Falling Down

“I'm the bad guy?” Michael Douglas' character incredulously asks after terrorizing his way across the L.A. inner-city-scape one hot summer's day in Joel Schumacher's controversial 1993 Falling Down. Splitting critics when it was released in the wake of the Rodney King riots (some felt it brilliantly caught the prevailing zeitgeist; others deemed it superficial exploitative tripe), the film stars a crew-cut-sporting, glasses-wearing Douglas as a character initially known as “D-FENS” by the authorities (after the vanity license plate on his car). After abandoning his vehicle on the freeway during a traffic jam, Bill Foster (aka D-FENS) sets off on a dark odyssey to his former “home” to see his ex-wife (Barbara Hershey) and their young daughter (who is celebrating her birthday). Obtaining a baseball bat during a heated exchange with a Korean minimart shop owner, Foster continues walking through multiethnic neighborhoods, periodically calling his frightened ex-wife, while also engaging in increasingly implausible altercations in which he manages to trade up on weapons until he's carrying a gym bag full of guns (and a rocket launcher!). In a parallel but steadily converging narrative, Det. Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall) is spending his last day before retirement putting the pieces together of this newly developing case of an unknown white man at the center of a series of bizarre incidents of violence. Screenwriter Ebbe Roe Smith's script (which was turned down by nearly every studio) features stereotypical characters, and Schumacher directs with the subtle touch of a sledgehammer, but for all its flaws, Falling Down still occasionally hits a nerve—many will empathize when a black man (Vondie Curtis-Hall), picketing in front of the bank that has denied him a loan, screams out as he is being handcuffed by the police, “I am not economically viable.” DVD extras include an audio commentary with director Schumacher and star Douglas, as well as an interview with Douglas. A strong optional purchase. (R. Pitman)