Falling Down - You’ll never go into a fast food restaurant again without thinking of this film

Rumour has it that the script to ‘Falling Down’ was kicking around Hollywood for years before it was picked up.  No one wanted to touch it, yet, once it was made, it became arguably Michael Douglas’ finest performance to date and an enduring classic which is as relevant today as it was in the early nineties.

A man – just a man – finally snaps which sitting in a seemingly never ending traffic jam in L.A. and decides to walk ‘home’ through the city.  Along the way, we’re given an insight into the type of people who live there and the human tragedy unfolds.

Michael Douglas plays ‘the man’ who is mainly referred to a ‘D-Fens’ throughout the majority of the film due to his personalised number plate.  He’s already more than a little unhinged and we’re treated to the final day of his breakdown.  On his journey he encounters one or more people who we’ve probably met along the way – the types we wish we hadn’t and yet have to simply roll our eyes and/or ignore them.  However, D-Fens is not in the mood to ignore life’s annoyances.  He tackles them head on in ways we can only dream of.  An example of this is when he goes into a burger bar and orders something from the ‘breakfast menu’ two minutes after they’ve stopped serving breakfast and moved onto the ‘lunch menu.’ Most of us would just tut to ourselves and pick a burger.  D-Fens pulls out a machine gun and demands his rights to have breakfast.  Wonderful.

Douglas was (deservingly) nominated for an Oscar for his performance, but it’s worth noting that his tale is a parallel to that of Robert Duvall’s character – a cop on his last day on the force before he retires.  He’s the man who is the only one who can see that D-Fens’ actions are slowly spiralling out of control and something needs to be done (apart from eat his retirement cake and pick up groceries for his wife).  Duvall’s performance is much more understated and yet equally as sad.

I think the true test of a film is how it stands up to time.  Apart from a lack of mobile phones (pay phones being used frequently here) Falling Down could be made today and would be just as relevant as ever.  It’s a film that everyone should enjoy and find it leaves them thinking of all the things we’d probably like to do if there were no consequence to our actions.  However, what we do in life does have consequences and the ‘D-Fens’ part of our souls must remain caged (probably for the good of those around us!).  Just never let me get hold of a bazooka when workmen are blocking the road ahead of me.

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