In what has to be intentional timing, Arrow is putting out a new 4K of Falling Down later this July, making it likely that you’ll be watching this sweltering movie while it’s actually sweltering outside. At least that was the case during my watch, and it does add a little something to this ‘90s classic, especially with this fantastic transfer in which you can see each strand of hair in Michael Douglas’s dickhead flat-top. But the heat is just the instigating element of Falling Down. Watching it today, I wondered how well Douglas’s anti-hero has aged over the years.
I generally hate “they couldn’t make that today” bullshit (especially when Uwe Boll is out here making vigilante movies with Armie Hammer), but I’m not against re-evaluating a movie in today’s context. With Falling Down, I wondered how heroic Douglas’s D-FENS (his personalized license plate is how he’s credited in the film) would come across today because in my memory he was presented as fairly justified in the film. But that simply isn’t the case today or when the film first came out.
I blame this on the most memorable scene in the film. Douglas, already snapped, enters a Whammy Burger (no doubt no real fast food chain wanted to be represented in this way). They refuse to serve him breakfast because he’s a couple minutes past the cutoff time. So he takes the whole restaurant hostage. He decides he’ll get lunch instead, and he’s further enraged by how shitty the burger looks; it’s pathetic compared to the pictures in the ad. It’s an overall amusing scene despite the seriousness of Douglas accidentally shooting the place up (I think it’s even funnier than Adam Sandler’s version of the exact situation in Big Daddy). Most importantly, it’s relatable. Fuck that cutoff time! And why do the burgers look so much better in commercials?!
While that is humorous and acknowledges some everyday bullshit we all deal with, Douglas is not presented as a hero in the scene. People are rightfully terrified by this flat-topped psycho. The film does a great job of putting Douglas in relatable situations in which we’ve all had violent fantasies of overreaction (punching a guy yelling in traffic, blowing up a road construction site, trashing an overpriced convenience store, etc.), but it’s clear that Douglas is not mentally stable. And a lot of people get hurt along the way.
The film muddies the moral waters when Douglas interacts with more sinister characters like gang members and a neo-Nazi. He even gets a bit of “hero” music after he shoots the gang-member in the leg after the failed drive-by. His interaction with the neo-Nazi is arguably the most important scene, morality-wise. D-FENS is shocked when he realizes that the Nazi thinks they are kindred spirits. It starts to click with him that he might be the bad guy. But after killing the Nazi (another moment in which it’s hard not to root for him), he goes deeper into his insanity rather than waking up from it. This is clear because at the end of the movie he’s surprised that he’s the “bad guy.” This should have been obvious to him hours earlier.
The whole journey of D-FENS is someone who is “no longer economically viable” (to use the language of the film) and cannot adapt and/or accept it. It’s not a tragedy in which the world has turned to shit, and we need lunatics like D-FENS to shoot up places and wake people up. Robert Duvall is the perfect foil to Douglas in this regard, and he sums it up quite well when Douglas complains about being lied to: “They lie to everyone. Doesn’t give you a right to do what you did today.” Yeah, the world is fucked up, but you just keep going; you don’t start shooting up Whammy Burgers. The writer, Ebbe Roe Smith, in a new interview included on the disc, explains that D-FENS is not a vigilante because he’s not raging against some true injustice; he’s just fighting against personal gripes.
Falling Down ended up being more relatable than ever. I wish more people could realize that shit that bothers them personally does not equal universal injustice. Anyway, none of the morality stuff bogs this movie down. It’s a sweaty ‘90s thriller, and it’s a lot of fun despite the serious subject matter. And it’s never looked better.
Random Thoughts / Favorite Quotes
“Do you realize how much money my country has given your country?”
“How much?”
“I don't know, but it has to be a lot.”
The above quote might be my favorite interaction in the movie. I love when people ask for facts when someone spouts off some shit that doesn’t matter in the first place. Seriously, even if America has given Korea all the money in the world, what the fuck does that have to do with these two guys in a store in L.A. arguing about the price of a soft drink?
Dude's been going to a fake job every morning and still gets stuck in traffic?
The film has a kind of video-game structure. Douglas keeps leveling up his weapons and armor throughout, going from dorky office dude with no weapons to full on fatigued psycho with a rocket launcher by the end.
Duvall's macho captain is such a douche, yelling “She's open!” while hitting the heavy bag inexplicably in his office. Then he spends the majority of the retirement conversation with his pants undone. It’s great that Duvall gets a nice dig in at his expense on live TV.
“I’m with you. We’re the same, you and me.”
Frederic Forrest is so good at playing an insufferable neo-Nazi fuckhead.
“Now you're going to die wearing that stupid little hat.”
“I’m the bad guy?”
Special Features and Transfer
Arrow knows what they are doing, and this looks great in 4K. You truly get the sense of how hot it is in the film.
The highlight of the special features is a new interview with the writer, Ebbe Roe Smith.
Smith talks a lot about them toning down his script.
One example is the family having the BBQ was originally the owners of the house and not the caretaker. The guy is a plastic surgeon, and one of the kids says that the dad did mommy's boobs. D-Fens makes the mother take her top off and has the children applaud the work. Can't believe they cut that!
And he claims Schumacher said he would only make Batman Forever if they let him make Falling Down first.
There is also an interview with the composer, a featurette on the locations in the film, an archival interview with Douglas, and an archival commentary.