"Falling Down" (1993) - Movie Review

The scariest part about the rampage of shooting down is that the people who do that are in the emotional peak of outburst which many of us go through. Losing it as we term has a reason to be called that. Civilized is a misspoken word. It is a made up word that translates into pumping the pillow of our mind with anger and rage. It pops out and most of us just cause a mess to clean up but some people are not stack of cotton. It becomes a starved person wanting to eat as much as possible. That rage is actually a desire to be quenched of that thirst. Thirst caused by the frustration, denial, agony and the expectation of being the society’s school boy not treated as he/she thinks deserves to be. That is with every one. William “D-Fens” Foster (Michael Douglas) is a grown up Travis Bickle. And he loses it on a hot and humid Los Angeles day.

The sweat is dripping through the eye lids when Foster is breaking apart. He stares at the long line of cars in a road block for street repair or so they say. Every thing pops out of the shell to annoy him in this day. Or the cumulative disappointments in his past no longer has a place to stay inside him and that causes him to abandon his car and run to the nearest neighbourhood. He begins his day of violence with an effective assault. A Korean shop owner (Michael Paul Chan) charging Eighty Seven cents with his accent for an ice cold Coca Cola. Foster needs 50 cents to call his ex-wife (Barbara Hershey) who has a restraint order against him and tell her he will be coming for his kid’s birthday. After being told to buy something in a demeaning tone to get change, Foster begins to let out himself. He massacres the aisles with a base ball bat he took from the shop owner. And he pays what he thinks to be paid for the drink, 50 cents and heads to the hood where trouble is imminent for him. He begins to descent in to his mind and digs out the buried anger without inhibition. This will be a bad day for every body around him.

When Foster is ploughing the hood with his freely let emotions, at the downtown is a cop retiring. That is Sergeant Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall). He is getting mocked all around for taking early retirement while his hysterical mood-swinging wife (Tuesday Weld) calls him to add the spice to the last day at his job. This will be that day for him where everything what Foster does beckons him to tie the knot. He puts together the array of incidents mapping out the final parade of Foster and stands in the end pointing the gun at the man. Can there be a different end to this known consequences at all?

Joel Schumacher takes the script of Ebbe Roe Smith and attaches Douglas into a form we do not know of. With a closely cut hair, half sleeves shirt and a tie, every body is in the mood to aggravate him. He goes to stretch out in a territory of hispanic gangs and every time he starts out nicely. He reasons with a sarcasm of knowing how exactly the response is going to be. He wants every one to mess with him because he is grinning to jump on it. But is there a sad story behind this office worker? Of course there is. For that fact, every one has and the measure of its deep end varies. But for the moment in their life, it is the problem like never before.

Douglas is nothing but perfect. Never does he make Foster a man of immense love for violence. Just a man whose tool seems to be effective when he has a gun. He places him as the product of the things every one has become patient of and more worryingly indifferent. He is ready for a good breakfast at 11:35 when the fast food store closes their service of breakfast at 11:30. He is wondering where did the tradition of bending backwards for customer went? Isn’t that what built this nation ? He is a racist like every other person wherein he seem to notice unfavourably wrong on letting the people from diverse countries. The marking of territory and the belonging of protecting it has made him wonder whether this place is not his any more. These are the quibbles residing in every one all over the world which are magnified in his encounters.

Robert Duvall lets us discover Martin from a toned down police officer to a man who used to be a cop loving his job in the end. This series of events Foster generates makes him to roll back the days. He goes for the action and gets one. He has lost his daughter and sees through Foster but knows guys like him. He exactly lays down what Foster was planning to do. He tries to do his job and in that he sees his element of truth. He does not empathize or know Foster because he is a cop. He knows the man tipping over the edge because he lives in a city and leads a life.