Spoiler Warning: This discussion contains some spoilers. It could be an entire gag from a comedy or an in-depth conversation concerning events in the second act.
"I'm not the thief. I'm not the one charging eighty-five cents for a stinking soda."
Falling Down, Joel Schumacher's 1993 pseudo black comedy disguised as a crime thriller is a film I've had my eye on for some time. Douglas has expressed it's his favourite of his performances, and it's clear to see why. There's a lot to like about Falling Down, but equally as much too drenched in controversy to ever really land as a quintessential 90s flick.
Has this suffered nearly thirty years on from its release in respect to its treatment of non-white Americans? Yes. It's downright uncomfortable at times when this really gets going. So long as you watch this from the right side of morality, you'll find Douglas' D-Fens to be a reprehensible villain, an outright racist, and an irredeemable leading character. The entire "you should have written it in English" side of this film is sickening if intended to create a masculine all-American hero. I think the only saving grace here is that I don't believe that is the intention.
If you read this as D-Fens representing Old America, obsessed with taking down the 'Commies', being a mother's boy, going to extraordinary lengths to restore the nuclear family and how what he represents cannot function in modern America, it's a killer movie. That is precisely how I see it, with some really wonderful and extravagant pieces about the way America functioned in the early 90s. The machine gun in a McDonalds, inflation, traffic jams, office work are all moments or ideas ridiculed and parodied with great effort.
Falling Down is a strange little movie, and I've not even touched on Robert Duvall's bizarre character. However, I think this has merit, even if some of the moments are wince-inducing. Douglas is a powerhouse and totally disappears into the role, serving a narrative that provides an exciting crescendo and a satisfying conclusion. I think it is clear that this was trying to question American masculinity but frames some of its sequences as though D-Fens' problems are reasonable and defendable. They clearly are not; the film is not perfect at making everything feel right. I happen to think this asks enough interesting questions and has a clever enough closing third to make it worthwhile thirty years on.
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