Review of Falling Down (1993) by Adam E — 10 Dec 2010

Michael Douglas is not a sympathetic character in this movie. That is it's biggest flaw. Hell yeah, everyone in this society has had their point where they are fed up, but the guy is clearly in the mindset of a privileged white guy. Granted, he's lost his job and family, but he shits on the Korean guy for trying to make a few bucks and then turns around and attacks a richer guy later. He's stuck in the middle of his own hypocrisy, not recognizing that he has more than most people, but angry at those who are better off than him. Now, obviously I don't fault him for taking out the gang members and the Nazi guy, but then what is this movie's message? It's OK to go off the deep end as long as you hurt people worse than your not-so-perfect self?

Still, the movie could have worked, if not for the countless cliches. The police officer on his last day, the one-dimensional characters who's only purpose were to be over-the-top and hateful or sympathetic, and the absolute incompetence of virtually every character except Robert Duvall. We could have gotten an explosively violent character study of a flawed man, but instead we just got a poor script. If the intention was to write hard-hitting social commentary, they widely missed the mark. And if it was an attempt to satirize the angry white male stereotype, they also failed.