Falling Down
The adventure of an ordinary man at war with the everyday world.
Freeways are clogged. Terror stalks our cities. At shops and restaurants, the customer is seldom right. The pressure of big-city life can anger anyone. But Bill Foster is more than angry. He’s out to get even.
”I’m going home,” Foster says as he abandons his gridlocked car on the hottest day of the year. Instead, he walks straight into an urban nightmare by turns absurdly funny and shatteringly violent. Academy Award winner Michael Douglas is Foster, an ordinary guy at war with the frustrations of daily living. Fellow Oscar winner Robert Duvall is the savvy cop obsessed with stopping Foster’s citywide rampage. Falling Down is their story, a spellbinding, unconventional thriller that asks: “Are we falling apart?”
Member Reviews
i liked it - FRISCOSAURAS
There are two things I would have done differently: First, I think the character of William Foster would have been better protrayed as a regular sane individual who snapped rahther than a guy already with a screw loose who behaves as a guy with a screw loose should. I just think I would have an easier ...A brilliant social satire - newdaysof
Falling Down is a brilliant movie about the troubled times we live in. It tells the story of one man's battle against the insanities of modern-day life.
Michael Douglas brilliantly portrays a well-educated white-collar worker whose life slowly falls apart. The movie's opening scene is a classic - in five minutes, without any dialogue, it shows was a mess the modern world has become. The viewer can sympathize with his plight as he simply tries to get through the day. But at each and every turn, there is someone there to thwart him. Normally a mild-mannered person, he tips over the edge and lashes out at everyone and everything in his way.
Robert Duvall, in one of his finest performances, portrays a cop, who also just wants to get through his day - the last day on the job before he retires - without getting killed.
The movie subtly and not-so-subtly hits on so many different themes - the economically dispossed who have become "not economically viable", the pony in the snow-globe representing an idealist world, the metaphor of the astronauts travelling around the dark side of the moon.
Great one-liners "they lie to the fish", "I'm the bad guy? - how did that happen?", "maybe they have night-school courses in plastic-surgery", "fuk you very much", "don't get your panties in a knot". The movie and its themes are as relevant today as ever.Highly recommended! - Nominus
It's difficult to know where to start with a movie that does so much so well. Michael Douglas as William 'D-Fens' Foster is brilliant. He conveys the frustrations felt by a white american male who fully expects things to go his way. When they don't, be it his job, his marriage, his car, his life, his rage reaches boiling point. As he journeys accross town on foot, he encounters all (in his view) that is wrong with America. Lawlessness, immigrants, inner city decay, corporate dehumanizaton. As he confiscates larger and larger weapons from his persecutors/victims? he heads for a final showdown. Highly recommended!
Member Reviews
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i liked it - FRISCOSAURAS
There are two things I would have done differently: First, I think the character of William Foster would have been better protrayed as a regular sane individual who snapped rahther than a guy already with a screw loose who behaves as a guy with a screw loose ...A brilliant social satire - newdaysof
Falling Down is a brilliant movie about the troubled times we live in. It tells the story of one man's battle against the insanities of modern-day life.
Michael Douglas brilliantly portrays a well-educated white-collar worker whose life slowly falls ...Highly recommended! - Nominus
It's difficult to know where to start with a movie that does so much so well. Michael Douglas as William 'D-Fens' Foster is brilliant. He conveys the frustrations felt by a white american male who fully expects things to go his way. When they don't, be it ...