Movie: "Falling Down"
Year: 1993
Rated: R
Genre: Drama
Directed by: Joel Schumacher
Writing credits: Ebbe Roe Smith

Reviewer: Dr. Boogie
Posted: 2/25/2008

Plot: Bill Foster is just an ordinary guy who's had it with the injustices of modern society. While stuck in traffic on the freeway, he snaps, abandons his car, and heads home. Unfortunately, "home" is where his ex-wife and daughter live, and not even all the worst elements of LA will stop him from getting to them.

Review: In this movie, Michael Douglas enacts the fantasy of millions of frustrated urbanites by going on a rampage. The film opens with defense engineer Bill Foster gridlocked in LA traffic (unbelievable, I know). Already, you can see that this guy is just about ready to blow. He's stuck in traffic, some kid is eyeballing him, there's nothing good on the radio, and then his AC goes out. Sounds like a recipe for breakdown. A "falling" breakdown!

So he ditches his car on the freeway and heads home on foot. Along the way, he meets a lot of colorful characters, like a pair of thuggish gangbangers, a homophobic army surplus store owner, and an entitled homeless guy. It's pretty much a "worst case scenario" look at Los Angeles. Or maybe it's just a normal day for some of you. Either way, our hero winds up getting crazier and crazier, and so he starts lashing out at all the different hassles and social injustices as he sees them. At first, he just wrecks a grocery store after the owner overcharges him for a can of Coke, but things start to get real ugly when he finds a bag full of guns.

In contrast to Michael Douglas' character is Detective Prendergast, played by Robert Duvall. It's his last day on the job, but he's still better at it than anyone else in the department. We see him dealing with societal hang-ups just like Foster, only without the rampage. In fact, when he finally confronts Foster, he explains that he knows what he's going through, but that it's still not ok to take out your frustrations on innocent people.

All in all, it's a pretty entertaining movie. If you've ever lived in LA, you're bound to recognize some of the things that set Foster off, but at the same time, the film is careful not to make him seem entirely justified in his vigilantism. What you get is a guy who blows a gasket and rages against society's foibles, but in the end winds up being the bad guy. In that way, you can really sympathize with the character, but at the same time you can see that he's going about it the wrong way. It's an interesting character study, and I recommend it to everyone who's ever been stuck in traffic so long that they wondered if it would be faster to just walk home.

Overall rating:
(Scored on a 0.5 - 5 pickles rating: 0.5 being the worst and 5 being the best)