Michael Douglas stars as William Foster a divorcée who loses his job as a defense engineer. Foster (known in the film only from his car’s license plate which reads D-FENS) is stuck in a traffic jam and has a nervous breakdown. Foster simply leaves his car where it is and plans to walk to his ex-wife’s home to deliver a present for his estranged daughter’s birthday.
What results is a crazed rampage across greater Los Angeles. Almost everyone Foster comes in contact with is either rude or overly aggressive which drives him to commit some kind of violent outburst. Meanwhile, Sgt. Pendergast (Robert Duvall) is a police officer who is on his final day of work before he retires from the force. When he hears about Foster’s attacks, tracking him down is his main goal before he leaves the job. The movie is both a cathartic action film with a vigilante style “fighting back” theme, a black comedy and it also focuses on social injustices and racism and how it affects us. Falling Down is really a solid film from Joel Schumacher. While it is widely known that his Batman sequels were, well, pretty terrible, his other films (including this one) are worth seeking out.
