Falling Down
Directed by: Joel Schumacher.
Actors: Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall.
Released: 1993.
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox.
MPAA Rating: Rated R.
Length: 113 min.
Drama, Thriller

Brief outline (no spoilers):
William (D-FENS) (Michael Douglas) has been laid off from his job in the defense industry. He is frustrated with the world. Nothing seems to be going his way. It is his daughter’s birthday, and his divorced wife will not let him come visit her. He tries to visit her anyway, and on his way he meets he meets a lot of bizarre obstacles that he has to deal with. His fury and rage increases. Detective Pendergast (Robert Duvall) is a police detective that is retiring on this particular day. Pendergast starts to investigate these episodes that William (D-FENS) is involved in.

Personal opinions:
The movie is really about a person becoming obsolete. The world has no longer any place for for William (D-FENS), the technology and times have changed in a way that there is no longer any use for him or his skills. When you get old it is hard to learn new skills, and nobody wants to hire middle aged persons without the right qualifications. There is obviously a parallel in this movie with William and the deskbound detective Pendergast. Pendergast is also in many ways also obsolete and he is about to retire.

Good
Michael Douglas does an excellent job playing a man on the verge of insanity. But who is it that is really insane, is it the world or is it William (D-FENS)…? He sure has to deal with a lot of people that do not make sense and you get some empathy for what he has to go through.

Bad
The part where William (D-FENS) launches the M-72 rocket down in the underground tunnel and then the rocket turns a little and makes a horizontal flight down underground ending in a huge explosion down the road, it looks totally unbelievable. Take it from someone that has fired a M-72 training rocket.

Rating: 8/10 (where 10 is the best).

As a side thing three actors in Falling Down also appears in Apocalypse Now, Robert Duvall (Falling Down: Detective Prendergast, Apocalypse Now: Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore) , Frederic Forrest (Falling Down: Surplus Store Owner, Apocalypse Now: Jay ‘Chef’ Hicks), James Keane (Falling Down: Detective Keene, Apocalypse Now: Kilgore’s Gunner).