Michael Douglas is incredible in this very memorable film. That is all that really needs to be said
The question is: have you ever had a bad day where you feel as though you could flip out on everyone around you? Well William Foster (Michael Douglas) had one of those days and it lead to a whole lot of stuff that I would imagine that he would have preferred it not lead to. I'm quite certain that he didn't want to hold up a fast food restaurant, but he did.
"Falling Down" is a fantastic movie about a normal guy who faced "normal guy stuff" until he reaches his breaking point and well, the world has to pay a price once he reaches that He's don't all the right things in that he has paid his dues, he turns up to work on time and doesn't break traffic laws etc. Until one day he is forced by situations outside his control to break all of these rules and i honestly feel as thought jut about anyone can relate.
William Foster is not a bad guy and this film is not an accurate presentation of real life anyway. It is more a combination of all the imaginable bad things that could possibly happen in a person's day that would convince them that what he decides to do, is a good idea. He doesn't want to be a gangster, he doesn't want to be a felon, he doesn't want to be "the bad guy," but this is precisely what he ends up being on a day of profoundly bad luck.
I think that everyone that has ever had a job and has ever been subjected to the horse-crap that is government and annoyances of everyday life can relate to how we have all felt like would could snap one day. Michael Douglas plays this person perfectly.
I found this movie in vcd at a shop. First i thought this could be a dull romance movie. But after reading the synopsis, it seems to grab my interest! But i'm not expecting a powerful storyline and great performances from this movie. The only reason why i bought this movie is because of Micheal Douglas and Robert Duvall.
Here after i watched this movie, it was proved that i was wrong about this movie. This is one of the most important movie and most powerful movie i have ever watched in my whole life! The story is really great! Michael Douglas has given the best and most sensational performances in his career! Don't forget about Robert Duvall too... he's also important in turning this movie into a great classic! I really think that Douglas should win an Oscar for this movie...
It's really sad after watching Douglas died at the end of the movie... i almost cry after watching this movie! It was Douglas who has brought up this movie! I'm not a real fan of Douglas, but this movie have proved that Douglas is one of the best actor in the 80's and 90's! 10/10*
The early 1990's were a period of intense anger and frustration in America. The recession of 1990 and 1991 and the defense cutbacks that occurred around the same time cost many in the defense industry their jobs and contributed to a rise in crime and poverty. Michael Douglas plays a character directly affected by this situation.
You can clearly identify with this character. He is simply frustrated and cannot take any more of it. It almost verges on being comical how soon the character goes over the edge. There is one seen where he pulls out a machine gun in a fast food restaurant because they stopped serving breakfast at 10:30 rather than 11:00 as he thought.
At times, you actually root for this character as he fights off gangsters and neo-Nazi's.
This is a must see film and probably Michael Douglas' best performance to date.
I can relate to this film, it just explains the irony about life. Naturally we seem good people within our personality, we just want to be good, but the life situations around us makes it very difficult to maintain this stance, thus we end up felons, bad guys and criminals because if the situations our everyday experiences presents us with.
Beautiful movie here really, the thriller is amazing. I'd have to rate it a 9/10
How many times have you wanted to ask this question when stuck in terrible weather, with the traffic backed up, and an itching insanity?
This film is fantastic, with Michael Douglas giving his best performance since "Wall Street", Robert Duvall is also in fine form. To not see this film ever is a crime, far from the ones our main character "Bill" commits. D-Fens as his license plate identifies him as, spends the day, "going home" to his daughter's birthday, along the way meeting an assortment of characters, whom many of us, would probably like to see treated the way they are in this film, but due to our day to day realities, no one has the nerve to!
Take the lay-about asking for change, the construction workers "fixing the street" or the staff of a fast food chain all as prime examples. Not to mention the expletive loving hoods.
"Bill" takes them all on, as he strides through LA, on his mission.
A fine script, top notch acting, and tight directing make "Falling Down" a dream come true for viewers. Allow your darker side, to come out, because this is one film, which will play it for laughs.
A perfect score !!
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Falling Down is a movie thats point out the several oddities of the modern urban society. It succeeded in doing so, but the viewer must carefully watch the scenes. Each situation Bill Foster (Michael Douglas) faced is a circumstance that most people can actually relate to in reality. However unlike most people, he fought the system and waged war on the everyday annoyances that we all face. Foster is undoubtedly the People's champion. Most viewers pull for him and see him as a hero, mostly out of sympathy,but at the end of the day, Foster is still the bad guy for going against the system. Some too may find this up unfair, considering that he fought back against many criminals and unjust forces. Overall, it's a slightly sad tale that does a whole lot, succeeds in most and provides lots of entertainment.
"we have all felt like we would could snap one day"
Couldn't agree more. The movie is more topical than ever, because although D-Fens is an exaggerated character type, he is emblematic of the "forgotten man" who felt their country changing too fast, and turned out to (add their) vote (to the greater Republican vote) for Trump to reverse the tides of history.
For this reason, the movie is actually really useful to discuss, and you only have to see how D-Fens deals with the white supremacist dude to see that racism is not his intrinsic problem, it is something else, something about the rapidity of societal changes, whether some changes are going in the wrong direction, and whether some character types are simply not as adaptable as others.
I like that the movie never asks us to defend D-Fens, or condemn him, and I like that ultimately D-Fens can never really be known or nailed down. This ambiguity about him is what makes the movie endlessly interesting.
It is astonishing that this movie came from the same guy as "Batman and Robin," but that just goes to show that a good script can elevate anybody's work.
And aside from "Basic Instinct," I don't think Michael Douglas has ever been more compelling. :)
Very informative article.
thank you for information.
I haven't watch that movie, it looks very interesting, thanks for the review, I'm going to watch the movie on youtube cost $1.3 XD. it's like Rambo movie,he just wanted a sandwich, he only want to eat something but nooo! a war starting because he was hungry.
The subtitle is a great explanation of what human mind try to think every day: A tale of a Urban Reality.
Michael Douglas is also one of my favorite actors of the old school with Robert De Niro.
This film is a classic. Period. Great actors. Great acting. Great story. Also timely as it holds up a mirror for us to see our current (post Soviet) selves in.
But wait a minute --- the journey homeward --- the perils encountered --- why does it all seem so mythic? Because this is a retelling of the tale of Ulysses (Homer) who is homeward bound (a perilous journey after the wars) to resume life with his beloved Penelope.
For those who have heard that this is a violent and racist film --- forget that. D-Fens comes into several threatening circumstances as he wends his way home and he reacts to protect himself, acting with violence when he is threatened with violence. I admit one must consider what seems violent to him. The toughs with the baseball bat or machine guns are clear enough examples. The McDonalds and Korean shopkeeper scenes require empathy --- the violence here is that nothing is as it should be (to him). Remember the Bazooka? The pawn shop episode shows D-Fens expressing moral outrage.
Nothing about this film suggests Violence Exploitation to me. It is all organic to the story. I think this film is an example of everything clicking together resulting in brilliance.
Uh, I liked it. A lot.
Everything in the world is interconnected - every person creates this world every minute and perceives the result of the fruits of the creation of other people. But there is no awareness of responsibility for oneself and for others, and the person returns the evil received, the circle closes. The most important evil can be ordinary indifference. In the world shown in the film, too much indifference. In fact, the main idea of "Falling Down" is a protest against this order of things. The film introduced two characters - William Foster and Martin Prendergast and throughout the film under the press of injustice and pain, both change, but both - in different directions. The illuminating revelation of the Douglas character takes place at the end of the film. He first noticed something he had never noticed before. It turns out that he was the "I" that was too self-satisfied, he himself is full of what he rose up against. He sees on the screen what causes violence and pain to his family. Is it because the family broke up and now it is lonely? Is not this because there is no understanding with the mother, and the mutual misunderstanding? On the way to transforming the hero, on the way to the truth, William Foster as if passes nine steps of hell - indifference, cynicism, cruelty, callousness. The scene in the weapons store is the bottom of hell, the last ninth circle. This episode is ambiguous. From the film's point of view, he gives a tense content, prepares us to understand that all bridges are burnt.
The film definitely deserves close attention. Douglas's father called Michael's role in this film the best for his son. "Falling Down" has many strengths, this is a revelation film. There are, of course, weaknesses - this is a crude, straightforward and therefore artificially pushing idea of multiculturalism, tolerance, the apotheosis of which is William's speech in the Nazi store. But against the background of the whole film, it's so insignificant and it does not matter.
This has always been one of my favorite movies. Michael Douglas is great in that role.
A lot of the reviews for "Falling Down" are going to compare it to earlier movies about white men who go berserk: "Joe," for example, or "Death Wish." Some will even find it racist because the targets of the film's hero are African-American, Latino and Korean - with a few whites thrown in for balance. Both of these approaches represent a facile reading of the film, which is actually about a great sadness which turns into madness, and which can afflict anyone who is told, after many years of hard work, that he is unnecessary and irrelevant.The movie stars Michael Douglas, in a performance of considerable subtlety and some courage, as a Los Angeles man who a few years ago thought he had it all figured out. He was a well-paid defense worker, he had a wife and child, the sun came up every morning, and what was there to worry about? But already there must have been danger signals, and we learn later in the film that he had flashes of violence against his wife and child, that he is divorced, that a court order prevents him from approaching them.
On the morning the film begins, he is stuck in traffic on the freeway. Nothing is moving. Exhaust fumes rise all around him.
The director, Joel Schumacher, deliberately shoots this scene as a homage to the famous opening of Fellini's "8 1/2," but instead of finding himself floating up into the sky, like Frederico Fellini's hero, the man gets out of his car, slams the door, and goes walking alone across Los Angeles. This is not always a safe thing for a crew-cut white man, wearing a shirt and a tie.
The man has no name in the film; he becomes known to the police as D-FENS, after his license plate. He is already unhinged when he starts his walk, but eventually the tools of violence fall into his hands, and he uses them. In a grocery store, he asks for change for the telephone, and is refused by the Korean proprietor. He tries to buy a can of pop, but the change from a dollar would not be enough for a phone call. His frustration rages, until he grabs the owner's baseball bat and starts swinging, taking down piles of junk foods, cans of diet soda.