Falling Down (1993)
No matter how many times I watch
'Falling Down', I need to remind myself that this isn't directed by
Paul Verhoeven, another Director of Scandinavian descent, who was the same age as the late
Joel Schumacher (and looks not dissimilar to him too). It feels so much like the kind of intelligent but high-octane satire of American culture that made Verhoeven's name, where as Schumacher usually makes dreadful films but here, for once he made something perfect. The symbolic use of costumes, props and dialogue is cleverly done, it's
Michael Douglas' 1960s haircut, glasses and shirt, his cultural references to
G.I. Joe, prices in 1965 money and the Apollo missions. It's Coca-Cola, McDonald's (or the movie's non copyright infringing "Whammy-Burger" with a big golden W) and his little girl being shown innocently playing with a toy gun throughout. I hadn't realised before that this was being filmed while the L.A. riots were going down, which interrupted filming.
I love the relationship between
Robert Duvall's Sergeant Prendergast and
Rachel Ticotin's Detective Torres. I can't recall many on screen relationships quite like it, where there is such an easy mutual respect and fellowship between two different cops of different personalities, genders, cultures and ages. I always wonder what a 90s "buddy cop" TV show about these two could've been like? Duvall's carefree delivery of the line
"F*** you Captain Yardley. F*** you very much" is one of the greatest. Some of those lines and scenes are truly iconic, who hasn't opened the box on a disappointing fast-food burger and thought
"Can anybody tell me what's wrong with this picture?!". You see some criticism for this being seen as playing up to racial stereotypes of the adversaries Douglas encounters on his odyssey across Los Angles, but that's forgetting the psychotic white Nazi, the skeezy white guy hustling Douglas for money (incompetently) and the rich white and utterly unpleasant golfer he encounters. Douglas is attacked for invading the golfer's turf (literal golf course turf), in the exact same way he gets accosted for crossing "gang turf" early on in the film. The only difference is the poverty and the wealth of characters. This time I was enjoying watching the funny look on the face of the girl serving burgers, it's like she's so bored with her job, that Douglas holding the staff at gunpoint has actually made her day better.