a little older and it is one of my fav films. Havent watched it in a while now and i cant find my DVD on it.

senordingdong

A real role model.
As much as I love the movie though, I felt the second half let it down.
For me, the story went from being about an ordinary man losing the plot and lashing out at the problems in society, to following the exploits of a man who is a problem in society.

I preferred when he was the anti-hero, by the end he was just a nut job and I didn't like that.

Declan A Walsh

I love "Falling Down". Michael Douglas is fantastic as a man who has lost his grip on reality and is, of course, frustrated at aspects of current life. There are aspects of the film which everyone could identify with, such as the refusal in MacDonalds to serve breakfast and being stuck in gridlock traffic.
Robert Duvall's character is interesting too in that he is obsessed with finding Douglas's character on his last day as a policeman - a day when he should be winding down, and he has a rather mixed-up homelife it would appear.

But it is Douglas who really makes the film. This film has great direction by Joel Schumacher in the way the story is told. Our hero (or anti-hero) is getting increasingly erratic as his day progesses. That's brilliant too, the way it is all happening in well under 24 hours. There are many moments of humour in Falling Down, but there is undoutedly a black undertone running through it, and there is a tinge of sadness as you become aware of the true nature of his relationship with his family.

Great choice.

Galvasean

One of my fondest childhood films.
Passes the test of time. Still great.

My name is Todd

I loved this film when it first came out and had many fond memories of it. However, I watched it again last year and thought it hadn't aged very well at all.
Some absolute classic scenes though.

longshanks

its a decent enough watch, but not a great movie. full of cliches and obvious targets, the wealthy, the nazi chap etc. and then he realises 'you think i'm the bad guy'. decidedly average. for someone really falling down its hard to beat travis bickle, or, for that matter hitler (bruno ganz) in downfall

guinnessdrinker

I think Falling Down is a great movie and Douglas is excellent in it. I seen this film sometime in the late nineties for the first time, a few years after it came out and for some reason I felt it looked dated, I don't know why but I actually thought it was made sometime in the eighties. Don't get me wrong I don't think it detracts from the story at all, it's just the view I got when I watched it. That was the only time I seen the film though, so I wouldn't mind sitting down and wathcing it again sometime soon.

Sherifu

Haven't seen this since I was a kid but I remember thinking it was great at the time. Need to rewatch it soon.

Great film. Seen it so many times at this stage that I can practically receit the film line for line. One of those pleasures of my childhood which still stands up to this day. Michael Douglas is excellent in the main role and the able supporting cast deliver on all levels, even the child actors.

Dr Brown

Just watched it I forgot how good it is. Falling Down is one of the best films of the 90s.

smurf492

Anyone interested in Resurrecting the movie of the week... Like our own weekly movie club

Lorelli!

smurf492 wrote: »

Anyone interested in Resurrecting the movie of the week... Like our own weekly movie club

Id like that. Its just where someone picks any random film to talk about?

smurf492

Lorelli! wrote:

Id like that. Its just where someone picks any random film to talk about?

Im good with that... Anyone else???

pleas advice

I'm the bad guy? How did that happen?

Gwynplaine

Brilliant film.

WHIP IT!

smurf492 wrote: »

Anyone interested in Resurrecting the movie of the week... Like our own weekly movie club

Great idea. Even if just to give my fellow lurkers a good idea for a classic old movie to watch every week - there's so much choice out there, sometimes it's hard!

johnny_ultimate

There’s been a few efforts to resurrect film clubs her, but it kind of petered out for the same reason the original did: it’s very hard to encourage people to watch films and talk about them. Initial enthusiasm doesn’t always carry over to action, sadly!

Obviously we’d very much encourage anyone who’d like to give it a whirl and the mods will happily help if we can. Personally would love to see it pick up again. But just keep the above in mind, albeit with fingers crossed there’d be a bit more involvement than previous efforts

Lorelli!

Maybe starting off with films that are quite well known and popular such as Falling Down or something like The Lost Boys?

Also before it was done like one thread per film? Id say stick to that so it's a new thread every week rather than one huge thread that gets lost and is not as encouraging for new users to post or spot the new or next film title.

pinksoir

It could be film of the fortnight. This could help with the slow nature of threads in getting folks talking. If it hangs around a bit longer you might get more folks involved.

Plus two weeks is plenty of time to get around to watching a film. If a new film was every second Monday, that allows for a whole weekend to find some time as well as two full midweeks.

Could be cool!

AMKC

I agree with pinksoir. Two weeks would give every time to get to see the film and give there opinion on it.

brianregan09

I'm game , Falling down was class aswell