Falling Down

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Template:Infobox Film Falling Down is a 1993 film by Joel Schumacher about "D-Fens" (named for his license plate), an unemployed Irish-American missile engineer played by Michael Douglas making an attempt to "go home" for his daughter's birthday after his car breaks down in traffic on the hottest day of the year. As he passes through the city of Los Angeles, California on foot he finds himself alienated, disgusted and angered by what he experiences as he is accosted, overcharged and rejected. He becomes a sort of vigilante as he gradually begins to accumulate weaponry and starts to force people out of his way – with violence, if necessary.

The movie was made during the recession that accompanied George H. W. Bush's Presidency during which many engineers who had worked exclusively on defense applications in the Los Angeles and Orange County area found themselves unable to deal with unemployment. Michael Douglas took something of a risk in taking the role of such an obvious "loser", for his father Kirk Douglas had played petty heels whereas Michael played successful, or, at worst, only put-upon men.

1 Plot
2 Primary cast
3 Falling Down into a Genre
4 Trivia
5 External links

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

'Tagline:' A Tale of Urban Reality.

While William "Bill" Foster (or D-FENS, as he is known as for much of the film, by his car vanity plate) makes his rampage through the city, a cop by the name of Prendergast (played by Robert Duvall), on his last day on the job and relegated to working behind a desk starts a search to apprehend him. On the way he picks up clues which single out D-FENS and the audience learns about both policeman and engineer as the film progresses: William has been recently downsized, and also divorced by his wife, losing both his job and custody of his daughter. Prendergast has a mentally ill wife who forced him to stop working on the street and now wants him to move with her to Arizona.

A subplot involves the subtle suggestion that Prendergast suspects his wife killed their only baby, yet he still must live with her. His pain resulting from the loss of his child is echoed by William's pain of separation from his daughter through divorce.

As the film continues it becomes apparent that William thinks society is full of ignorant, selfish automata, that he can't identify with most people, and that the few people he can identify with don't want anything to do with him. When he does arrive "home", his wife and daughter have gone, fled to a pier.

The story progresses along with some slight twists, until William confronts his wife and child at the end of the pier. Uncertain of what her ex-husband is about to do, William's wife immediately takes flight with her daughter as soon as Prendergast makes an appearance, pointing a gun at William's head. Despite Prendergast's attempt to convince William to give himself up peacefully, William insists on having a duel with him - committing suicide by cop by drawing a water pistol on Prendergast. Prendergast, forced to react to William's apparent drawing of a pistol, shoots William in the chest, and in a dramatic moment, D-FENS falls from the pier to his doom in the water.

The film is considered realistic in its characterizations, showing each character's flaws and virtues. The film has been criticized for using negative stereotypes of minorities such as Hispanics and Asians. It has also been criticized for the possibility that the lead character is a racist due to his confrontations with "stereotypical" minorities. Although the film portrays racial undertones, it is generally considered to be in a negative manner. To further separate William from being a racist he confronts the Surplus Store owner, a white supremacist who believes that William is like him, and angrily denies the implication that he too is a racist.

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Primary cast

Michael Douglas - William "Bill" Foster/D-Fens
Robert Duvall - Detective Martin Prendergast
Barbara Hershey - Elizabeth "Beth" Travino
Tuesday Weld - Amanda Prendergast
Rachel Ticotin - Detective Sandra Torres
Frederic Forrest - Nick, Surplus Store Owner
Raymond J. Barry - Captain Yardley

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Falling Down into a Genre

D-Fens, during his journey through multicultural L.A., shows some signs of redemption. In a military surplus shop he responds to the Fascist appeal of the proprietor with a loyalty to a WWII era Americanism that he knows has betrayed him. But a straightforward redemption would have been a disappointment. The conventions of film genre made Falling Down follow the pattern of a classic Western complete with a gun duel at the end.

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Trivia

This film is sometimes used in AP Psychology classes.

Heavy Metal band Iron Maiden wrote a song about this movie, on the album The X-Factor. The song is called "Man on the Edge"; its refrain is the phrase "Falling Down", repeated.

French rapper Disiz la peste wrote a song about this movie on his album "Le Poisson Rouge". The song is called "J'pète les plombes". This was a major success in France.

In the Front Line Assembly "Millennium" album (released in 1994, soon after the première of "Falling Down") most of the samples were from this film.

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