January 27, 2008
Falling Down (1993)
Should I see it?
No.
No.
Michael Douglas plays an unemployed defense worker who snaps and goes on a rambling shooting spree. He offers a pretty good performance, but his hard work is undermined by poor dialog and a fumbling script. In its desire to show the main character's moral confusion in a morally empty world, the film winds up completely without a point. A film without a point is a film worth ignoring.
Related Reviews:
Michael Douglas movies
Basic Instinct (1992)
The Sentinel (2006)
Other Critic's Reviews:
The Stop Button
Beyond Hollywood
Click on the scared white guy to see the trailer
Related Reviews:
Michael Douglas movies
Basic Instinct (1992)
The Sentinel (2006)
Other Critic's Reviews:
The Stop Button
Beyond Hollywood
Labels: Barbara Hershey, film, Michael Douglas, movie reviews, revenge, Robert Duvall
posted by Michelle Obama's Left Nut at 10:38 PM
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4 Comments:
slightly disagree, here.
It *may* be worthless, to many viewers. Certainly not an example to follow.
However, it does a great job of demonstrating how the modern urb puts unbearable pressure on the hollowness of modern being. By recognizing that the problems on modernity's surface are nothing compared to the problems rotting in its core, the film's obsessive focus on this one man's insanely bad day (I use the psych jargon with malice)--and the performance Douglas brings in this, one of the movies he does act in--provides us a moment's insight into what the national news elites continually distract us from by speaking as though urban sprawl, unemployment, traffic, heat, etc. were the real problems.
This despite the suggestion ham-handedly inserted, that somehow this problem "belongs" to the defense-minded patriot, whose "conservatism" is symptomatic of deep-rooted violent pathologies.
Cheers,
PGE
Ladies and gentlemen, THIS is how you disagree with someone. Good points, but the ending of the film is very empty and doesn't really bring your points home (at least to me). The piece simply feeds off of the 90's "goin' postal" trend and fizzles to a close.
It's great hearing from you again, friend.
the end was disappointing, especially on second and subsequent viewings.
Good to see you still kicking around. Took a bit of updating my URLs to get you back on my a-list where you belong. :-)
Cheers,
PGE
A film without a point or a critic without a clue?
Falling Down delivers somewhat of a Libertarian message--the main idea is summed up by Duvall's character when he says "Everybody has their own idea of what paradise is."
Virtually all the conflict in the film arises when one character tries to impose his or her will, his or her vision of paradise, onto others.
The characters of Prendergast and D-Fens are very similiar--both are in the business of protecting others, both are considred obsolete and at the end of their careers, each has had their child "taken" from them, and so on. But whereas D-Fens relentlessly "rights" all the wrongs on his journey, Prendergast instead laughs them off in his equally relentless quest.
This key difference between the two characters sets up the morality of the film--Prendergast as the good guy, D-Fens as the bad guy. The former case is obvious, in the latter there is some moral ambiguity which arises from the fact just as D-Fens claims he's been lied to, the audience has been fed that same lie.
And so we relate with D-Fens, even perhaps see him as a hero at times, but the end of the film leaves us examin exactly where he went wrong, just as D-Fens, when informed he was the bad guy, asks, "How did that happen?"
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