Review of Falling Down

Introduction

Grumpy Old Men, eh? They`re certainly in vogue right now, with several examples of the species letting loose with their own personal gripes on the television show of the same name. You don`t have to be old or male to appreciate their points of view, with everyone having their own little bugbear in one way or another. Me personally, I just don`t get the whole mobile phone thing, expensive handsets that do a thousand things, but you`ll be damned if you can actually get a signal to call anyone with, and they`re so bloody small that you`ll lose them within a week, and companies that`ll have you selling your soul just to sign their contracts.

Where was I? Complaining about the modern world is fair game for everyone, and if you do it well enough, you can be a Perrier award-winning comedian. The most extreme that grumps get is the use of profane invective (par for the course if you`re Bob Geldof) and the excessive loss of saliva through irate spitting. To actually do something about what bothers you is a grumpy old man`s fantasy. If that`s the case, Falling Down is a grouch`s wet dream, where Grumpy Old Michael Douglas finally gets one back on all the niggling little bits of society that just stick in our collective craws.

A seemingly mild mannered office worker is caught up in a traffic jam in the sweltering LA heat. With the incessant noise and claustrophobia as well as a lack of air conditioning taking their toll, he just snaps, gets out of his car leaving it in the gridlock and starts home on foot. Not far behind in the same jam is Prendergast, a policeman on his way to his last day of work, and seeing the foul up he gets out to clear the highway. He notices the unusual number plate of the abandoned car, D-FENS but thinks little further of it. Meanwhile, D-FENS has decided to visit his estranged wife and daughter on her birthday, and his route to their house is going to take him through the worst part of town. First he needs some change to call his ex-wife. Fortunately there is a convenience store nearby…

Video

Falling Down is presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer on a single layer disc. The picture is crisp and colourful, with only a little print damage to mention. There is minimal grain, and a moment or two of moiré, but other than that the image is adequate. The film does a great job of depicting the stifling heat that so obviously frays nerves.

Audio

There are three DD 2.0 Surround tracks, English, Italian and French. The dialogue is clear and there is adequate use of the rear speakers when the situation demands it. I think this is the only thriller that has the climax presaged by Hare Krishna chimes, which just has to be a selling point. The dialogue is excellent, with plenty of sarcasm to go around.

Features

I got my copy of Falling Down in a snapper case, another topic for the grumps among us. Funny, one day we`ll be nostalgic for them. No extras though…

Conclusion

On many levels, Falling Down is a cathartic rant that appeals to the grumpy old man in all of us. There is a sort of vicarious thrill at seeing D-FENS sticking it to the establishment in the way he does, and he does give equal attention to various bugbears of modern society. Indeed his first port of call was the cause for much of this film`s controversy. Due to unfortunate timing (or fortunate if you are a publicist), the release of Falling Down coincided with the LA riots, where several Korean businesses were trashed. D-FENS first tirade against rampant inflation just so happens to take place in a Korean convenience store.

On his way home, D-FENS speaks for all of us on several subjects, against gang violence, persistent beggars, loud obnoxious men, upper class golfers, and my two particular favourites scenes, road works and fast food. Falling Down does this with a wicked sense of humour and an ambiguity that has you wondering for a while if D-FENS is the good guy or the bad guy.

Michael Douglas is brilliant as D-FENS despite the haircut, and contributes much to the ambiguity of the character. He`ll have you cheering for him one minute, then leaves a sour taste in your mouth as he goes just that step too far the next. Robert Duvall is cast as the clichéd cop on the verge of retirement, Prendergast, but gives an excellent and quirky performance as the man who connects the dots and realises who is causing the mayhem in LA, when his superiors are just looking to see the back of him.

But there are downsides to Falling Down, most prominently is the typical studio cop-out that dilutes the message. As the film starts, we are introduced to D-FENS as an average guy who just can`t take it anymore, a `there, but for the grace of god` character, an everyman that represents the anarchist in all of us. It would have been more thought provoking to keep that good guy bad guy ambiguity right to the end. However, during the course of Prendergast`s investigation, we have the blanks of D-FENS` past filled in for us, every little detail, so that when D-FENS finally wonders in surprise that he is cast as the villain of the piece, he is the only one so surprised. The audience has already been led down that path ages ago. This also serves to reinforce the conservative establishment message that the little guy can never win, just bend over and take it like the good little consumer capitalist that society has trained you to be and don`t even think about complaining, the Corporations win every time.

One final drawback is the homophobic, Nazi, white supremacist army-surplus storeowner who D-FENS confronts. This has to the most unlikely caricatured role in the film that has traces of every kind of bigotry known to man, he just jars the whole feel of the movie, and feels like a sop to the liberal establishment.

Disappointing character development aside, Falling Down is a sharply scripted and brilliantly performed film that will appeal to many. Oft-times hilarious and with biting satire, all that dates the film is the lack of rage against mobile phones.