Movie Review: Falling Down
1993’s Falling Down is a fascinating cultural artifact. The image of the collared shirt and tie wearing Michael Douglas with his briefcase and shotgun has become a powerful symbol of decadent contemporary society. It’s the sort of movie that people, regardless of their politics or whether they have even seen the film, feel they understand what it is about and that it is somehow speaking to them.
In truth the actual movie doesn’t quite live up to its own mythology. The plot is, as you probably expect, the simple story of a fed up office worker who goes on a violent streak across Los Angeles after getting stuck in traffic on the day of his little daughter’s birthday. He smashes up a Korean man’s store, gets into an altercation with Hispanic gang bangers, threatens fast food workers with a gun when they tell him he arrived too late to get breakfast (I hate when that happens), and gets into numerous other hijinks and shenanigans across a brisk-feeling 113 minute runtime.
There is a good deal of social commentary as you might expect, both explicit and implicit. William, played masterfully by Michael Douglas, goes on rants about the nastiness of modern culture. He feels aggrieved as a put upon worker drone and taxpayer. There is also a clear element of identity politics. A key plot point is that William is divorced and his ex-wife is presented as an obstacle to him seeing his daughter. What’s more the earlier altercations in the film have an explicitly racial character and William’s frustrations seem coded specifically for white American men in the 90's.
But don’t get it twisted, this isn’t some “red pill” MAGA screed. The fact that Falling Down was directed by Joel Schumacher ought to be your first hint to not expect right wing agitprop. After the first act the film complicates William’s journey with a gradual reveal about what really caused him to snap. William meets a neo-Nazi harassing a gay couple. William explicitly denounces racism during his meeting with the bigoted store owner and ends up killing him. William’s later altercations all take on a much more economic populist and libertarian character. He expresses anger at wasteful construction projects and wealthy golfers using up public land.
What becomes evident is that William doesn’t really have a coherent ideology or message. He’s just a guy who had a bad day and snapped. We can empathize a bit watching him get treated like dirt trying to use a payphone or getting accosted by homeless people. The petty, uncivil side to life in modern cities is something people of all political stripes can understand. However Falling Down refuses to be a straightforward polemic. It goes out of its way to add a sinister side to William as it gradually reveals more about his family relationships and history. That complexity and nuance make for a more fully-realized character. What’s more I appreciate that the film invested some time into side plots and characters, such as Robert Duvall’s charming detective character tasked with catching William.
However there is still something of a watered down feeling to the story. What started off spicy by the end feels surprisingly tame. It’s funny because a friend of mine said the movie endorses “white supremacism” yet the only character William actually kills is a Nazi. The scene before that he expresses solidarity with a black guy who got denied for a bank loan. It’s an entertaining and clever movie, but not nearly as controversial as you may have been led to believe. It’s actually quite similar to 2019’s Joker in that regard, another film about male alienation in an urban environment of infrastructure decay and neglected social services.
Falling Down I think had potential to be a much greater film. What it ended up being is still a memorable work of art carried in large part by Michael Douglas’ brilliant acting. William is at once haunting, hilarious, infuriating, and insightful. While I think there were more interesting directions his narrative could have gone, the film is powerful and unique. Very much worth a watch.
Grade: B+
