Falling Down (5 Stars)

I really love this film. I'm fascinated by it. The leading and supporting characters are painted larger than life, so real that I feel I know them intimately. This is brilliant filmmaking by Joel Schumacher, but it might also be something to do with the main two characters, played by Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall. I can relate to both of them in different ways. It's a difficult film to write about, maybe because of its nihilistic undertones that make it difficult to see any meaning or intention in the film. I'll try to describe the two interlocking stories as best as I can.

Bill Foster (Michael Douglas) is a happy family man who lives in a big ugly city. His life revolves around his wife, his daughter and his job in the defence industry, defending the America he loves against foreign threats. Then everything breaks down. His wife divorces him because she's afraid of him. He has never been violent to her, but she thinks that he might become violent. He loses his job due to government cutbacks. This was common in 1993, when the film was made, because America felt less at threat after the collapse of Communism and the end of the Cold War.

Obviously, Bill is a "good guy". But the unfair treatment by his wife, his employer and society in general push him onto a path of destruction. All he wants is to visit his daughter on her birthday, despite his wife having taken out a restraining order against him. He stumbles from one situation to another, in each of which he's victimised but comes out stronger and more bitter. He's assaulted by a shopkeeper after he complains about the price of a can of Coca Cola, but steals his baseball bat. He's assaulted by a gang, but steals their knife. He's assaulted by the gang a second time and steals their guns. In an army surplus store the owner attacks him, but he shoots him and steals his anti-aircraft gun. Heavily armed he walks across the city, not realising how negatively his innocent actions are perceived.

Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) is a police officer on his last day of the job before early retirement. He lives under the control of his neurotic wife, who has never recovered since the death (infant death syndrome) of their only child. First she insisted that he take a desk job to keep him out of danger, and now she has talked him into taking early retirement from the job he loves. He's the only one who makes a connection between the day's random incidents involving a man in a white shirt and tie. Ridiculed by his colleagues who don't consider him to be a real cop he works hard on his last day, eventually finding the strength to stand up to his wife and remain on the police force.

When the two men have their final showdown we expect some understanding, but there is none. When Bill says he doesn't know what he wants to do, Prendergast replies, "You know exactly what you were gonna do. You were gonna kill your wife and child". This was the last thing on his mind. But it's too late to defend himself. Bill has become the "bad guy" and has to die.

The film shows Los Angeles at its worst. A city of crime and injustice in the middle of a sweltering heatwave. It's not a cheerful film. It will leave you feeling depressed and unsettled. And yet it's a fascinating film that will make viewers want to watch it again and again.

Click here to view the trailer.