Joel Schumacher's best film is a brilliantly realized urban nightmare that many people in the audience will identify with. On one of those typical LA dog-days, disgruntled motorist Michael Douglas, caught in what could be the traffic jam from hell, finally decides he can't take it any more, abandons his car on the freeway and decides to walk home and God help anyone who gets in his way.
I suppose "Falling Down" could best be described as a road movie in reverse. The car has been ditched and the journey is on foot. Perhaps the film's closest antecedent is "The Swimmer" in which a similarly deranged Burt Lancaster decides to 'swim' home through the pools of his neighbours. As the dangerously unstable D-Fens, (he is known by his car registration), Michael Douglas gives the performance of his career and Schumacher racks up the tension to breaking point and beyond.
I suppose "Falling Down" could best be described as a road movie in reverse. The car has been ditched and the journey is on foot. Perhaps the film's closest antecedent is "The Swimmer" in which a similarly deranged Burt Lancaster decides to 'swim' home through the pools of his neighbours. As the dangerously unstable D-Fens, (he is known by his car registration), Michael Douglas gives the performance of his career and Schumacher racks up the tension to breaking point and beyond.