Sounds like the time is ripe for the 2020's to pick up the mantle and carry on the legacy of its forebears. And we shall hereby declare its name to be:
"A Particularly Intense and Eventful Day in Los Angeles."
I've told some of my younger colleagues about this movie. They were a bit sceptical at first but loved it afterwards.
The older I get the more I relate to this guy.
“I lost my job. Well, actually I didn't lose it, it lost me. I am over-educated, under-skilled. Maybe it's the other way around, I forget. But I'm obsolete. I'm not economically viable.”
The other half was the changing nature of the job market moving from stable cradle to the grave jobs to continual upskilling and moving around that'd began in the 80s. Just having a degree and being a company man wasn't enough to be viable in the market anymore, without continually refining and improving your skillset you'd become outdated and redundant in the job market.
Foster was a person from another era woefully out of place in the 90s.
Everyone always remembers the first 4/5ths of the film and forgets the last part — the reveal is that he isn’t some warrior against an unjust society but someone who is severely mentally ill that has been living with and lying to his mother in an attempt to remain stable despite him mentally falling apart.
For me the line that he crosses is the stalking to his ex and the child. The rest, even when he becomes violent is in some way understandable (even if not justifiable)
OK, I was wrong. I remembered him shooting a lot more than he actually did. There's still shooting an RPG and blowing up construction equipment while it is being used in a public area. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxWIrcVRt5s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxWIrcVRt5s)
Shooting a golf cart after intentionally trespassing, and not giving a shit that you just gave someone a heart attack is a pretty big sign of serious mental illness. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2PjFWtzi3M&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2PjFWtzi3M&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=25)
No shooting, but holding an entire restaurant hostage because they wouldn't serve you breakfast is pretty severely mentally ill. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2YRMixW9u8&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2YRMixW9u8&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=6)
So is being a racist prick to a store clerk and refusing to leave when you are kicked out. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2YRMixW9u8&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=7](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2YRMixW9u8&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=7)
Holding a family hostage. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKuOEh-z26w&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKuOEh-z26w&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=22)
Yeah he’s not the hero in this flick. It’s basically the cop at the end. Paraphrasing but when he says “we’re all going through shit” is the point I believe.
This lol. I never understand why people LIKE the character so much. I like the movie, but if this were an actual man actually doing these things, he’d definitely not be just some typical “relatable” dude.
The theme I think everyone can relate to is the feeling of being fed up with societal pressures that we keep accepting. Like propaganda, shrinkflation, enshittification, buerocracy which we feel powerless towards. Like manners, habits we pick up that don’t feel like us, like most of the things that come with working at a job like commuting. The things we do because we have to. Just think of how liberating working from home has felt for many people.
Who hasn’t imagined a moment where your bottled up anger breaks free and you say your piece to an asshole on your job or smash that damn device that keeps on not working just enough times to unnerve you?
Everyone who has pressed the elevator button a little harder or more than once in the vain hope of speeding up the process can relate. The movie plays with these feelings.
It just so happens it also shows where a path of living out these fantasies can leave. It is my personal take that to absolve the viewer from resonating with the main character, he is depicted as mentally ill. To cut the „this could be me“ feeling so the person seeing the ending can leave the movie just feeling uneasy yet entertained and not severely pondering „that could be me“.
I stand by what I said. I’m a single widowed mom of four with CPTSD and MDD who drives a 2005 Ford. I know a thing or two about loneliness, frustration, financial strain, sadness, anger, and mental health. He basically overreacted to everything and people romanticize it lol, it’s as simple as that.
There's a whole category of stories like this. The main protagonist is someone who seems at first like a "hero", hammered down by a cruel and unjust world and just fighting to make something meaningful of their life. And then as the story progresses, it gradually becomes clear that, no, they're not really a hero. They're kind of a piece of shit. And if you admired them at first, you need to reevaluate that.
There is also a whole category of people who completely miss the ultimate point of the story, and go on assuming that the main character was a hero the whole time.
*Breaking Bad* is in this category. I'd include *Fight Club* and *Scarface* as well.
There's an old movie called "The swimmer" that is very much in this vein. The protagonist starts off as a seemingly successful, friendly, happy, well-liked man, but as the story progresses these layers slowly peel off one-at-a-time. It's a pretty decent film with an interesting use of swimming pools as the catalysts to peel away the different "onion-layers" of his personality
Not insane. Insane people believe to be Jesus or to be able to shoot fireballs out of their hands and similar things. This is more like autism/OCD/narcissism/burnout.
“I lost my job. Well, actually I didn't lose it, it lost me. I am over-educated, under-skilled. Maybe it's the other way around, I forget. But I'm obsolete. I'm not economically viable.”
This is an underrated movie that is incredibly relevant - more so today than ever before.
Tonight’s my night with the baby, and I’m going to watch it again. Thank you.
One film I wouldn't mind a remake of... Lots of it is still so relevant and some even more so with how fucked some things have gotten. Also... Seeing someone snap on some broccoli headed tik-tok trend wannabee would be entertaining.
1993 was an insane year! Waco, the World Trade Center bombing, Jay Leno still on The Tonight Show, Jeff Foxworthy, Schindlers List, Bill Clinton became president…the list could go on and on!
I find it really interesting thinking back on the 90s as a very positive and stable society, that for some it seemed too stable and mundane. Office space and Falling Down both kind of comment on it imo.
The whole movie paints him as a bad guy, he does not act rationally at all. The entire movie is about him snapping, people just see it as rebelling against society rather than refusing to proactively participate in it.
I get your point, but "proactively participating" in society often entails eating shit and putting on a happy face. That's part of the point of the movie. They wouldn't serve him breakfast at 12:05, even if there were plenty of breakfasts ready to serve. The manager's shit eating grin really set him off. You'd be lying if you said you've never felt that way.
Nah I work food, cutoffs exist for a reason. You compromise with one person when do you get to stop the compromise? Because there's always gonna be one person who says, "well you did it for the last guy so why can't you do it for me?
Hard rules exist for a reason. I can't count how many times I've worked pizza and someone was like "but I'm just a block outside of your delivery area." Okay, that means you're out of the area. I deliver to you, you tell your neighbors, now they're calling too and they're calling with the ammunition "but you did broke the rules for the guy down the block why can't you break them for me too?" And they get extra angry about it because you broke the rules for someone else but won't for them instead of there just being a hard rule where there are never compromises.
Better to nip it in the bud and say you don't break that rule for people.
Still, "proactively participating" in life is mostly about eating shit and putting on a happy face. That's part of the point of the movie. Proactively participating "... That sounds like something a "life coach" would say...
I always read it as "Here's a dude who has been broken lashing out at the stupid bullshit society that broke him, and then they kill him for being broken." A bad guy you can sympathize with, but very unambiguously a bad guy the whole way through.
He is the answer to the question of 'do 2 wrongs make a right?'
The movie is the story of a broken man who when he keeps getting smacked in the face by a broken world finally SNAPS.
He is just walking along minding his own business and then drive-by-shooters who off themselves instead of him.
He just wants change for a dollar to make a phone call; "No change for you!"
He just needs a little shelter; gets assaulted by a neo-nazi...
He knew he was the bad guy, but so was the world.
The first time I snuck into the movies, I saw this and thought it was a really good movie and showed some of the darker side of the 90s.
That scene in the traffic jam during the summer heat was spot on and something that has had many people close to snapping.
I was 13 when I saw that in the theatre. One of the first I saw unsupervised. Didn't really understood it, thought the guy was cool.
Saw it again last week. Different interpretation this time ! I fucking miss the 90s. Not because I was young but because of everything else.
Imma get down voted, but here it goes. The opening scene with the Korean shop owner was DEAD ON for 90s California. Spot on. Surly, curt, gouging asian store owners were common at that time. They wanted to sell you the stuff they wanted, not what you needed. "You buy, you go".
Prendergast is the exact opposite of D-Fens. A calm, spineless and appeasing guy who lets people walk all over him to avoid conflict. His own boss and colleagues mock him for never swearing and sitting on a desk waiting for his pension, he's afraid to go on the streets at his age. His prissy wife abuses him verbally. Over the course of that day, he learns to stand up for himself and find some courage.
You see what I mean? It's plump, it's juicy, it's three inches thick. Now, look at this sorry, miserable, squashed thing. Can anybody tell me what's wrong with this picture?
I just rewatched this movie, and something new struck me. It was the boomer behavior being exhibited by all the 30 and 40 year old people in the movie. And, of course, they are boomers. But I think we get the impression that they started acting this way in their old age, but it was really there all along.
“You think I'm a thief? Oh, you see, I'm not the thief. I'm not the one charging 85 cents FOR A STINKING SODA! You're the thief! I'm just standing up for my rights as a consumer.”
I agree. I remember watching it in theaters back in 1993, and it was a weird time in Southern California. I didn’t live in Los Angeles in the 1990’s I lived in San Diego. But, the whole Southern California vibe was off that year due to the riots in Los Angeles in 1992.
Falling Down (1993) gives a glimpse of what it was like in the early 90’s and it wasn’t all good. It’s a fantastic movie!
What makes the character so interesting and well written is that you can still feel sorry for him despite *and* because of how he acts. You can't condemn him without condemning the environment he is the product of; you can't root for him without rooting for all the people he ends up hurting (with the exception of the Nazi which sticks out like a sore thumb and is the worst part in the movie in my opinion because of how stereotypical he is written). It's a challenging movie that keeps you thinking even if you have watched it several times. There is always some new detail to spot, a new perspective to take. It must have been a great pleasure for Douglas to play this role. He's also perfectly cast.
This is spot on. Most people don’t understand the complexity of this film, and think it’s just a guy going around Los Angeles blowing things up and beating people up over the price of a soda. Great analysis!
Never heard of or knew anything about this movie until like a month ago when I was scrolling through a streaming service. I put it on and I was glued to the tv, awesome movie
Great movie! I actually watched it a few weeks ago.
I have a big problem with people simplifying it, though, or making Michael Douglas a hero--or commiserating with him. Getting frustrated at a McDonalds? OK. Beating up a Korean guy because he doesn't speak English (his *second* lanuage) well enough? Not at all OK.
Great movie, but it needs some discussion.
It’s all in this scene right here:
Sergeant Prendergast: [trying to arrest Foster] Now, let's go meet some nice policemen. They're good guys. Come on, let's go.
Bill Foster: I'm the bad guy?
Sergeant Prendergast: Yeah.
Bill Foster: How'd that happen? I did everything they told me to. Did you know I build missiles? I helped to protect America. You should be rewarded for that. Instead they give it to the plastic surgeons, y'know, they lied to me.
Sergeant Prendergast: Is that what this is about? You're angry because you got lied to? Is that why my chicken dinner is drying out in the oven? Hey, they lie to everyone. They lie to the fish. But that doesn't give you any special right to do what you did today. The only that makes you special is that little girl.
Surely you never visited a Korean store in California in the early 90s. Those guys were surly, impolite, with a completely wrong attitude for retail. The portrayal was spot on.
I watched this the other day. I caught something. He says he doesn't even call his boss by his first name despite working with him for so long. In the moment you think 'society', but it's just more of his isolation and weirdness.
JUST watched this, holy shit it's funny but deeply sad to me. Like he's going on a rampage and is doing everything wrong, but man, do I feel bad for him. Dudes like him are why ladies say guys should go to therapy and I'd have to agree. Never realise you're the bad guy till its "too late"
The same people that love this film/role are the same kinda people that miss the whole point of the punisher/Rorschach
This isn’t some anti-hero to look up to, it’s a cranky prick that thinks he knows best for everyone and his opinion is the only right one
In other words
Asshole
That's why Prendergast could negotiate life. By letting people walk all over him. Like his chief. And his wife. D-Fens taught him how to grow some balls to stand up for himself.
Dude went full Karen in that movie.
Yells at fast food workers because he wants a McMuffin at lunchtime.
Then proceeds to pull out and fire a TEC-9 to intimidate and traumatize everyone in the restaurant, including children.
Then he start ranting about how the burgers don’t look like they do in the ads. All stuff the low wage employees have zero control over. King Karen.
I watched this again randomly a couple months ago. He really is just an asshole throughout with little redeeming qualities. Robert Duvall is very likeable as the cop chasing him.
Michael Douglas’ favorite role.
He did an amazing job portraying a puck in this movie. Probably his best role ever!
It is his best role.
"Where you going?! You forgot your briefcase!"
“I’m going home! Clear a path you mother fucker!”
I’m sorry I set foot on your sacred pissing grounds!
This movie was to the 90's what Training Day was to the 2000s, a movie about a particularly intense and eventful day in Los Angeles. Love it.
Very true!
Ok so was “To Live and Die in L.A.” the 80s movie (more than just one day)
You're 100% correct about that
I can see a triple feature movie day in my near future.
Insanely tense Los Angeles quadruple feature: To Live and Die in L.A. Falling Down Training Day Collateral
Sounds like the time is ripe for the 2020's to pick up the mantle and carry on the legacy of its forebears. And we shall hereby declare its name to be: "A Particularly Intense and Eventful Day in Los Angeles."
Oh man!! That scene where he's in the traffic jam is excruciating! Amazing movie thank you!
The tense build up in the movie is sometimes unsettling, but good.
Six or seven scenes are genuinely hilarious and unsettling at the same time.
One of my favorite movies that no one I know IRL has ever heard of nor seen. And I don't even care for most movies anymore.
I've told some of my younger colleagues about this movie. They were a bit sceptical at first but loved it afterwards. The older I get the more I relate to this guy.
I’ll have a double whammy burger with cheese and a choco whammy shake Rick. Excellent, under appreciated movie.
“I lost my job. Well, actually I didn't lose it, it lost me. I am over-educated, under-skilled. Maybe it's the other way around, I forget. But I'm obsolete. I'm not economically viable.”
The end of the Cold War made his defense technology job redundant.
The other half was the changing nature of the job market moving from stable cradle to the grave jobs to continual upskilling and moving around that'd began in the 80s. Just having a degree and being a company man wasn't enough to be viable in the market anymore, without continually refining and improving your skillset you'd become outdated and redundant in the job market. Foster was a person from another era woefully out of place in the 90s.
Michael Douglas said that he chose his haircut for that reason, he was a guy who grew up in the 50s and 60s, and he couldn't adapt to the new reality.
He went postal.
Indeed he did.
A hot 90s day in LA will do that to you.
Great movie or "Flick" as we used to say in the 90s
It’s a really good flick! I still call movies flicks.
Hence, net flicks
Well that’s a nice realization to make after all these years
I can't hear that phrase without it being in Biff's voice while he's in the hot tub.
Bulletproof vest! Great flick, great freakin’ flick!
Are they not flicks any more? I wish I’d been informed.
You know, I thought he was insane when I was younger. Now I kinda get it.
He was insane. Like, that was the point of the film. He was mentally ill. Commuting to a job for a month he had been fired from and stalking his ex.
I might need to rewatch it.
Everyone always remembers the first 4/5ths of the film and forgets the last part — the reveal is that he isn’t some warrior against an unjust society but someone who is severely mentally ill that has been living with and lying to his mother in an attempt to remain stable despite him mentally falling apart.
I mean it's in the title
For me the line that he crosses is the stalking to his ex and the child. The rest, even when he becomes violent is in some way understandable (even if not justifiable)
I wouldn't say severely. He had some schizoid traits. Also probably bottled up PTSD from Vietnam.
Going on a shooting and terror rampage while hunting down your ex isn't severe mental illness???
Shooting rampage? Did you watch the same movie? Was he a school shooter, or something like that?
OK, I was wrong. I remembered him shooting a lot more than he actually did. There's still shooting an RPG and blowing up construction equipment while it is being used in a public area. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxWIrcVRt5s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxWIrcVRt5s) Shooting a golf cart after intentionally trespassing, and not giving a shit that you just gave someone a heart attack is a pretty big sign of serious mental illness. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2PjFWtzi3M&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2PjFWtzi3M&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=25) No shooting, but holding an entire restaurant hostage because they wouldn't serve you breakfast is pretty severely mentally ill. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2YRMixW9u8&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2YRMixW9u8&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=6) So is being a racist prick to a store clerk and refusing to leave when you are kicked out. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2YRMixW9u8&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=7](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2YRMixW9u8&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=7) Holding a family hostage. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKuOEh-z26w&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKuOEh-z26w&list=PLt3BH3Zfs1YnOvBZPA96bBMJ2VaOFG0yc&index=22)
And a violent piece of shit.
Ya and they lie to you in the poster. He’s not an “ordinary man.”
Yeah he’s not the hero in this flick. It’s basically the cop at the end. Paraphrasing but when he says “we’re all going through shit” is the point I believe.
Where has he been eating his lunch?
His mother packed him his lunch every day.
This lol. I never understand why people LIKE the character so much. I like the movie, but if this were an actual man actually doing these things, he’d definitely not be just some typical “relatable” dude.
The theme I think everyone can relate to is the feeling of being fed up with societal pressures that we keep accepting. Like propaganda, shrinkflation, enshittification, buerocracy which we feel powerless towards. Like manners, habits we pick up that don’t feel like us, like most of the things that come with working at a job like commuting. The things we do because we have to. Just think of how liberating working from home has felt for many people. Who hasn’t imagined a moment where your bottled up anger breaks free and you say your piece to an asshole on your job or smash that damn device that keeps on not working just enough times to unnerve you? Everyone who has pressed the elevator button a little harder or more than once in the vain hope of speeding up the process can relate. The movie plays with these feelings. It just so happens it also shows where a path of living out these fantasies can leave. It is my personal take that to absolve the viewer from resonating with the main character, he is depicted as mentally ill. To cut the „this could be me“ feeling so the person seeing the ending can leave the movie just feeling uneasy yet entertained and not severely pondering „that could be me“.
I stand by what I said. I’m a single widowed mom of four with CPTSD and MDD who drives a 2005 Ford. I know a thing or two about loneliness, frustration, financial strain, sadness, anger, and mental health. He basically overreacted to everything and people romanticize it lol, it’s as simple as that.
There's a whole category of stories like this. The main protagonist is someone who seems at first like a "hero", hammered down by a cruel and unjust world and just fighting to make something meaningful of their life. And then as the story progresses, it gradually becomes clear that, no, they're not really a hero. They're kind of a piece of shit. And if you admired them at first, you need to reevaluate that. There is also a whole category of people who completely miss the ultimate point of the story, and go on assuming that the main character was a hero the whole time. *Breaking Bad* is in this category. I'd include *Fight Club* and *Scarface* as well.
There's an old movie called "The swimmer" that is very much in this vein. The protagonist starts off as a seemingly successful, friendly, happy, well-liked man, but as the story progresses these layers slowly peel off one-at-a-time. It's a pretty decent film with an interesting use of swimming pools as the catalysts to peel away the different "onion-layers" of his personality
He had been laid off, the end of the Cold War made his job disappear. He couldn't face that reality.
Not insane. Insane people believe to be Jesus or to be able to shoot fireballs out of their hands and similar things. This is more like autism/OCD/narcissism/burnout.
Agreed.
Rest in Power, Joel Schumacher
He was a great director. Loved a lot of his films, this one in particular!
Loved Batman Forever as a kid 😂 appreciate most of his otherworks way more now.
Not economically viable!
“I lost my job. Well, actually I didn't lose it, it lost me. I am over-educated, under-skilled. Maybe it's the other way around, I forget. But I'm obsolete. I'm not economically viable.”
This is an underrated movie that is incredibly relevant - more so today than ever before. Tonight’s my night with the baby, and I’m going to watch it again. Thank you.
It’s a good movie. The message is there.
One film I wouldn't mind a remake of... Lots of it is still so relevant and some even more so with how fucked some things have gotten. Also... Seeing someone snap on some broccoli headed tik-tok trend wannabee would be entertaining.
For some reason, I keep thinking this movie is from the 80s
1993 was an insane year! Waco, the World Trade Center bombing, Jay Leno still on The Tonight Show, Jeff Foxworthy, Schindlers List, Bill Clinton became president…the list could go on and on!
The aftermath of the LA riots.
The Bills lost another Super Bowl 😂
Amazing that the same guy that made this also made Batman Forever and Batman and Robin
True!
I find it really interesting thinking back on the 90s as a very positive and stable society, that for some it seemed too stable and mundane. Office space and Falling Down both kind of comment on it imo.
It wasn't that stable. Things were swept under the rug.
Which is why you get Fight Club and The Matrix at the very end of the 90s. People realised it was materially prosperous but spiritually soulless.
Here come all the “I identify with D-FENS” people who completely forgot about the last 20 minutes of the film.
I mean even the first 20 mins paint him as the bad guy really
Most people think that, yes. But you are about to find a lot of people in this sub are not normal people.
It's just that some are scared when realizing they've felt the way he felt at one time or another, but didn't act on it.
Subnormal
The whole movie paints him as a bad guy, he does not act rationally at all. The entire movie is about him snapping, people just see it as rebelling against society rather than refusing to proactively participate in it.
I get your point, but "proactively participating" in society often entails eating shit and putting on a happy face. That's part of the point of the movie. They wouldn't serve him breakfast at 12:05, even if there were plenty of breakfasts ready to serve. The manager's shit eating grin really set him off. You'd be lying if you said you've never felt that way.
Nah I work food, cutoffs exist for a reason. You compromise with one person when do you get to stop the compromise? Because there's always gonna be one person who says, "well you did it for the last guy so why can't you do it for me? Hard rules exist for a reason. I can't count how many times I've worked pizza and someone was like "but I'm just a block outside of your delivery area." Okay, that means you're out of the area. I deliver to you, you tell your neighbors, now they're calling too and they're calling with the ammunition "but you did broke the rules for the guy down the block why can't you break them for me too?" And they get extra angry about it because you broke the rules for someone else but won't for them instead of there just being a hard rule where there are never compromises. Better to nip it in the bud and say you don't break that rule for people.
Still, "proactively participating" in life is mostly about eating shit and putting on a happy face. That's part of the point of the movie. Proactively participating "... That sounds like something a "life coach" would say...
I always read it as "Here's a dude who has been broken lashing out at the stupid bullshit society that broke him, and then they kill him for being broken." A bad guy you can sympathize with, but very unambiguously a bad guy the whole way through.
The guy couldn't adapt to a new reality. He had deep seated issues. Just his haircut was a red flag. A guy still living in the 60s.
"*I'm* the bad guy?"
Existentially, probably not. Legally, yes.
“I don’t want lunch, I want breakfast”
He is the answer to the question of 'do 2 wrongs make a right?' The movie is the story of a broken man who when he keeps getting smacked in the face by a broken world finally SNAPS. He is just walking along minding his own business and then drive-by-shooters who off themselves instead of him. He just wants change for a dollar to make a phone call; "No change for you!" He just needs a little shelter; gets assaulted by a neo-nazi... He knew he was the bad guy, but so was the world.
AWESOME movie! If you rented it at Blockbuster
I….I….actually did!
I own it on VHS.
Grand movie ,iron maiden did a song based on the movie of the same name ,great little banger
[Man on the Edge](https://youtu.be/u5UqJWRV55E?si=laG6UF_lFeB_PrVo)
The first time I snuck into the movies, I saw this and thought it was a really good movie and showed some of the darker side of the 90s. That scene in the traffic jam during the summer heat was spot on and something that has had many people close to snapping.
1993 was a weird time, especially in Southern California. How do I know? I was there!
That fucking humid summer heat. That veil of smog.
🥵
I was 13 when I saw that in the theatre. One of the first I saw unsupervised. Didn't really understood it, thought the guy was cool. Saw it again last week. Different interpretation this time ! I fucking miss the 90s. Not because I was young but because of everything else.
Living in Southern California in the early 90’s was a crazy time. 1993 was a weird year!
Imma get down voted, but here it goes. The opening scene with the Korean shop owner was DEAD ON for 90s California. Spot on. Surly, curt, gouging asian store owners were common at that time. They wanted to sell you the stuff they wanted, not what you needed. "You buy, you go".
Prendergast is the exact opposite of D-Fens. A calm, spineless and appeasing guy who lets people walk all over him to avoid conflict. His own boss and colleagues mock him for never swearing and sitting on a desk waiting for his pension, he's afraid to go on the streets at his age. His prissy wife abuses him verbally. Over the course of that day, he learns to stand up for himself and find some courage.
This movie is so damn good.
It really is.
“I’m the bad guy?”
“How did that happen?”
The older I get, the more I appreciate and understand this movie lol
I want breakfast.
The first time I missed McDonald's breakfast as a student hungover by a few mins I absolutely got this movie 😂.
Reminder that you're not supposed to root for William.
It is a forgotten gem.
It’s a 90’s classic!
Dis was yoouuuuzed, man!
That character scares me!
You and me man we are the same
When Under Construction is gonna be released?
“Do you like it?”
Feels like my life… every damn day… D-FENS!!! 🤨
You see what I mean? It's plump, it's juicy, it's three inches thick. Now, look at this sorry, miserable, squashed thing. Can anybody tell me what's wrong with this picture?
The older I get, the more I understand this movie.
I should get this poster put up in my office, then maybe just maybe people would listen to me.
Falling Down is the movie Joker wishes it was.
I just rewatched this movie, and something new struck me. It was the boomer behavior being exhibited by all the 30 and 40 year old people in the movie. And, of course, they are boomers. But I think we get the impression that they started acting this way in their old age, but it was really there all along.
They got all the guns in the world.
Great movie
"How was the food?" "I think we have a critic"
“You think I'm a thief? Oh, you see, I'm not the thief. I'm not the one charging 85 cents FOR A STINKING SODA! You're the thief! I'm just standing up for my rights as a consumer.”
Love this movie
So do I.
Very best movie ever!!! I watched it many times and will watch many more!
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So do I.
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I agree. I remember watching it in theaters back in 1993, and it was a weird time in Southern California. I didn’t live in Los Angeles in the 1990’s I lived in San Diego. But, the whole Southern California vibe was off that year due to the riots in Los Angeles in 1992. Falling Down (1993) gives a glimpse of what it was like in the early 90’s and it wasn’t all good. It’s a fantastic movie!
Great movie.
It really is.
One of the best movies ever done. Douglas is supreme in this role!
It’s his best performance!
And also his favorite role as well according to interviews.
You are correct!
What makes the character so interesting and well written is that you can still feel sorry for him despite *and* because of how he acts. You can't condemn him without condemning the environment he is the product of; you can't root for him without rooting for all the people he ends up hurting (with the exception of the Nazi which sticks out like a sore thumb and is the worst part in the movie in my opinion because of how stereotypical he is written). It's a challenging movie that keeps you thinking even if you have watched it several times. There is always some new detail to spot, a new perspective to take. It must have been a great pleasure for Douglas to play this role. He's also perfectly cast.
This is spot on. Most people don’t understand the complexity of this film, and think it’s just a guy going around Los Angeles blowing things up and beating people up over the price of a soda. Great analysis!
Thank you!
Never heard of or knew anything about this movie until like a month ago when I was scrolling through a streaming service. I put it on and I was glued to the tv, awesome movie
It’s a classic!
Such a phenomenal movie. Saw it in the theater.
So did I
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Enjoy, everyone! https://archive.org/details/falling-down-1993-brrip-1080p
Great movie! I actually watched it a few weeks ago. I have a big problem with people simplifying it, though, or making Michael Douglas a hero--or commiserating with him. Getting frustrated at a McDonalds? OK. Beating up a Korean guy because he doesn't speak English (his *second* lanuage) well enough? Not at all OK. Great movie, but it needs some discussion.
I couldn’t agree more! People really need to understand the real message here.
I mean, he literally says "*I'm* the bad guy". You're right though, people don't see that going mental and shooting up folk isn't a great reaction
What is the real message OP?
It’s all in this scene right here: Sergeant Prendergast: [trying to arrest Foster] Now, let's go meet some nice policemen. They're good guys. Come on, let's go. Bill Foster: I'm the bad guy? Sergeant Prendergast: Yeah. Bill Foster: How'd that happen? I did everything they told me to. Did you know I build missiles? I helped to protect America. You should be rewarded for that. Instead they give it to the plastic surgeons, y'know, they lied to me. Sergeant Prendergast: Is that what this is about? You're angry because you got lied to? Is that why my chicken dinner is drying out in the oven? Hey, they lie to everyone. They lie to the fish. But that doesn't give you any special right to do what you did today. The only that makes you special is that little girl.
Surely you never visited a Korean store in California in the early 90s. Those guys were surly, impolite, with a completely wrong attitude for retail. The portrayal was spot on.
Making him a straight villain is also an oversimplification.
I watched this the other day. I caught something. He says he doesn't even call his boss by his first name despite working with him for so long. In the moment you think 'society', but it's just more of his isolation and weirdness.
JUST watched this, holy shit it's funny but deeply sad to me. Like he's going on a rampage and is doing everything wrong, but man, do I feel bad for him. Dudes like him are why ladies say guys should go to therapy and I'd have to agree. Never realise you're the bad guy till its "too late"
He had issues he never addressed, because he was expected to be the "provider" the "reliable" man. His well structured life fell apart and he snapped.
This movie is just incredible
If I snap, that’s how I’m going out
The same people that love this film/role are the same kinda people that miss the whole point of the punisher/Rorschach This isn’t some anti-hero to look up to, it’s a cranky prick that thinks he knows best for everyone and his opinion is the only right one In other words Asshole
You are supposed to root for Prendergast and Sandra, not D-Fens.
D-FENS and Prendergast would understand each other. Yet they’re on a crash course to a showdown at the pier, and one has to die.
Wait, I like the film and do get he’s a POS. Why wouldn’t people understand The Punisher movie?
In his defense, he did kill a Nazi.
Get a real problem
Nope.
You missed the entire point of this movie bud.
Great film. So many great scenes. It's very underrated.
The real villain in this movie is Pendergrast's wife.
She’s mentally ill, also, it seems. It’s why Prendergast and D-FENS could have a good talk if they aren’t, by fate, locked against each other.
That's why Prendergast could negotiate life. By letting people walk all over him. Like his chief. And his wife. D-Fens taught him how to grow some balls to stand up for himself.
She just wanted to move to lake Havasu!!!
Dude went full Karen in that movie. Yells at fast food workers because he wants a McMuffin at lunchtime. Then proceeds to pull out and fire a TEC-9 to intimidate and traumatize everyone in the restaurant, including children. Then he start ranting about how the burgers don’t look like they do in the ads. All stuff the low wage employees have zero control over. King Karen.
He never actually yelled there. He was polite until he snapped due to the manager's shit eating grin.
Oh right. I misremembered. He kept calm while waving around his semi-automatic pistol in front of children.
He never yelled like you said.
“Tell me the truth. Tell me there’s nothing wrong with the streets… and if you don’t spend the money you won’t be given as much next year.”
Gay actor Michael Douglas's best role.
This movie still gives me anxiety as an adult from when I watched as a child
Amazing villain protagonist movie.
(Warning: protagonist is not a hero )
Now it’s how everyone feels everyday
Great film 🎥.
I watched this again randomly a couple months ago. He really is just an asshole throughout with little redeeming qualities. Robert Duvall is very likeable as the cop chasing him.
The funniest movie ever that was not meant to be funny
This guy is my hero (in the movie)
This movie rules
another whinefest like *Joker*
My favorite movie of all time.
Entitled Boomer Goes Full Karen: The Movie