Falling Down
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| Falling Down | |
 Falling Down |
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| Directed by | Joel Schumacher |
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| Produced by | Timothy Harris Arnold Kopelson Herschel Weingrod |
| Written by | Ebbe Roe Smith |
| Starring | Michael Douglas Robert Duvall Barbara Hershey Rachel Ticotin Frederic Forrest Tuesday Weld |
| Music by | James Newton Howard |
| Cinematography | Andrzej Bartkowiak |
| Editing by | Paul Hirsch |
| Studio | Le Studio Canal+ Regency Enterprises Alcor Films |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | February 26, 1993 (USA) |
| Running time | 113 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$25 million |
Falling Down is a 1993 action/crime film directed by Joel Schumacher. The film stars Michael Douglas in the lead role as William Foster, a social outcast, divorcee, and former defense worker with what his ex-wife (Barbara Hershey) calls "a propensity for violence." The film centers around Foster as he goes on a murderous rampage across the city of Los Angeles, trying to get home in time for his daughter's birthday party. Along the way, he encounters an array of seemingly trivial situations which drive him into a homicidal rage, often prompting him to make sardonic observations on life, poverty, the economy, and commercialism. The title of the film, referring to Foster's mental collapse, is taken from the title of the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down, which appears several times during the film.
Coincidentally, the Los Angeles riots of 1992 broke out as the movie was being filmed.
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[edit] Plot
The film traces the stories of two men: out-of-work engineer William Foster (Michael Douglas) and over-the-hill LAPD Sergeant Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) on an especially hot day in Los Angeles.
Foster is recently divorced, and his ex-wife Beth (Barbara Hershey) has obtained a restraining order to keep him away from herself and their daughter Adele. In addition, he has been laid off by the defense contractor for which he worked. His frustration grows as he finds himself stuck in a traffic jam and his car's air conditioning fails. Abandoning the vehicle, he begins walking across Los Angeles toward the home of Beth and Adele so he can attend Adele’s birthday party.
Foster stops at a convenience store to get change for a phone call, but when the store owner refuses to give Foster change for his dollar unless he buys something Foster winds up haranguing the owner (Michael Paul Chan) for charging what he believes are unreasonably high prices. When the owner tries to defend himself with a baseball bat, Foster takes it from him and destroys much of the merchandise, telling the owner "I'm rolling back prices to 1965. What do you think of that?" He only pays 50 cents for an 85 cent can of Coca Cola before leaving. Soon afterward, Foster is accosted by two Hispanic gang members who threaten him with a butterfly knife; he drives them off with the bat, which he leaves behind in favor of the knife, and continues his journey across the city.
The gang members and some of their friends later attempt a drive-by shooting on Foster as revenge. The shots hit several bystanders instead, leaving Foster unscathed. The car crashes, killing some of the gang members inside. Taking a bag filled with their weapons for himself, Foster shoots one surviving gang member in the leg and walks off. In a nearby park, he encounters a panhandler who keeps asking for money even as Foster picks his hard-luck story apart; Foster finally hands over his briefcase, which contains only his lunch. He then enters a fast food restaurant called Whammy Burger and attempts to order breakfast, but cannot get it since the switch from breakfast to lunch menu had occurred 3 minutes prior. After a tense argument with the manager, Foster draws a weapon from his bag and accidentally fires into the ceiling, scaring the employees and customers badly. After trying to reassure them, he decides to order lunch but is outraged when the burger he receives looks nothing like the thick, juicy one shown on the menu board. He leaves, tries to call Beth from a phone booth, then shoots the phone to pieces when a man complains that he is taking too long.
This string of events draws the attention of Prendergast, an LAPD sergeant whose domineering wife and mocking co-workers constantly frustrate all aspects of his life. This day is supposed to be his last on the job before he retires, but he insists on investigating, much to the dismay of his supervisor and the squad. Interviews with the witnesses at each scene lead him to realize that the same man may be responsible; Foster’s “D-FENS” vanity license plate proves to be an important lead in tracking him down. Prendergast and his partner, Detective Sandra Torres (Rachel Ticotin) rush out to intercept him.
During the walk toward Beth’s house, Foster buys a snowglobe as a birthday present for Adele and stops at a military surplus store to find a new pair of shoes. The owner (Frederic Forrest), a homophobic neo-Nazi, diverts Torres’ attention when she comes in to ask a few questions. After she has left, he locks the door, shows Foster his collection of Nazi paraphernalia, and reveals the police scanner he has been using to follow the day’s events. He then tries to give Foster a used can of Zyklon B as a present; when the offer is rebuffed, he pulls a gun on Foster, threatens to turn him in, smashes the snowglobe Foster purchased for his daughter, and attempts to handcuff him. Foster manages to stab the store owner with the butterfly knife and then shoots him dead. Foster now changes into army fatigues and boots, takes the anti-tank weapon along with his bag of guns, and starts walking again.
Next, Foster encounters a road repair crew, whose members are not doing much actual work as traffic backs up around them. Accusing them of doing unnecessary repairs in order to justify their budget, he uses the anti-tank weapon to blow up the street and construction site so they will have some real work to do. His travels bring him to a golf course, where a golfer angrily hits a ball in his direction. Foster retaliates by shooting the man’s golf cart with a shotgun, causing it to roll into a nearby water hazard; the man suffers a heart attack triggered by the stress of the situation and begs in vain for his medication, which is in the sinking cart.
Climbing over a wall, Foster finds himself on the grounds of an enormous mansion whose owner, a plastic surgeon, is out of town. He rages about this display of excess wealth to the first man he sees, one of the owner’s employees, then decides to hide on the grounds with the man and his family. Foster tells them about being laid off by his defense-contractor employer when the Cold War ended, and also of his perception of being discarded as obsolete after so many years of study and work. The man offers to let Foster take him as hostage and let his family go free; infuriated at the assumption that he means them any harm, Foster departs.
By the time he reaches Beth’s house, she has already called the police several times to warn them about him and fled with Adele in tow. As he watches some home movies recorded during their marriage, he realizes that he had been putting stress on his family even back then. He also comes to believe that they may have gone to a nearby pier, but Prendergast and Torres arrive before he can go after them. Torres tries to enter at the rear of the house, but Foster wounds her with a shot from a pistol (the last weapon he has kept with him) and flees with Prendergast in pursuit.
The two men come face to face on the Manhattan Beach pier, where Prendergast dismisses Foster’s complaints about being ill-treated by society as an excuse for his terrorizing of people. It is heavily implied in their dialog, and in earlier moments of the plot, that Prendergast has just as many reasons to delve into violence and despair as Foster does, yet has a higher degree of empathy which perhaps makes a crucial difference between the two.
Prendergast positions himself to protect Beth and Adele, insisting that Foster give himself up to the police officers who are arriving in force. Foster instead wants to engage Prendergast in an Old West-style showdown, so that his family can collect on his life insurance if he dies. He pulls a water pistol from his pocket and squirts Prendergast, Prendergast returns fire fatally shooting him before realizing that it was just a toy. Prendergast then wipes the water from his face as Foster says "I would've gotcha" before falling off of the pier and into the ocean.
Over the course of the film, Prendergast has gradually developed a high level of assertiveness toward his wife and co-workers. In the aftermath of the shooting, he publicly curses at his overbearing supervisor (who had mockingly used Prendergast's low profanity rate as an example of his presumed sheepishness or lack of manhood) in front of the news media, then decides to stay on the job and postpone his retirement.
[edit] Reception
Reviews for the film tended towards the positive.[1][2] Roger Ebert, who gave the film a positive review at the time of its release, stated of William "D-Fens" Foster:
"What is fascinating about the Douglas character, as written and played, is the core of sadness in his soul. Yes, by the time we meet him, he has gone over the edge. But there is no exhilaration in his rampage, no release. He seems weary and confused, and in his actions he unconsciously follows scripts that he may have learned from the movies, or on the news, where other frustrated misfits vent their rage on innocent bystanders."
[edit] Cultural influence
The one-off character Frank Grimes in The Simpsons episode "Homer's Enemy", was modelled around the appearance of Michael Douglas' character.[3]
[edit] Primary cast
- Michael Douglas - D-Fens, Bill Foster
- Robert Duvall - Sergeant Martin Prendergast
- Barbara Hershey - Elizabeth "Beth" Travino
- Tuesday Weld - Amanda Prendergast
- Rachel Ticotin - Detective Sandra Torres
- Frederic Forrest - Nick, Army Surplus Store Owner
- Raymond J. Barry - Captain Yardley
[edit] Awards and nominations
- 1993 Camerimage, Nominated for the Golden Frog
- 1993 Cannes Film Festival, Nominated for the Palme d'Or
- 1994 Edgar Award, Won for Best Motion Picture Screenplay (Ebbe Roe Smith)
[edit] Box office performance
According to Boxofficemojo.com, the film grossed over $40 million domestically. It was the number one weekend movie during its first two weeks of release (2/26-28, 3/5-7/93)
[edit] References
- ^ http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/falling_down/
- ^ http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/fallingdown
- ^ Reardon, Jim. (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "Homer's Enemy". [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Falling Down |
- Falling Down at the Internet Movie Database
- Roger Ebert's review of the film
- Filming locations in Internet Movie Data Base
- An analysis of the film's symbolism on Hoopleton.com
| Preceded by Groundhog Day |
Box office number-one films of 1993 (USA) February 28, 1993 - March 7, 1993 |
Succeeded by CB4 |
| Preceded by 3 Ninjas |
Box office number-one films of 1993 (UK) June 6, 1993 |
Succeeded by The Vanishing |
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