Falling Down (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #54

Two days ago I praised "Adaptation" for being the most intelligent film ever made. "Falling Down" is another very intelligent film, though in a different way. It's not a complex film, but it has a lot of subtleties which may not be apparent without repeated viewing.

I first saw the film in 2000 while I was in hospital. I was sitting in the television room with other patients, and one of the patients (Darren) had the film on videotape. He said that it was a funny film, and he laughed repeatedly while it was being played. I didn't find the film very funny, but after watching it a few times I can see how some people might find it amusing. How can a normal, everyday man who just wants to visit his daughter on her birthday turn into a mean killing machine? He's not even armed when he leaves home, but his arsenal is steadily upgraded en route: first a baseball bat, then a switchblade, then a bag full of machine guns, and finally a heat seeking missile. That's funny.

This is a film that I'd like to discuss with others, preferably in a group. I'd stand up to defend Bill Foster. I don't think he's a bad man. All he wants is to see his daughter on her birthday. The pressure of the big city turns him into the bad guy, even though he only wants to do good. That's his role in the film, but it's thrust upon him. "Flowers of War" shows how a bad man can rise to become a hero, whereas "Falling Down" shows how a good man can descend to become a villain. That's how I see the film. Do you agree?

The real bad person in the film his his ex-wife Beth. She forbids him to see his daughter. She complains that Bill doesn't pay child support, but she hasn't bothered to find out that Bill is unemployed. She's filed a restraining order because Bill might become aggressive, but she admits herself that he's never hit her. That reminds me of my mother. She left my father after 24 years of marriage for another man. 30 years later she told me, "Your father never hit me, but I was scared of him because he could have hit me at any time". That was absolute rubbish. If a man doesn't hit his wife for 24 years, why should she expect him to start? My mother was just making up stories to excuse her adultery.

At the end of the film Bill has no weapons left. He stands unarmed facing a police sergeant with a gun. He realises he's become the bad guy, and he doesn't want to be sent to prison in this role. He takes the only way out that he can: suicide by cop. He pretends to have a gun to make the sergeant shoot him. That's sad, but it's the noblest way he can find to die.

I said this is an intelligent film. It's the contrast between the character arcs of the two main characters. While Bill is falling down, the sergeant is rising up. He begins the film as a weak, hen-pecked husband, giving up the job he loves for the sake of his wife. He ends as a determined policeman who wants to be a credit to the force.

Success Rate:  + 1.8

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