“I’m the bad guy?”
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not taking it anymore.” That iconic line isn’t from this movie but it perfectly describes the breakdown Michael Douglas’ character has in the film. It’s a little hard to go fully on the side of our vigilante, but some days it’s easier to than others.
William Foster (Michael Douglas) is not having a good day. He’s been fired and he wants to go to his daughter Adele’s (Joey Hope Singer) birthday party. His ex-wife Beth (Barbara Hershey) has obtained a restraining order, so attending the party isn’t going to happen.
He finds himself stuck in L.A. traffic and his air conditioner stops working. He abandons the car and is going to walk to the birthday party. He tries to get some change to use a pay phone when the owner (Michael Paul Chan) of a convenience store brandishes a bat to defend himself against Foster’s verbal assaults.
Foster takes the bat away and destroys the store with it. This starts a vigilante trek across L.A. to reach Adele’s birthday party and he keeps upping his weapon choice as he goes along. Sergeant Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) is also having a bad day. In fact, his last day on the job. His wife and co-workers frustrate him.
Even though it’s his last day on the job he insists that he and his partner Detective Sandra Torres (Rachel Ticotin) investigate the case of the vigilante, dubbed D-Fens from his vanity license plate, which is on the loose in the overheated city.
We’ve all had frustrating days, but sometimes we come close to snapping. If we look at the career of director Joel Schumacher we might also come close to snapping. He’s had some fine films in his canon, but then there are the dogs. The biggest and most mongrel of those flea bitten beasts might be Batman and Robin.
When Schumacher puts his mind to it he can direct a fine thriller which is what he’s done with Falling Down. It might be the present and fine performance from Michael Douglas that brings Falling Down up…maybe he held him and gunpoint and said don’t screw this one up.
Douglas delivers a finely nuanced performance that makes it hard to completely turn him into the bad guy in the film. Perhaps it’s that he captures something of us all in the fact that we all have moments where we want to “go off.” Our brain usually kicks in and our violent fantasies remain just that. Some of humanity doesn’t go that way and their flights of fantasy come to violent life.
Unfortunately, some of their slights are just that and innocent people get hurt. What’s masterful about Douglas’ performance is that we don’t really see him as the villain as he does have moments of humanity that pull us back towards him. We may not be able to justify his rampage, but perhaps we can come close to understanding it.
Douglas is not the only thespian hitting on all cylinders as Robert Duvall also gets acting kudos. It’s not an easy film, but one that will make you think (not one that will make you demand a lobotomy like Batman and Robin).
Falling Down in presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.35:1). Falling Down is presented in a digibook casing that gives it a book-like appearance that has 32 pages of film facts.
Special features include a commentary with director Joel Schumacher and Michael Douglas. In the standard definition, 10 minute “Deconstructing D-Fens” Michael Douglas is interviewed about his development of the character. Finally there’s the 2 minute theatrical trailer (standard definition).
Falling Down is a fantastically acted film. We should never go on a violent rampage against the forces that threaten us, but Michael Douglas paints a portrait in shades of grey of one man who is tired of being kicked around by life. It’s a fascinating character study and one that delivers some high caliber acting.
Falling Down [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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