Falling Down

Falling Down is a 1993 film by Joel Schumacher about "D-Fens" (named for his license plate), an unemployed missile engineer played by Michael Douglas making an attempt to "go home" for his daughter's birthday after his car breaks down 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.

Related Topics:
1993 - Film - Joel Schumacher - Missile - Engineer - Michael Douglas - Los Angeles, California - Alienated - Vigilante - Weaponry

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The movie was made during the recession that accompanied George H. W. Bush's Presidency during which many engineers who'd 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.

Related Topics:
Recession - George H. W. Bush - Kirk Douglas

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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 groaner. The conventions of film genre made Falling Down follow the pattern of a classic Western.

Related Topics:
Fascist - WWII - Redemption - Groaner - Genre - Western

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One fairly slick filmic reference in Falling Down may be to the film that was made from Tennessee Williams' play The Glass Menagerie, when Prendergast visits Douglas' mother in a scene expressive of the fragility of real life in the lower middle class.

Related Topics:
Tennessee Williams - The Glass Menagerie

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Prendergast gets off the best line in the film as he in character exits from a dysfunctional system: "fuck you, Captain, fuck you very much". For Prendergast in a subplot had realized that his own work as a mere cop in an administered world meant nothing. Prendergast is the last man standing in a post-human Venice.

Related Topics:
Fuck - Subplot

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