A Critical Review of “Falling Down”

In “Falling Down,” Michael Douglas plays William Foster, a former defense contractor having a very bad day. The film allows the viewer to act as a kind of fly on the wall, bearing silent witness to a seemingly ordinary man’s struggle to assimilate into the modern collective. Through mis-en-scene and careful editing that blends relevant thematic tropes with more private notions of personal struggle, one man’s descent into apparent madness is revealed as little more than an ordinary man’s attempts to make sense of an increasingly complex world from which he feels increasingly isolated.

Foster’s search for meaning in life is marked by a kind of a philosophical connection to frustration; he is acutely aware of his ordinariness and cannot conceive of a world in which others do not conform to his conservatism. This notion is borne out through the design of Foster’s costume—a simple suit with no jacket and even a pocket-protector for good measure. As such, Foster is depicted as the archetypal modern man, entirely disassociated from his visceral self, including his family, his journey to which is encapsulated by the film. Indeed, Foster seems interminably unable to reach his family, as he continues to encounter obstacle after obstacle en route to his son’s birthday party.

The criminal gang mugging from which Foster manages to escape is a pivotal scene in that its structure allows for a revelation—Foster is seemingly un-phased by the incident, going so far as to retrieve the would-be criminals’ arsenal of firearms, as though he is engaged in some effort to cure the world’s ills through removing from them the tools by which the world might be harmed. This notion is explored further when Foster encounters a construction crew. For no apparent reason, Foster feels the need to berate the manual laborers for failing to sufficiently do that which they are being paid to do; namely, to labor. In an effort to simply attend his son’s birthday party, Foster seems to have found a new calling that mirrors his previous one: just as he once defended systems and orders through his role as a contractor, he now prefers an active “on-the-ground” role in doing the same on behalf of society-at-large.

The almost flood-light quality inherent in the film’s lighting is suggestive of a revelatory theme; Foster is seeing the world anew and recognizing its insufficiencies. In this regard, the film’s technical components serve to effectuate or mirror its substantive themes. There is a kind of raw quality to this cinematography, which directly engages the viewer in the nitty-gritty of Foster’s newfound interest in rectifying societal ills, though only insofar as he sees fit. To this end, it is as though the viewer is being challenged to assert his or her own influence on a broken world, though only in the manner that he or she sees fit.

The film engages the viewer personally by implicating themes and tropes that are highly relevant in a world in which societal productivity is lacking. The film clearly does not condone Foster’s violence as an acceptable response to the insufficiencies he perceives in the world, but neither does it condemn Foster himself for his frustrations. What emerges is a mis-en-scene that encourages meaningful engagement with the world-at-large on the part of the viewer, who finds himself frustrated by Foster’s approach, which sacrifices efficiency and civility in favor of brute force and personalized rage. It is as though the film wishes to encourage a kind of balance between these two factors as a means of effectuating genuinely meaningful change in the world.

Through the character of William Foster in “Falling Down,” a means of engagement with the world of the real is cautiously promoted as a means of fundamentally altering the real. While Foster’s conduct is ostensibly unacceptable, the film’s technical components suggest a more complex thematic core in exposing the viewer to a raw world order that requires some adjustment, though perhaps not through the same exercise of brute raw force that has served to plunge this world into darkness.

Reference

Falling Down, directed by Joel Shuchmacher (1993; Burbank, CA: Warner Bros.), DVD.