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.