Review of Falling Down (1993) by Abdulmalik A — 18 Aug 2015

Michael Douglas delivers a mesmerizing performance as William Foster, in this tragic tale of a man that has been driven over the edge, divorced and estranged from his wife and little girl, he also has been fired from his job as an engineer in the defense industry.

One morning stuck in a traffic jam on a freeway in the sizzling summer heat he snaps and abandons his car and starts walking slowly towards the streets of Los Angeles, there he begins to vent his rage like a wounded animal, he starts lashing out at society injustices with increasingly violent acts, his odyssey begins when he trashes the grocery store of an irate Korean owner who has over charged him for a can of Coke, a belligerent fake war veteran who really is just pan-handling for quick cash bugs and presses him for money, each one of these encounters chip away at what remains of his tolerance and sanity, he then has tense confrontation with members of a Mexican gang, in which he takes a gym bag filled with guns from them after they try to kill him in a drive by shooting, but end up missing him and crashing their car.

There is a priceless scene with Douglas at a Whammy Burger joint where he orders breakfast but they are now serving the lunch menu, he makes them change the menu back to breakfast again with help of a machine gun from the gym bag, but things really take an ugly and deadly turn when he meets a racist, homophobic neo-Nazi owner of a surplus value center, chilling played by Frederic Forrest.

Robert Duvall gives an superlative performance as a veteran cop on his last day on the force before retiring who begins to put together the pieces of this mysterious crime spree that is plaguing the city by a seriously emotionally disturbed man, who is described as a white man in a white shirt and tie, wearing glasses and carrying a gym bag.

Fine direction by Joel Schumacher, with terrific supporting performances by Barbara Hershey, Rachel Ticotin, Tuesday Weld, Lois Smith, Raymond J. Barry, and Vondie Curtis-Hall, but it's Michael Douglas's astonishing show-stopping performance that is the heart of this motion picture, and it is one of the most memorable roles of his distinguish career.

Exquisite photography by Andzej Bartkowiak, and a superb score by James Newton Howard. A thought-provoking, unsettling gem from the early 90s. Highly Recommended.