And when you're angry at everything, your anger loses it's meaning. Everything requires contrast in order to make it meaningful. Without contrast, one destroys themselves.
he wasnt a psychopath by definition. He was more or less having a psychotic breakdown. A psychopath has no remorse and no empathy, D-fense exhibited both things in the movie like in the fast food restaurant scene where he didnt actually want to hurt anyone and tried to calm them down in his psychotic way. Also what the character said about road building and the men doing absolutely nothin just to justify the budget makes absolute sense and it happens everyday in corrupt countries.
How did he know the street was fine 2 days earlier? It wasn’t on the way to his house. That’s back where he left his car. But it was on the way to his ex’s house, which implies he’d been stalking her just days before the movie begins. He was always a psychopath.
@@bobcobb3654 that still plays into him having a psychotic breakdown. These can last very long. It doesnt prove he is a psychopath because like i said in the initial comment, a psychopath is somebody who CANNOT feel empathy or remorse, and he exhibits that he feels both in the movie.
@@dlingfasin6826 where? The “economically viable” guy? The gay men getting hassled at the army surplus store? He stands passively by and lets them get abused. The only time he “fights back” is when something affects him personally.
@@bobcobb3654 i explained in the initial comment where he seems to show some form of empathy, i dont remember the movie that well since its been a long time, if i did id give a better explanation. But, you can be evil, you can be racist, homophobic etc and not be a psychopath, a psychopath has a very strict definition of what he/she is.
i always thought he isnt showing remorse for others but himself, he doesnt feel bad, he feels attacked as he is (rightfully) seen as the bad guy where he thinks himself the good guy, its all an act to convince both himself and his victims that hes justified, like when he gets blood on the little girls hands at the plastic surgeons house he acts like he would never hurt a child while he is on his way to murder his wife in daughter, he then proceeds to snap at the family when the father offers himself up as a hostage again affirming hes a good guy just trying to get home to see his wife and kids
I think the moral to Falling Down is we've all got problems. We've all been or at least felt like victims of the system. However, its your actions that determine where you want to go in life. D-FENS went through a process of just well Falling Down, he had enough, so he snapped. Very sad film, but still interesting to watch, because we can all relate to it in someway.
Well said. The narrator was obviously not alive during the 90's & has little knowledge about societal concerns. Great movie! Loved it! At that Time, was going thru divoce, w/ young daughter, myselt, & fully understand what Michael Douglas was potraying.
Definitely. He's going through a midlife crisis, coupled with emotional problems, but he's actually very selfish. He doesn't see how hard the Asian grocer works, bulldozes over the people in the fast food joint, almost kills the construction workers, and he scares his ex-wife. In the scene where he buys the snow globe, he doesn't see the man picketing the bank for dismissing him. He's right about all the crap going on, but he thinks he's the only guy with problems.
@@MondoBeno The only people who were in the wrong and D-FENS had the right to defend himself against were the two gangsters and that racist, homophobic, neo-nazi scumbag who ran the army navy store. Other than that, D-FENS was on journey of self-destruction before he got home to see his wife and daughter.
One thing I liked about the film was how it goes from 'Hero of the movie decides seeing his daughter is more important than his job' to 'crazy man might find his Ex wife and daughter and kill them' it's done so well and it's a twist I havent seen done much. It goes from a power trip to a slasher by the end of a film.
@@M.J44 No you did man. He thinks he loves them and says he does everything for them and so does pretty much every abuser and family killer. Even in those home videos as he was screaming and berating them until they cried he would have said he loves them more then anything.
The scene of the black dude holding the sign "not economically viable" getiing arrested while Foster kept on going his tantrum not even recognizing himself in the other man waa pretty well done
Foster did indeed "recognise" the protestor, in my opinion: "Don't forget me", and Foster nodded in response. It was a poignant, multilayered, moment. This scene was shot in the immediate aftermath of the LA riots, and the black protester in the movie was wearing the same corporate uniform as Foster. The message I got was - what they're doing to me they can do to you too. Foster's expression indicated this belated awareness: it doesn't matter if we play by the rules of the system, as symbolised by the corporate uniform, "they" (the rule setters) can discard the rules when it suits them. It echoes Pastor Martin Niemöller famous poem "First They Came...". I might add, Foster did not attempt to rescue the protestor from the police, an acknowledgement of his own essential powerlessness as an individual.
"It almost feels like a parody" It is, It's satire. He was a good man. And he simply snapped. He bought into a lie and when it was removed he lashes out because he isn't equipped. The fact he ignores the world problems is the point, it never was his problem until he was abandoned and now he's just spectating. The Cop is greatest, he's supposed to mirror D-Fense. Both working men have been drained of their dignity. But the Cop actually stands up for himself and makes a positive change while D-Fense justlashes out and hurts people. The Cop never gave into the lie and after killing him realises his purpose when D-Fense lost his.
When I said parody I meant parody of those types of movies. I understand the cop is mirroring D-Fense, but I personally found his story a little uninteresting and was always waiting to get back to D-Fense. I do agree with the ignoring the world’s problems though.
You missed the point entirely. He found his "purpose" by abandoning his peaceful reclaiming of his individuality to uphold the very system that produced the kind of men like Dfens
He wasn't angry at nothing, he was angry at everything. He is sympathetic because he had legitimate anger at first. He really was a victim. His anger is understandable. People conflate that with justification for his insane reactions. You are right, he isn't even remotely the good guy. He releases his anger on his family and innocent targets. People also relate to that, though. Everybody has snapped at the wrong person at least once. The guy has been driven insane by the system he was told would grant him his dreams. So, in lots of ways he is relatable and understandable. The problem is a lot of people, especially the left, are like that these days. Placing thier anger on convenient targets and then doing horrible things to them in the name of justice. D fans couldn't fight the government so he fought weaker targets he could defeat. The irony of the story is that the people calling him hero don't realize they are the badguy, too, and they haven't been driven insane, it's ideological.
I think its kinda weird to say the left is the one angry all the time when the movie clearly shows a neo nazi, who is more rooted in conservative viewpoints than progressive, yelling slurs at a gay couple for existing.
@@shineyydesigns7696 see behavior like that from the left far more often these days. Wasn't the right who burned down all the cities in the mostly peaceful riots of the last 20 years.
@@jeffstrom164 I mean it was the right who rioted against black children being in schools(Little Rock 9), pushed against interracial marriage in the past AND recently, the right who recently shot up the Colorado gay club and Pulse gay night club, and the right who pushed Asian hate during COVID. But yeah its totally the left.
For me this is a story of how we tend to focus on our own personal problems and ignore everything else around us. We become our own "heroes" not realizing that our actions can affect negatively other people. D-Fens wants to live the old american dream, but he ignores everything that is going on in his "present" america: poverty, violence, racism, homophobia and so on. He has some nostalgic feellings about his country: a place with less immigrants, economic perseverance, hard working folks, etc. His frustration leads him to become an outlaw that dictates what's right. The problems he faces are pretty mild compared to those of the people around him, but he chooses to ignore it because they dont play a role in his heroic act. Good analysis, I think many people misinterpretaded this great movie.
100% He's not that mad the Nazi harassed the gays. But he's super mad the Nazi chose to associate him with Nazis -- so relevant today when so many people are more mad that they are called racist then ashamed that maybe actually they did something kinda racist and that's why they were called racist.
If someone was in his situation what advice would u give them? Because many people today are suffering, and it’s hard getting a job where you’re not shat on or if u tell a girl or guy u work there and they don’t laugh at you. It’s not honourable to be a janitor, retail worker etc these aren’t my words. I’ll be unemployed soon, my boss hates me for being “slow” I’m quite dyslexic and have a hard time understanding instructions. It is HARD out here
One minute in and I already know you're as divorced from the idea of this message as possible. Luckily that won't be a problem for much longer. Just remember, when the stuff begins to happen. "You're a parody of an edgelord." and are "going apeshit against the system" but you won't, you will do as all do and only think of yourself being the one put upon.
@@NoahSpurrier “I did everything I was suppose to do” and still doesn’t realize the very system he worked for was the one that betrayed him. Instead he takes his anger out on his family, the forgotten, and the dispossessed instead focusing his anger on the people with actual power. Which makes him the bad guy.
Falling Down is simply a movie about a guy who decides he's done. The core is losing his child and the absolute lack of any control under the law. Then, the writers just pile it on him until he says, fuck it. Anyone who can say they've never been there is lucky. I personally know the feeling. The world and some very specific people in it should thank whatever god they worship nothing was done about it.
He commits a hate crime almost immediately in the movie. His wife already has a restraining order. His mother is already afraid of him. He enters the movie deranged and just gets more deranged.
One observation I would make about a lot of these pre-911 90s films is it feels strange watching folks talk about them through the prism of the current culture wars. I think this was a movie that was intended to make viewers uncomfortable and intended to make them a little unsure exactly what was going on with D-FENS. But we all understood he wasn't the hero. There is an element of character study to the movie but it is so heightened reality and stark that everything is amplified. The key scenes for me are he appears to understand he is the problem when he is watching the family movies and sees himself yelling at his family. Then his wife nearly reaching him on the docks. What makes it interesting is the Prendergast character stepping in at that moment, which leads to the stand off and D-FENS being shot (holding only a water pistol). I don't think we are meant to know how things would have played out if Prendergast hadn't stepped in. Would D-FENS have listened to his wife and got the help he clearly needed? Would he have done what Prendergast predicted and murder his family? It is one of those endings when you first see it, you subscribe to Prendergast's explanation of where things will go. But there is a bit of doubt that grows for me each time I watch the film. Also something people probably do need to understand about 90s movies and 90s viewing is a lot of things were appreciated with a sense of Irony and I remember many of my friends ironically embracing this movie (not in the sense that they were enjoying it ironically, but they enjoyed what D-FENS seemed to represent ironically). I don't think that type of movie engagement is something people today understand
That is an interesting interpretation of the scenes with the home movie and on the dock. You are right that the end is kept deliberately ambiguous, which is why we still have these debates. I don't think he would have killed his daughter, as she was the only one who was able to disarm him emotionally at the end, but I'm less certain about what he might or might not have done with his ex-wife. We only hear Prendergast's belief of what would have happened, but it's based on his experience and bias from being a detective for a long time. It's odd that he didn't suggest that Bill might have meant to abduct his daughter, as abduction by non-custodial parent is a lot more common than double murder / suicide. Maybe he was over-accusing in an attempt to get Bill to admit his intent. The beginning of the movie is similarly ambiguous -- we don't know where he was driving from or where he was going, so some people think that he was on his way to kill his ex-wife and daughter even at that point. I doubt that theory because he did not yet have a murder weapon at that time, which would be pretty important to carry out that plan. We did see him looking at classified ads with three items circled before the confrontation with the gangsters. Maybe he was on his way back to his mother's house after yet another unsuccessful job interview when he finally went insane.
The fact of the matter is, I could sit here and write 12 paragraphs stating why this review is inaccurate, but if its only gonna fall on deaf ears, there really isn't a point. You have to make the choice to look inward and reevaluate. Nobody else can make you do that. For the record, I'm not saying D-FENS is an all out good guy, but he is a very complex character and this review barely scratches the surface of what's actually taking place in this film. There is a much deeper understanding of the elements and themes of this film required to give a proper analysis. I'm sure you roll your eyes at comments like this, but you missed quiet a few marks here and projected and assumed a lot as well. Maybe one day you'll revisit this piece and see it in a different light.
I like you. Maybe you agree with my comment. I'll reply with it if you want. He only "wrong" d-fens did was not preventing this. His pitfall was letting him get sucked dry and be turned into what he was. He actually awakened during the beginning of his movie. He startet to have compassion. He Psychopath worked for the Government and when he lost everything he startet to become a good guy. You can see how he finally starts acting on his principles and morals. In all essence. The only bad and sick guy in this movie was society. And he was part of it. He was the bad guy before falling down. He sold his soul. He let his frustration out on his wife. I think the real lesson here is selling yourself out being "the bread winner" isn't gonna pay itself. You get paid money because it costs you. It's a trade. And he traded his time and he had no time left to build his relationship with his wife. All those pitfalls leading to the falling down. He didn't just "snap". It didn't just take one bad day. What kept him together in the end was pretending to go to work. And when he could not even keep his illusion anymore. When that last thing was taken from him it's when he had to see his wife. He just wanted back his illusion of the happy life he thought he had. And you can see how he accepts his mistakes when he pulled that water gun. He is a guy who thought he if gave everything life would pay him back. But the world he lived him didn't reward anything for his attention. The company the society. They all stole his attention from the things in life he really cared about. When he finally realized that it was too late and the truth was too much pain to take thus he pulled the plastic gun. This movie shows the falling down of his delusion up until he realises the truth. And the truth is that he failed to care for the things he really cared about. The Lesson is it doesn't matter how much you work. It matters for what you work. That work will dicate what your life brings you. He had a wife that wanted a Husband not a ATM. And he failed to ever build a meaningfull relationship with her. You can see how much pain he had watsching those tapes. How much regret he felt for each "i love you" he didn't say. You can see how he realizes how all these years he chased what he thought would be a perfect family. The pain in realizing that he had everything he wanted and all he needed to do is enjoy it. Obviously this isn't the entire truth but it's close to the truth he realized. The truth that spawned his regret and wish to die once he realized it.
Fact of the matter is, no one is going to read your 12 paragraphs in the YT comments section. Also this review is on point and I'm enjoying all the weirdos who identify with D-Fens getting upset someone has the audacity to criticize the moviem
I think people also need to consider that people actually still believed in The System in the early 90s. Their numbers were dwindling, and it wouldn't last long, but many still believed that the government was honest and that capitalism was fair. Nobody told D-FENS that that wasn't the case, and that really pissed him off. He went from being the good guy to being the bad guy, from a winner to a loser. Tale one really bad day and toss in a gym bag full of guns, you get Falling Down. Interesting choice to not discuss Prendergast's story, it's the flipside of the movie's coin and equally as important as the story of D-FENS.
You completely missed the point of this movie. It isn’t a satire and it isn’t a parody. It does satire things like consumers lying about quality of their products(the burger at the restaurant) and it does make commentary about how events are interconnected. D-Fens was stuck in traffic at the beginning because of the road work and he later uses the rocket launcher to shoot at the workers doing the same road work. He uses the bat that the Asian store owner had that was used for protection against thieves but accused Foster of being a thief. He has the butterfly knife to kill the neo Nazi store owner because gang members fought him earlier and he used the bat to fight and got the knife the gang member dropped. He was fired from his job, had a restraining order against him for his wife and daughter, and he’s having quite possibly the worst day ever. Those things that happened to him were results of his own actions and that’s the overarching theme of Falling Down. The movie is brilliant because it’s not saying D-Fens is a villain nor is it saying he’s a hero. It’s not saying Detective Prendergast is the villain or hero either though you could make cases for either based on what we’re shown. The film is telling us we’re all victims to our circumstances and the choices we make that affect which way our lives go. Both William Foster and Detective Prendergast are normal everyday men who are flawed like anyone else and who both have the capacity for both good and evil. Both show they have goodness in them but do things that could be considered questionable. This movie was to movies what Breaking Bad was to tv shows: a journey of real world characters with real world motivations and the filmmaker doesn’t try to tell you who’s the hero or the villain. It’s just two men having an extremely long day who react differently to what they are dealing with. I’d advise you going back and rewatching the movie if you didn’t get any of what I’m saying here upon your first viewing.
Maybe the only way to enjoy an absurd film from 1993 is to live in an absurd time, watch an absurd youtube video to better? comprehend the absurdity of it all. And get breakfast at 2pm from McDonalds to wash it all down.
Like we said, 1993's "Falling Down" is now available on DVD with bonus features, including commentary tracks, documentaries and more. But that's my finest opinion.
I don't know if this is the *intended message of the film, but I see this film as a snapshot of an example situation "White man is faced with the failures of the system he has live in his whole life with little issue. He rails against the wrong targets due to lies he's been fed his entire life to promote the system and deflect blame from the systems flaws. He acts in a manor leaving the system unaffected (if not emboldened) and hurts people in the process." Think of it "as the American who's had a job for years but is then fired in order to be replaced by an immigrant who will work for cheaper". It is not the immigrantxs fault, but he's been manipulated to blame immigration and hold biases towards "job stealing immigrants". He was faced with a very real problem which you could sympathise with him for, but ultimately factors of who he was, and lies he was lead to believe and never question all but predestined him to respond in a harmful and malicious way. At the end of the day, this poor fate was his fault and the result of his bad traits which he could've changed or countered. Empathy for the immigrant who did nothing but seek a better life and an ability to think critically would've prevented him from falling down this path. A modern problem we can link this to is the issue of right-wing extremism. Right wing extremists commit their acts of violence against their percieved cause of real world problems. Historically, right wing extremism always rose in times and places where the majority group which is adjusted to relative stability is forced into instability, whether it be Weimar Germany and the rise of Nazis, or 70s and 80s UK and the targetting of lower-class white people by groups like the National Front in order to manipulate them into blaming minorities as the sources of problems (this is why fascist skinheads emerged, despite the skinhead movements multi-cultural and multi-ethnic roots)
I think his character is deeper than that, doesn't really fit into the stereotypical rager. Here's a guy who's basically stuck in the 50's, someone who never really evolved with modern times---he looks at the evolving world around him with confusion and anger, and he doesn't want things to ever change from how he remembered them. And he's got mental problems---his wife divorced him over that. He's no hero, he's a guy with mental problems who was already one step away from the edge---losing his job pushed him over
"doesn't really fit into the stereotypical rager" His wife left him because he was a rager lmao, he got massive anger problems that ulimately led to his divorce.
He is an actual psychopath. And people really don't understand that psychopaths are usually the least violent, most obedient,most systematic and most controlling.
You missed the point about fast food. You're so surface level. It's about the corporatisation of America and the decay of person responsibility and being able to act with discretion, ie giving him breakfast using common sense rather than arbitrary rules.
I think what really made me angry about this movie was that everyone thought he did everything in the movie. Like the drive by they blamed him for that. I always wanted to see what reaction they would have if they realized what had happen to him and why he started becoming angry and upset with everything around him.
I think these people miss the point of "when you take everything away from a man, and he has nothing left." Unfortunately, this is what happens, his last wish was to give his daughter a birthday gift, which got broken on the way...so he gave her life insurance.
So, the fact that he's a "white guy" is relevant how? (It's not). He is not a "racist character," nor was he intended to be a bigot. This is what's called the "antihero." He's a character that isn't righteous or meant to be held up as a role model, yet despite his many faults, is still *relatable,* despite the fact that most who sympathize with him would never actually go through with committing such extreme acts, but would still find satisfaction in daydreaming about doing such things. This is a "Gen-X" era movie, so I would not expect youger viewers to understand it accurately, just as I couldn't fully and accurately understand films that were of my parents generation, as they born in the 30s/40s; even though I may understand many basic aspects of films during that era, having never lived through it, my understanding would be limited to seeing everything through a "lense" of *MY* life experience, if that makes sense.
a few things to say, I already commented on this video about a month ago, but it really spoke to me when I was last few weeks of my huge depression streak your channel is really underrated and good it sucks that when I looked up "falling down video essays" alot of them were made by chuds and one was made by an actual nazi anyway, great video, rewatched it recently, glad you are a fan of synth's, hope you make more soon.
stupid dumbass thank you so much that really means a lot. I hope you’re feeling better. Yeah I saw falling down recently without knowing about all the racist fans, which is ironic bc it’s clearly making fun of them and it’s directed by a gay guy lol.
Who’s the actual nazi you mentioned? Or are you saying that because someone shares different opinions than you so you feel the need to destroy the meaning of a word that is still hurtful to many communities
I normally dislike to leave negative reviews, I hardly do it at all, but to label 'D-Fens' as a Racist is simply incorrect. It doesn't help that on the majority, you are only picking scenes in which demonize the character. The scene with the Surplus obviously shows that D-Fens is uncomfortable with the situation, but you only involve the part where D-Fens states that "They are not the same" and you quickly act on that, leaving out the last part of the sentence where he insults the Surplus Store owner, and rightfully so.
I always thought he was always supposed to be a cautionary tale. The way his wife was scared of him and how he talked to his daughter in that home video. His wife got a restraining order against him and when he found her, he brought a gun with him. He lost his job. He talked down to wage workers. He might have voiced everyone's "inner thoughts" and frustrations but, his reactions weren't justified. He was going to be set off by something.
You can look at all the political, economic, and racial themes in the movie, there's plenty there to dissect, but I like Falling Down most for the way it brilliantly tells the tale of a boring white man who played by the rules and lost his faith in the American Dream, and his ultimate descent into madness and a violent nervous breakdown. It's a good movie about how we handle the things in life we perceive as unfair. Some may say he perfectly captures the negative traits of the boomers that people like to criticize. D-FENS doesn't really care about the suffering or state of happiness of others, he's only interested in his own little world. The people he encounters are merely annoyances in his way, he's not particularly interested in their story or helping them. He grew up in a black and white world where if you put in the work and were fair and honest in life, you were rewarded. He sympathizes with Not Economically Viable because he sees himself in that man. He couldn't care less about the homeless in the park or the gay men getting hassled. I think he sees their struggles as their own undoing if anything. I've always seen the movie as being most about a man discovering that life isn't fair for anybody, and he just can't deal with that or accept it. Whatever the intended meaning was, either way, it's a great goddamn movie.
@Darla Lathan Why Tf would he?? I thought it was obvious he identifies with, or at least feels empathy for the protester. I picked up on that when I first saw this film as an 11 year old. He is the only person who doesn't eye the protester with annoyance or disdain like the other pedestrians, some of whom go out of their way to avoid the protester. He acknowledges and nods when the protester tells him "Don't forget me. " Sure, it's easy to miss, but notice both him and the protester are dressed exactly the same. Even the pattern on their ties were identical. That wasn't coincidence, the director mentioned that was done on purpose because the 2 of them, are both dealing with similar injustices in life and that brief silent exchange between them, shows it. Bills ultimate goal was to get "home" to terrorise his ex and daughter, not stop every injustice he witnessed. It would make no sense for his character to risk giving himself up by starting a shootout with cops just to save a man who at worst was facing a disturbing the peace charge and at best just being removed from the banks premises. He witnessed a lot of injustices towards others throughout the film and doesn't do anything unless it's directly affecting him. But if you've watched the film and his body language in these scenes, it's obvious he is sympathetic and or disgusted by these things. Does it matter? No, he wasn't a vigilante or some superhero out to "save the day "
@@TurnToPageX I'm just going to copy and paste the same reply I wrote the other commenter below you, as its easier since your comments are similar: I thought it was obvious he identifies with, or feels empathy for the protester. I picked up on that when I first saw this film as an 11 year old. He is the only person who doesn't eye the protester with annoyance or disdain like the other pedestrians, some of whom go out of their way to avoid the protester. He acknowledges and nods when the protester tells him "Don't forget me. " Sure, it's easy to miss, but notice both him and the protester are dressed exactly the same. Even the pattern on their ties were identical. That wasn't coincidence, the director mentioned that was done on purpose because the 2 of them, are both dealing with similar injustices in life and that brief silent exchange between them, is to show it. Bills ultimate goal was to get "home" to terrorise his ex and daughter, not stop every injustice he witnessed. It would make no sense for his character to risk giving himself up just to help a man who at worst was facing a disturbing the peace charge and at best just being removed from the banks premises. He witnessed a lot of injustices towards others throughout the film and doesn't do anything unless it's directly affecting him. Does not mean he isn't sympathetic or doesn't give a EFF. If you've watched the film and his body language in these scenes, it's obvious he is sympathetic and or disgusted by these things. It all adds up to his anger at society. But does it really ultimately matter if he shows if he gives a damn about these people though? No, he wasn't a vigilante or some superhero out to "save the day " but he did see a lot of himself in the "not economically viable" man. Just not sure how you wanted him to express he gave a damn? Should he have sent him flowers or something?
@@winterlynn9012 I wish YOU would do a video essay about this film. There is more clarity of perception and deep understanding in your comment than in this entire video essay.
I feel like the whole “not economically viable” part kind of reflects the average American within the fight for racial injustice. Many Americans can see how people feel about the situation but no one ever acts on behalf of those who are discriminated against but rarely do we see action taken towards this racial injustice.
Very interesting movie, but the problem with this movie is that you have manospherians siding with Dfense, because of their own misogynistic reasons, saying his ex wife was a horrible person, but she had reasons; he had a very unstable personality and bad temper, yeah he never physically assaulted them, but verbal assault is just as worse. He blew up over something minor in his Home made VHS tapes. The ex-wife was justified in her divorce. He was about to kill the wife. Dfense was an upset person who was not happy about the modern times. The Cold War ended, the breadwinner family was ending, and he was mad about an increase in the price of a soda. His former job was building military supply for the US, but at the time there were no War or major conflicts so he was laid off or fired. Hes someone straight from the 1950s-1970s. It does have the Angry White Male trope.
So that wasn't a moment of regret. He was watching the video because he yearned for the past, for a time when everything was perfect, but watching the video, he realizes his life wasn't perfect. His spoiled kid won't get on the horse he bought, and his wife won't stand by him. He averts his eyes because he doesn't want any more of his illusions shattered, his rose tinted past tainted. If he had regrets, he would've apologized, but he doesn't see that any of this is his fault. He's surprised to find himself the bad guy.
@@unknownpack5717 even though I can agree with dfens getting mad in most if not in every situation, in some instances he reacted too extremely, while in others he didn't
Its a later version of Taxi Driver, except in that film we felt good for Travis Bickle. In this movie we feel this guys nuts, except the entire world he knows is fallen apart. We should feel for this guy, his way of doing things is over, and he's pissed. A good man screwed by the world.
@@JL_Lux Again have you seen the whole movie? He loses his job, gets shot at by gangbangers, is harassed by the homeless, his divorced wife wont let him see his kid, a white supremacist tries to recruit him then tried to turn him into the police at gun point, and then all the little shit like the traffic the grumpy convenience store owner, etc. The breakfast sandwich thing is just one of many thing this psycho perceives as a microaggression or transgression against him. We know this character is mentally unstable from the first 10 minutes of the film and you see him crack more and more as the film goes on. So maybe watch the movie before you say stupid shit.
@@t-bonestickyfingers1336 he lost his job. Tough shit. He was a terrible husband and his wife was correct in taking her child away from him. He wasn’t a good partner or a good father! The homeless man has more of a reason to be crazy than him. So does the guy dying of aids. The black man got arrested for protesting mean while his ass is standing there mad for no real reason. THEN the police don’t even believe it’s a white man - so he benefits from white privilege. Yet none of them go around killing. And he is Very similar to the white supremist! They both wanna go back to the 1940s
In eastern Europe we usually call 1:23 the kids who couldn't understand that they should act mature enough on social media to not show their real age Edit: so anyway, liberal youtube commentary is the most conservative thing about this movie on the internet
The character is literally compared to a Nazi, and found being much worse, and the climax of the film is him realizing he's the bad guy and doing something selfless.
That Tasha Robinson review seemed to get the same impression of the character as I did but she somehow missed entirely that he's not the hero. This is a critique, not an endorsement, of that self-pitying, entitled, martyrdom attitude. He "did everything he was supposed to do" and now he feels entitled to the promises made to him by a bygone era. He is forced to realize that the time he came from wasn't so great either. He watches as the nazi chases a gay couple out of his store and then says with disgust "we're not the same" (despite his nostalgia for an era where chasing off gays would have been perfectly acceptable). He begins to relate to the black man who the banks have deemed "not economically viable" (again, despite wishing for a past where that man would've been treated even worse). For the first time this 1965 (he gives his desired date in the convenience store) privileged conservative white man is forced to see the world from a less privileged viewpoint and he doesn't like what he sees. By the end he is yelling at those who have done well out of the privilege that he used to share and they are so unaccustomed to it they die on the spot of heart failure. Conservatism is all about holding on to the past and fighting change; the customer is always right, speak english in my country, roll back your prices to 1965, there's nothing wrong with the road! but after finally seeing where a lifetime of that treatment left him--what his temper and privilege lead him to and how those who suffered for his privilege must've felt he's not so keen. Every interaction with some one he thinks he's better than leaves him with a weapon upgrade. The world just hands him the tools of violence and at first seems to reward him for using them, for most of the actual movie from when we meet him he isn't falling down but failing up. Bat>knife>bag of guns>bazooka>water gun... He never "got around to" beating his wife and times have changed enough that he doesn't get the chance to when reality catches up to him all he has is a water pistol mirroring the rise and decline of the ideology that handed him his upbringing, education, cushy job, beautiful wife, child, then messy divorce, restraining order, unemployment. He's trying desperately to cling to some idea of a rosy past that probably never really existed and it just ends up divorcing him from reality--which I think is a pretty clear critique of conservatism, but maybe that's just my personal bias. The guns serve to magnify the microaggressions of entitlement--sorry the trigger is sensitive, go back to eating your lunch, I'm a nice guy, I SAID GO BACK TO EATING YOUR LUNCH--everyone has to tiptoe around him but he gets to make jokes and act like it's not a big deal. He gets "home" and his nostalgia falls apart as he watches his home movies only to discover--surprise!--he was always the asshole as he watches himself yelling at his wife and toddler on the screen. And then he's shocked when Prendergast, the first person he feels equal with and able to relate to, tells him that he is the bad guy and sends him to float with the rest of the trash.
You pretty much summed up how I felt about the film. I think this story could've worked but the messaging was off. The anger is misguided. Michael Douglas is great as D-Fense but the anger towards the system should've been better written. I've read how people interpret him as a "confused victim" and, while there are good arguments for that, there are contradictions to that like you've pointed out. The Whammy Burger scene was something I was looking forward to in context, since I've watched the clip before watching the movie, but watching it in context was incredibly disappointing.
@@evanfrew1834 I think both of you make a good point, they had many chances to explain WHY he was going off the handle and losing control, but they just didn't flesh things out as much and to me you have to identify with vigilantes otherwise they become fugitives, and there's only one harrison ford fugitive movie. Why did a sane man lose his marbles? They should explained it to us more, because honestly d-fens was starting to look like a pure criminal that wasn't trying to fix things and make things right. Idk.
@@cm-pr2ys He was fired and divorced. He couldn't see nor provide for his family. Thats why he lost himself. In my reading, i never got the notion that he wasn't even trying to fix systemic issues. I saw it as an hyberbolic reflection of our own society, the dispairty in concern and agency with have for particular issues and our dismissive response to said issues. He was never a vigilante, he believed he was the 'goodguy' until the end. Just like others, he will justify his extreme actions/views under the veneer of social/moral justice.
You just simplified this whole movie and made it out to be some political shit that has nothing to do with the point of the film. I hate you people who do this crap this is a genius film and d-fens is a perfect example of a complex character that you can sympathize with and hate at the same time (similar to real people like you actually). He is meant to be the catalyst for the viewer to question his motivations and actions he is supposed to make you think of BOTH sides of the argument. This film is how people handle their problems, we are supposed to sympathize with d-fens until we realize that he is actually the "bad guy" as is shown in the film by the video of the birthday party. D-fens loves his daughter and his wife more than anything but he has deep anger issues. He would have never thought in a million years that he would hurt his family, but the anger he had deep inside him built up until it explodes. If his wife didn't get a restraining order on him then this explosion he had would have been directed toward his wife and daughter. If you notice the cop played by Robert Duvall has almost the exact same problems as D-fens but the cop handles his problems differently and D-fens is actually making HIS life, and the people he loves' lives, a million times more difficult by flying off the handle and trying to solve his problems with his anger issues and personal crusades against society. By doing this he becomes the "bad guy" instead of moving on with his life and just making the best out of it like the cop does. D-Fens can't accept change and lashes out in anger. All the issues presented are supposed to be controversial issues meant to make you think an analyze whether or not d-fens was justified in his anger, that is the whole point of the film. He makes some good points at times, he never actually hit or hurt his wife, the Korean store owner thought he was a sucker and raised the price just for him, because back then in 1993 a coke was 50 cents everywhere always, and it was maybe even a quarter at some places. He let his anger get to him at the fast-food place and when he pulled his gun out, he couldn't turn back. That scene was to show you that his anger would make him do things that he regrets (such as eventually hurting his wife and daughter) and that he can't take back. The scene where he murders the Nazi is supposed to make you question if he was justified to kill a man that is obviously one of the biggest pieces of shit society can muster, and to show you how similar D-Fens actually is to the neo-Nazi. The killing of the Nazi is his transition into the "Bad Guy". The scene afterward where he is at the golf course is just to show you that he has become the bad guy. He causes the man to have a heart attack and then justifies is because the guy was an obvious piece of shit (similar to the nazi that he killed) so he decided it was justified. The same way he would have eventually justified hurting and possibly killing his wife, daughter, and himself if his wife never got the restraining order on him.
@@clavicleofcernunnos I'm not lying to myself or clueless. Go find something to do with yourself other thank talk out your ass to people or at least provide an argument instead of wasting my time. Play with your dolls or something productive.
Proof that most video essays can communicate the entire message in relation to what they're about in like 10 minutes instead of 10 hours. Great job obliterating this sort of "heroic" billing of D-Fens with just what you should...what's literally in the movie.
It feels like you added more things to this "review" than you should have. This movie was to show how the world was collapsing back in the 90s, homeless, AIDs pandemic, gang violence increasing, over-inflated budgets for the road construction so they have to fix perfect roads; and not the mention, the protestor who got arrested for practicing his 1st amendment rights. All of these things that I listed were real problems and still are real problems society is facing today.
@@tedsmart5539 Obviously you do not have very good comprehension skills, i said “how the world was collapsing” the keyword is “was” referring to beginning to collapse. Sorry that your reading comprehension skills aren’t that good.
I'm a firm believer of the idea that one's moral compass is not contingent on the actions of other people so these kinds of main characters, especially those with a deep-seated sense of exclusive victimhood ("I'm the *only* one this world is screwing over!!), kind of piss me off lol everybody is suffering dude get over it
Seriously, if d-fens put more effort into positive change instead of killing people...well things would probably be a bit better. The whole south american thing was cringy. IF he can't get back together with his ex-wife, take a vacation and go to vegas or something. Idk.
They address this in the movie, the detective tracking D-fens is in a very similar position, his life is pretty rough as well and it doesn’t look like it’ll get better, except instead of going on a rampage he remains optimistic and nice to people. Even at the end he tells him that, yeah, life sucks but everyone is struggling just the same and it doesn’t give him any right to threaten and kill people.
Feels like the movie was mostly about the perceived lack of personal agency from someone who had serious mental health issues and no good outlet for it.
TO be fair it was 2 minutes past 11 oclock. And 20 hours? Bit of an exaggeration. More like a couple of minutes. Also.... Cartoon characters? You may be surprised to know there are actually people like that in real life, they're called entitled people and these people are absolutely real. Take a look inside any WalMart or a Popeye's parking lot some day.
It's the most honest social commentary movie ever made. Anyone can be a Bill Foster. Bill is every working class guy that's ever lived and didn't know it. You think you live in a "Free" country? Name something that's free? I'll give you "Air". Go for 2? You understand some of the pieces, but you're missing the picture. You still gotta lot to learn. Welcome to Amerika.
An ultimately flawed, poor and mediocre review. I don't see where you get the racial theme when it is absent from this movie. Many behaviors and reference are explained with more in depth reading, more attention to details and a better understanding of context : all of which are lacking in this video. D-FENS is a jaded man stuck in the past, unable to move on, to catch on society, society that is evolving fast. The first and most catastrophic event was the divorce and restrain order of questionable reason. His unemployment status left him without purpose. His lack of proper mental health care is what let this happen. As the quote on the posters says "an ordinary man against an everyday society : an urban truth" Bill is ultimately a discarded asset left to rot that put up a last stand before falling down. Society never cared for him, leading to his unstable condition. Society injustice and evolve left him stripped from purposes and good will, eventually turning into the madman he was designed to be. The movie also critics the 90s, generally speaking the modern society : -LA's gang violence, and ultimately, non sense. The comment of Bill regarding the gang markings are not "racist", have you ever looked at a gang landmark? It's gibberish. Cannot be understood by the untrained eye, thus leading to his comment on the matter before lashing out at them and berating them on how stupid their claim is. Film also depicts the futility of Gangs and their tragic consequences : innocents being hit and family torn with death, sorrow and worry towards the gangbanger. -Fast food's stupid policy of timed menus. It was true in this time with McEggmuffins or smth by Mcdonald's. That's why it's referenced in this film. -If you ever had body language knowledge, Bill is visually disgusted by the shop owner and strongly disapprove his actions, but because he isn't confrontational in nature he backs up. How do you think he built up all this rage if he confronted people more often? -His actions against construction worker. It's a true insight towards government fiddlings, as an inside man he knows well and easily picked off the reason of this "repair", it's a reality that dept' of governments intentionally waste money to keep their enveloppe. There's also clear visual evidences of who he his. Classic shirt and tie from a white collar individual. A 70's military hairstyle. This is a man stuck in the past. The reason we cheer for him is that everyone wanted to commit these misdemeanors and crimes but had moral to stop them. A madman don't. He's an embodiment of our sins, a sort of Jesus of revenge and madness eager to vent off his rage and his confusion in a world that no longer recognize him, in a world he no longer recognize as fitting. That's also why he lashed out at the gorcery store owner, and also why he freezes inflation at the 60's-70's (remember her hairstyle). In conclusion, is a jaded man unable to move on that lashes out all his frustration towards a society that discarded him. The cop arch is exactly the same, except he takes the opposing route, labeling it as "not interesting" just tells us you didn't understand the movie.
![The Wall Song ร้องข้ามกำแพง | EP.215 | พาเวล นเรศ - พูห์ กฤติน | 17 ต.ค. 67 [1/5]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IUzrjuf60P4/mqdefault.jpg)
He wasn't angry at nothing, he was angry at everything.
And when you're angry at everything, your anger loses it's meaning. Everything requires contrast in order to make it meaningful. Without contrast, one destroys themselves.
he wasnt a psychopath by definition. He was more or less having a psychotic breakdown. A psychopath has no remorse and no empathy, D-fense exhibited both things in the movie like in the fast food restaurant scene where he didnt actually want to hurt anyone and tried to calm them down in his psychotic way.
Also what the character said about road building and the men doing absolutely nothin just to justify the budget makes absolute sense and it happens everyday in corrupt countries.
How did he know the street was fine 2 days earlier? It wasn’t on the way to his house. That’s back where he left his car. But it was on the way to his ex’s house, which implies he’d been stalking her just days before the movie begins. He was always a psychopath.
@@bobcobb3654 that still plays into him having a psychotic breakdown. These can last very long. It doesnt prove he is a psychopath because like i said in the initial comment, a psychopath is somebody who CANNOT feel empathy or remorse, and he exhibits that he feels both in the movie.
@@dlingfasin6826 where? The “economically viable” guy? The gay men getting hassled at the army surplus store? He stands passively by and lets them get abused. The only time he “fights back” is when something affects him personally.
@@bobcobb3654 i explained in the initial comment where he seems to show some form of empathy, i dont remember the movie that well since its been a long time, if i did id give a better explanation. But, you can be evil, you can be racist, homophobic etc and not be a psychopath, a psychopath has a very strict definition of what he/she is.
i always thought he isnt showing remorse for others but himself, he doesnt feel bad, he feels attacked as he is (rightfully) seen as the bad guy where he thinks himself the good guy, its all an act to convince both himself and his victims that hes justified, like when he gets blood on the little girls hands at the plastic surgeons house he acts like he would never hurt a child while he is on his way to murder his wife in daughter, he then proceeds to snap at the family when the father offers himself up as a hostage again affirming hes a good guy just trying to get home to see his wife and kids
I think the moral to Falling Down is we've all got problems. We've all been or at least felt like victims of the system. However, its your actions that determine where you want to go in life. D-FENS went through a process of just well Falling Down, he had enough, so he snapped. Very sad film, but still interesting to watch, because we can all relate to it in someway.
Well said. The narrator was obviously not alive during the 90's & has little knowledge about societal concerns. Great movie! Loved it! At that Time, was going thru divoce, w/ young daughter, myselt, & fully understand what Michael Douglas was potraying.
Definitely. He's going through a midlife crisis, coupled with emotional problems, but he's actually very selfish. He doesn't see how hard the Asian grocer works, bulldozes over the people in the fast food joint, almost kills the construction workers, and he scares his ex-wife. In the scene where he buys the snow globe, he doesn't see the man picketing the bank for dismissing him. He's right about all the crap going on, but he thinks he's the only guy with problems.
@@MondoBeno The only people who were in the wrong and D-FENS had the right to defend himself against were the two gangsters and that racist, homophobic, neo-nazi scumbag who ran the army navy store. Other than that, D-FENS was on journey of self-destruction before he got home to see his wife and daughter.
I appreciate the video essay but you are way too cynical to appreciate this film.
@@maxreed7690 How very judgmental of you. On the contrary, I think its a very good storyline, very interesting, but its not a happy ending is it.
One thing I liked about the film was how it goes from 'Hero of the movie decides seeing his daughter is more important than his job' to 'crazy man might find his Ex wife and daughter and kill them' it's done so well and it's a twist I havent seen done much. It goes from a power trip to a slasher by the end of a film.
Right 0n
All it took is one bad day
You missed the point of the film if you think he was going to kill them.
@@M.J44 No you did man. He thinks he loves them and says he does everything for them and so does pretty much every abuser and family killer. Even in those home videos as he was screaming and berating them until they cried he would have said he loves them more then anything.
The scene of the black dude holding the sign "not economically viable" getiing arrested while Foster kept on going his tantrum not even recognizing himself in the other man waa pretty well done
Same with watching the neonazi harass the gay couple. Foster only cares about the wrongs in society when they personally affect him.
Foster did indeed "recognise" the protestor, in my opinion: "Don't forget me", and Foster nodded in response. It was a poignant, multilayered, moment. This scene was shot in the immediate aftermath of the LA riots, and the black protester in the movie was wearing the same corporate uniform as Foster. The message I got was - what they're doing to me they can do to you too. Foster's expression indicated this belated awareness: it doesn't matter if we play by the rules of the system, as symbolised by the corporate uniform, "they" (the rule setters) can discard the rules when it suits them. It echoes Pastor Martin Niemöller famous poem "First They Came...". I might add, Foster did not attempt to rescue the protestor from the police, an acknowledgement of his own essential powerlessness as an individual.
"It almost feels like a parody"
It is, It's satire.
He was a good man. And he simply snapped.
He bought into a lie and when it was removed he lashes out because he isn't equipped.
The fact he ignores the world problems is the point, it never was his problem until he was abandoned and now he's just spectating.
The Cop is greatest, he's supposed to mirror D-Fense. Both working men have been drained of their dignity. But the Cop actually stands up for himself and makes a positive change while D-Fense justlashes out and hurts people. The Cop never gave into the lie and after killing him realises his purpose when D-Fense lost his.
When I said parody I meant parody of those types of movies. I understand the cop is mirroring D-Fense, but I personally found his story a little uninteresting and was always waiting to get back to D-Fense. I do agree with the ignoring the world’s problems though.
Yes
Good man? He worked for a company that made missiles. Lol.
You missed the point entirely.
He found his "purpose" by abandoning his peaceful reclaiming of his individuality to uphold the very system that produced the kind of men like Dfens
@@matthewdietzen6708 He was also violent to his own family haha maybe I missed something, but he didn't make a single good thing in the movie
He wasn't angry at nothing, he was angry at everything. He is sympathetic because he had legitimate anger at first. He really was a victim. His anger is understandable. People conflate that with justification for his insane reactions. You are right, he isn't even remotely the good guy. He releases his anger on his family and innocent targets. People also relate to that, though. Everybody has snapped at the wrong person at least once. The guy has been driven insane by the system he was told would grant him his dreams. So, in lots of ways he is relatable and understandable. The problem is a lot of people, especially the left, are like that these days. Placing thier anger on convenient targets and then doing horrible things to them in the name of justice. D fans couldn't fight the government so he fought weaker targets he could defeat. The irony of the story is that the people calling him hero don't realize they are the badguy, too, and they haven't been driven insane, it's ideological.
Not knowing how to let go , makes you a bad guy, I know , I'm one of them
I think its kinda weird to say the left is the one angry all the time when the movie clearly shows a neo nazi, who is more rooted in conservative viewpoints than progressive, yelling slurs at a gay couple for existing.
@@shineyydesigns7696 see behavior like that from the left far more often these days. Wasn't the right who burned down all the cities in the mostly peaceful riots of the last 20 years.
@@jeffstrom164 I mean it was the right who rioted against black children being in schools(Little Rock 9), pushed against interracial marriage in the past AND recently, the right who recently shot up the Colorado gay club and Pulse gay night club, and the right who pushed Asian hate during COVID.
But yeah its totally the left.
@@jeffstrom164 Oh and how could we forget the famous January 6th insurrection.
Happy 30th Falling Down
For me this is a story of how we tend to focus on our own personal problems and ignore everything else around us. We become our own "heroes" not realizing that our actions can affect negatively other people. D-Fens wants to live the old american dream, but he ignores everything that is going on in his "present" america: poverty, violence, racism, homophobia and so on. He has some nostalgic feellings about his country: a place with less immigrants, economic perseverance, hard working folks, etc. His frustration leads him to become an outlaw that dictates what's right. The problems he faces are pretty mild compared to those of the people around him, but he chooses to ignore it because they dont play a role in his heroic act. Good analysis, I think many people misinterpretaded this great movie.
One of the best comments I’ve read on TH-cam 💯 thank you friend and I hope you have a good day
100%
He's not that mad the Nazi harassed the gays. But he's super mad the Nazi chose to associate him with Nazis -- so relevant today when so many people are more mad that they are called racist then ashamed that maybe actually they did something kinda racist and that's why they were called racist.
@@banecrew4963one of the crappiest comment to be honest
For me, this is a story of how you are set up to never succeed in society unless you are willing to be more cut throat than everyone else.
If someone was in his situation what advice would u give them? Because many people today are suffering, and it’s hard getting a job where you’re not shat on or if u tell a girl or guy u work there and they don’t laugh at you.
It’s not honourable to be a janitor, retail worker etc these aren’t my words. I’ll be unemployed soon, my boss hates me for being “slow” I’m quite dyslexic and have a hard time understanding instructions. It is HARD out here
One minute in and I already know you're as divorced from the idea of this message as possible.
Luckily that won't be a problem for much longer. Just remember, when the stuff begins to happen. "You're a parody of an edgelord." and are "going apeshit against the system"
but you won't, you will do as all do and only think of yourself being the one put upon.
I don’t believe you understood this movie.
Yes he does. Specially when he points out that D-Fens is angry at “the system” but doesn’t do anything to change “the system” when he has the chance.
@@pedroportillo1585 “I did everything I was supposed to do.” … “I’m The Bad Guy?”
@@NoahSpurrier “I did everything I was suppose to do” and still doesn’t realize the very system he worked for was the one that betrayed him. Instead he takes his anger out on his family, the forgotten, and the dispossessed instead focusing his anger on the people with actual power. Which makes him the bad guy.
This movie is Joker for boomers
More like Joker is Taxi Driver for zoomers.
@@winstonmarlowe5254Except Taxi Driver is actually an excellent movie.
Falling Down is simply a movie about a guy who decides he's done. The core is losing his child and the absolute lack of any control under the law. Then, the writers just pile it on him until he says, fuck it. Anyone who can say they've never been there is lucky. I personally know the feeling. The world and some very specific people in it should thank whatever god they worship nothing was done about it.
He commits a hate crime almost immediately in the movie. His wife already has a restraining order. His mother is already afraid of him.
He enters the movie deranged and just gets more deranged.
@@35mm21 and the whole reason he was in traffic in the first place was to get to his ex’s house, even though there’s a restraining order.
From your essay I got that you ultimately didn’t care for the movie very much. Neither did Gene Siskel. Appreciate your take.
Saw this film recently. Michael Douglas is brilliant.
we are living in a society
bottom text
One observation I would make about a lot of these pre-911 90s films is it feels strange watching folks talk about them through the prism of the current culture wars. I think this was a movie that was intended to make viewers uncomfortable and intended to make them a little unsure exactly what was going on with D-FENS. But we all understood he wasn't the hero. There is an element of character study to the movie but it is so heightened reality and stark that everything is amplified. The key scenes for me are he appears to understand he is the problem when he is watching the family movies and sees himself yelling at his family. Then his wife nearly reaching him on the docks. What makes it interesting is the Prendergast character stepping in at that moment, which leads to the stand off and D-FENS being shot (holding only a water pistol). I don't think we are meant to know how things would have played out if Prendergast hadn't stepped in. Would D-FENS have listened to his wife and got the help he clearly needed? Would he have done what Prendergast predicted and murder his family? It is one of those endings when you first see it, you subscribe to Prendergast's explanation of where things will go. But there is a bit of doubt that grows for me each time I watch the film.
Also something people probably do need to understand about 90s movies and 90s viewing is a lot of things were appreciated with a sense of Irony and I remember many of my friends ironically embracing this movie (not in the sense that they were enjoying it ironically, but they enjoyed what D-FENS seemed to represent ironically). I don't think that type of movie engagement is something people today understand
That is an interesting interpretation of the scenes with the home movie and on the dock. You are right that the end is kept deliberately ambiguous, which is why we still have these debates. I don't think he would have killed his daughter, as she was the only one who was able to disarm him emotionally at the end, but I'm less certain about what he might or might not have done with his ex-wife. We only hear Prendergast's belief of what would have happened, but it's based on his experience and bias from being a detective for a long time. It's odd that he didn't suggest that Bill might have meant to abduct his daughter, as abduction by non-custodial parent is a lot more common than double murder / suicide. Maybe he was over-accusing in an attempt to get Bill to admit his intent.
The beginning of the movie is similarly ambiguous -- we don't know where he was driving from or where he was going, so some people think that he was on his way to kill his ex-wife and daughter even at that point. I doubt that theory because he did not yet have a murder weapon at that time, which would be pretty important to carry out that plan. We did see him looking at classified ads with three items circled before the confrontation with the gangsters. Maybe he was on his way back to his mother's house after yet another unsuccessful job interview when he finally went insane.
William Foster is not the bad guy. He is the protagonist.
Protagonist doesn't mean good guy.
I always felt the little girl was the victim, her dad was unhinged and her mom was a cnut.
The fact of the matter is, I could sit here and write 12 paragraphs stating why this review is inaccurate, but if its only gonna fall on deaf ears, there really isn't a point. You have to make the choice to look inward and reevaluate. Nobody else can make you do that. For the record, I'm not saying D-FENS is an all out good guy, but he is a very complex character and this review barely scratches the surface of what's actually taking place in this film. There is a much deeper understanding of the elements and themes of this film required to give a proper analysis. I'm sure you roll your eyes at comments like this, but you missed quiet a few marks here and projected and assumed a lot as well. Maybe one day you'll revisit this piece and see it in a different light.
I like you. Maybe you agree with my comment. I'll reply with it if you want. He only "wrong" d-fens did was not preventing this. His pitfall was letting him get sucked dry and be turned into what he was. He actually awakened during the beginning of his movie. He startet to have compassion. He Psychopath worked for the Government and when he lost everything he startet to become a good guy. You can see how he finally starts acting on his principles and morals. In all essence. The only bad and sick guy in this movie was society. And he was part of it. He was the bad guy before falling down. He sold his soul. He let his frustration out on his wife. I think the real lesson here is selling yourself out being "the bread winner" isn't gonna pay itself. You get paid money because it costs you. It's a trade. And he traded his time and he had no time left to build his relationship with his wife. All those pitfalls leading to the falling down. He didn't just "snap". It didn't just take one bad day. What kept him together in the end was pretending to go to work. And when he could not even keep his illusion anymore. When that last thing was taken from him it's when he had to see his wife. He just wanted back his illusion of the happy life he thought he had. And you can see how he accepts his mistakes when he pulled that water gun. He is a guy who thought he if gave everything life would pay him back. But the world he lived him didn't reward anything for his attention. The company the society. They all stole his attention from the things in life he really cared about. When he finally realized that it was too late and the truth was too much pain to take thus he pulled the plastic gun. This movie shows the falling down of his delusion up until he realises the truth. And the truth is that he failed to care for the things he really cared about. The Lesson is it doesn't matter how much you work. It matters for what you work. That work will dicate what your life brings you. He had a wife that wanted a Husband not a ATM. And he failed to ever build a meaningfull relationship with her. You can see how much pain he had watsching those tapes. How much regret he felt for each "i love you" he didn't say. You can see how he realizes how all these years he chased what he thought would be a perfect family. The pain in realizing that he had everything he wanted and all he needed to do is enjoy it. Obviously this isn't the entire truth but it's close to the truth he realized. The truth that spawned his regret and wish to die once he realized it.
I actually enjoyed reading your take and think its a pretty good one. Thanks for your input. @@durschfalltv7505
Fact of the matter is, no one is going to read your 12 paragraphs in the YT comments section. Also this review is on point and I'm enjoying all the weirdos who identify with D-Fens getting upset someone has the audacity to criticize the moviem
I think people also need to consider that people actually still believed in The System in the early 90s. Their numbers were dwindling, and it wouldn't last long, but many still believed that the government was honest and that capitalism was fair. Nobody told D-FENS that that wasn't the case, and that really pissed him off. He went from being the good guy to being the bad guy, from a winner to a loser. Tale one really bad day and toss in a gym bag full of guns, you get Falling Down.
Interesting choice to not discuss Prendergast's story, it's the flipside of the movie's coin and equally as important as the story of D-FENS.
Stopped the video as soon as this light-voiced male said "lit"
Fair
I stopped thinking you don't have worms in your brain as soon as I read your comment.
Ok 36 is not middle aged...
Exactly. Dude was actually forty-seven when filming began. Anyone who described him as “late thirties” needs glasses.
Society?
th-cam.com/video/ZGFbd-zF_Cg/w-d-xo.html
You completely missed the point of this movie. It isn’t a satire and it isn’t a parody. It does satire things like consumers lying about quality of their products(the burger at the restaurant) and it does make commentary about how events are interconnected. D-Fens was stuck in traffic at the beginning because of the road work and he later uses the rocket launcher to shoot at the workers doing the same road work. He uses the bat that the Asian store owner had that was used for protection against thieves but accused Foster of being a thief. He has the butterfly knife to kill the neo Nazi store owner because gang members fought him earlier and he used the bat to fight and got the knife the gang member dropped. He was fired from his job, had a restraining order against him for his wife and daughter, and he’s having quite possibly the worst day ever. Those things that happened to him were results of his own actions and that’s the overarching theme of Falling Down. The movie is brilliant because it’s not saying D-Fens is a villain nor is it saying he’s a hero. It’s not saying Detective Prendergast is the villain or hero either though you could make cases for either based on what we’re shown. The film is telling us we’re all victims to our circumstances and the choices we make that affect which way our lives go. Both William Foster and Detective Prendergast are normal everyday men who are flawed like anyone else and who both have the capacity for both good and evil. Both show they have goodness in them but do things that could be considered questionable. This movie was to movies what Breaking Bad was to tv shows: a journey of real world characters with real world motivations and the filmmaker doesn’t try to tell you who’s the hero or the villain. It’s just two men having an extremely long day who react differently to what they are dealing with. I’d advise you going back and rewatching the movie if you didn’t get any of what I’m saying here upon your first viewing.
That's cool and all but the electric guitar riffs when D-FENS are just wild tho.
D-Fens is NOT a psychopath he's a very angry man with a BIG chip on his shoulder.
I'm sorry, but yes he was. That doesn't mean you can't understand why he did the things he did.
@@MiketheNerdRangerno he wasn't a psychopath. He had lots of empathy.
Why don't you have more subscribers?? This is a crime. Subscribed.
Maybe the only way to enjoy an absurd film from 1993 is to live in an absurd time, watch an absurd youtube video to better? comprehend the absurdity of it all. And get breakfast at 2pm from McDonalds to wash it all down.
Like we said, 1993's "Falling Down" is now available on DVD with bonus features, including
commentary tracks, documentaries and more. But that's my finest opinion.
I don't know if this is the *intended message of the film, but I see this film as a snapshot of an example situation
"White man is faced with the failures of the system he has live in his whole life with little issue. He rails against the wrong targets due to lies he's been fed his entire life to promote the system and deflect blame from the systems flaws. He acts in a manor leaving the system unaffected (if not emboldened) and hurts people in the process."
Think of it "as the American who's had a job for years but is then fired in order to be replaced by an immigrant who will work for cheaper". It is not the immigrantxs fault, but he's been manipulated to blame immigration and hold biases towards "job stealing immigrants". He was faced with a very real problem which you could sympathise with him for, but ultimately factors of who he was, and lies he was lead to believe and never question all but predestined him to respond in a harmful and malicious way. At the end of the day, this poor fate was his fault and the result of his bad traits which he could've changed or countered. Empathy for the immigrant who did nothing but seek a better life and an ability to think critically would've prevented him from falling down this path.
A modern problem we can link this to is the issue of right-wing extremism. Right wing extremists commit their acts of violence against their percieved cause of real world problems. Historically, right wing extremism always rose in times and places where the majority group which is adjusted to relative stability is forced into instability, whether it be Weimar Germany and the rise of Nazis, or 70s and 80s UK and the targetting of lower-class white people by groups like the National Front in order to manipulate them into blaming minorities as the sources of problems (this is why fascist skinheads emerged, despite the skinhead movements multi-cultural and multi-ethnic roots)
I think his character is deeper than that, doesn't really fit into the stereotypical rager. Here's a guy who's basically stuck in the 50's, someone who never really evolved with modern times---he looks at the evolving world around him with confusion and anger, and he doesn't want things to ever change from how he remembered them. And he's got mental problems---his wife divorced him over that. He's no hero, he's a guy with mental problems who was already one step away from the edge---losing his job pushed him over
"doesn't really fit into the stereotypical rager" His wife left him because he was a rager lmao, he got massive anger problems that ulimately led to his divorce.
@@Rudolf215 No, I'm talking about the typical serial rager that plans out an attack on a city---his actions were spontaneous
@@justsumguy2u dude you literally said “this guy isn’t a rager” by definition when person as angry issues is a rather.. jesus lmao
Angry at nothing??
i don’t think the army surplus store guy threatened to “arrest him”, but the word im looking for definitely had an r in it.
He is an actual psychopath. And people really don't understand that psychopaths are usually the least violent, most obedient,most systematic and most controlling.
You missed the point about fast food. You're so surface level. It's about the corporatisation of America and the decay of person responsibility and being able to act with discretion, ie giving him breakfast using common sense rather than arbitrary rules.
I think what really made me angry about this movie was that everyone thought he did everything in the movie. Like the drive by they blamed him for that. I always wanted to see what reaction they would have if they realized what had happen to him and why he started becoming angry and upset with everything around him.
How can one video be filled with so many bad opinions and mental gymnastics? massive L this movie is great
lol fr
I think these people miss the point of "when you take everything away from a man, and he has nothing left." Unfortunately, this is what happens, his last wish was to give his daughter a birthday gift, which got broken on the way...so he gave her life insurance.
So, the fact that he's a "white guy" is relevant how? (It's not). He is not a "racist character," nor was he intended to be a bigot.
This is what's called the "antihero." He's a character that isn't righteous or meant to be held up as a role model, yet despite his many faults, is still *relatable,* despite the fact that most who sympathize with him would never actually go through with committing such extreme acts, but would still find satisfaction in daydreaming about doing such things.
This is a "Gen-X" era movie, so I would not expect youger viewers to understand it accurately, just as I couldn't fully and accurately understand films that were of my parents generation, as they born in the 30s/40s; even though I may understand many basic aspects of films during that era, having never lived through it, my understanding would be limited to seeing everything through a "lense" of *MY* life experience, if that makes sense.
a few things to say,
I already commented on this video about a month ago, but it really spoke to me when I was last few weeks of my huge depression streak
your channel is really underrated and good
it sucks that when I looked up "falling down video essays" alot of them were made by chuds and one was made by an actual nazi
anyway, great video, rewatched it recently, glad you are a fan of synth's, hope you make more soon.
stupid dumbass thank you so much that really means a lot. I hope you’re feeling better. Yeah I saw falling down recently without knowing about all the racist fans, which is ironic bc it’s clearly making fun of them and it’s directed by a gay guy lol.
Banzai
(My alt) yeah after deciding to transition I feel better.
Who’s the actual nazi you mentioned? Or are you saying that because someone shares different opinions than you so you feel the need to destroy the meaning of a word that is still hurtful to many communities
E
Commenting for the algorithm 👌🏾❤
(Yes im here from FD Signifier's video, I rushed right over to give it the like and subscribe it deserves)
Thank you so much!! I’ve said it before I’ll say it again I owe that dude a lot lol
Thank GOD for your review, I see too many people talking about “wish fulfilment”
This guy reminds me of my own dad (and not in a good way)
you were charismatic throughout the video essay... hard to believe that you have less than 100 subscribers
I know right? Thanks
Subbed
@@charleshern6958 subscribed
He have 577 subscribers now.
that editing was absolutely hilarious
“Racism is when make fun of Graffiti.”
Yeah that one didn't make sense. It's not even painted in another language. It's a gang symbol that's not in any language.
What about when you launch into a racist rant because a private business owner won't give you change? Is that racist?
I normally dislike to leave negative reviews, I hardly do it at all, but to label 'D-Fens' as a Racist is simply incorrect. It doesn't help that on the majority, you are only picking scenes in which demonize the character. The scene with the Surplus obviously shows that D-Fens is uncomfortable with the situation, but you only involve the part where D-Fens states that "They are not the same" and you quickly act on that, leaving out the last part of the sentence where he insults the Surplus Store owner, and rightfully so.
I mean that’s kinda how racism works. Like when you say something racist people will be like - yeah that exact moment - was racist
@@JL_LuxYeah in that moment, he was racist.
But Neo Nazi?
Lmao
Wait. What was that shit that flashed around when he said "I'm the bad guy?" It looked li--
...
Ohhhhhh...
That split second of Billy Elish was MKUltra level.
“Time to take it too far now uh, micheal Douglas out the car now uh” -Kanye West
I just want to grill
He's absolutely not racist. Being an English speaker with a problem with demographic death spirals does a racist not make.
Shooting at people of color and criticizing their language is.
I always thought he was always supposed to be a cautionary tale. The way his wife was scared of him and how he talked to his daughter in that home video. His wife got a restraining order against him and when he found her, he brought a gun with him. He lost his job. He talked down to wage workers. He might have voiced everyone's "inner thoughts" and frustrations but, his reactions weren't justified. He was going to be set off by something.
I definitely wanna see more of these kinds of video essays on movies or shows from you these are rlly good man 👍
Thanks man. I’m planning on doing more but I just need to get some free time to do it
You can look at all the political, economic, and racial themes in the movie, there's plenty there to dissect, but I like Falling Down most for the way it brilliantly tells the tale of a boring white man who played by the rules and lost his faith in the American Dream, and his ultimate descent into madness and a violent nervous breakdown. It's a good movie about how we handle the things in life we perceive as unfair. Some may say he perfectly captures the negative traits of the boomers that people like to criticize. D-FENS doesn't really care about the suffering or state of happiness of others, he's only interested in his own little world. The people he encounters are merely annoyances in his way, he's not particularly interested in their story or helping them. He grew up in a black and white world where if you put in the work and were fair and honest in life, you were rewarded. He sympathizes with Not Economically Viable because he sees himself in that man. He couldn't care less about the homeless in the park or the gay men getting hassled. I think he sees their struggles as their own undoing if anything. I've always seen the movie as being most about a man discovering that life isn't fair for anybody, and he just can't deal with that or accept it. Whatever the intended meaning was, either way, it's a great goddamn movie.
If he sympathized with Not Ecomincally Viable, he would have helped him. He sympathized with the sign. He gave zero effs about the man holding it.
If he identified with the black protester, he would have shot the cops and handed him a gun.
@Darla Lathan Why Tf would he?? I thought it was obvious he identifies with, or at least feels empathy for the protester. I picked up on that when I first saw this film as an 11 year old. He is the only person who doesn't eye the protester with annoyance or disdain like the other pedestrians, some of whom go out of their way to avoid the protester. He acknowledges and nods when the protester tells him "Don't forget me. " Sure, it's easy to miss, but notice both him and the protester are dressed exactly the same. Even the pattern on their ties were identical. That wasn't coincidence, the director mentioned that was done on purpose because the 2 of them, are both dealing with similar injustices in life and that brief silent exchange between them, shows it. Bills ultimate goal was to get "home" to terrorise his ex and daughter, not stop every injustice he witnessed. It would make no sense for his character to risk giving himself up by starting a shootout with cops just to save a man who at worst was facing a disturbing the peace charge and at best just being removed from the banks premises. He witnessed a lot of injustices towards others throughout the film and doesn't do anything unless it's directly affecting him. But if you've watched the film and his body language in these scenes, it's obvious he is sympathetic and or disgusted by these things. Does it matter? No, he wasn't a vigilante or some superhero out to "save the day "
@@TurnToPageX I'm just going to copy and paste the same reply I wrote the other commenter below you, as its easier since your comments are similar: I thought it was obvious he identifies with, or feels empathy for the protester. I picked up on that when I first saw this film as an 11 year old. He is the only person who doesn't eye the protester with annoyance or disdain like the other pedestrians, some of whom go out of their way to avoid the protester. He acknowledges and nods when the protester tells him "Don't forget me. " Sure, it's easy to miss, but notice both him and the protester are dressed exactly the same. Even the pattern on their ties were identical. That wasn't coincidence, the director mentioned that was done on purpose because the 2 of them, are both dealing with similar injustices in life and that brief silent exchange between them, is to show it. Bills ultimate goal was to get "home" to terrorise his ex and daughter, not stop every injustice he witnessed. It would make no sense for his character to risk giving himself up just to help a man who at worst was facing a disturbing the peace charge and at best just being removed from the banks premises. He witnessed a lot of injustices towards others throughout the film and doesn't do anything unless it's directly affecting him. Does not mean he isn't sympathetic or doesn't give a EFF. If you've watched the film and his body language in these scenes, it's obvious he is sympathetic and or disgusted by these things. It all adds up to his anger at society. But does it really ultimately matter if he shows if he gives a damn about these people though? No, he wasn't a vigilante or some superhero out to "save the day " but he did see a lot of himself in the "not economically viable" man. Just not sure how you wanted him to express he gave a damn? Should he have sent him flowers or something?
@@winterlynn9012 I wish YOU would do a video essay about this film. There is more clarity of perception and deep understanding in your comment than in this entire video essay.
I feel like the whole “not economically viable” part kind of reflects the average American within the fight for racial injustice. Many Americans can see how people feel about the situation but no one ever acts on behalf of those who are discriminated against but rarely do we see action taken towards this racial injustice.
Very interesting movie, but the problem with this movie is that you have manospherians siding with Dfense, because of their own misogynistic reasons, saying his ex wife was a horrible person, but she had reasons; he had a very unstable personality and bad temper, yeah he never physically assaulted them, but verbal assault is just as worse.
He blew up over something minor in his Home made VHS tapes. The ex-wife was justified in her divorce.
He was about to kill the wife.
Dfense was an upset person who was not happy about the modern times. The Cold War ended, the breadwinner family was ending, and he was mad about an increase in the price of a soda. His former job was building military supply for the US, but at the time there were no War or major conflicts so he was laid off or fired. Hes someone straight from the 1950s-1970s.
It does have the Angry White Male trope.
So that wasn't a moment of regret. He was watching the video because he yearned for the past, for a time when everything was perfect, but watching the video, he realizes his life wasn't perfect. His spoiled kid won't get on the horse he bought, and his wife won't stand by him. He averts his eyes because he doesn't want any more of his illusions shattered, his rose tinted past tainted. If he had regrets, he would've apologized, but he doesn't see that any of this is his fault. He's surprised to find himself the bad guy.
Did those people actually watch the movie? The guy is literally insane.
Did you?
@@YankeeWitNoYankee yea
@@trashultra3747 lol sure ok
Thats the thing, the fact that we can sympathize with the dude on some level is kinda alarming, depending on your reading of course.
@@unknownpack5717 even though I can agree with dfens getting mad in most if not in every situation, in some instances he reacted too extremely, while in others he didn't
"the price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Tommy.
This was fricken awesome! Well done analysis
"I don't care, get outta here." 🤣 Amazing break down! Thanks for making this video.
Its a later version of Taxi Driver, except in that film we felt good for Travis Bickle. In this movie we feel this guys nuts, except the entire world he knows is fallen apart. We should feel for this guy, his way of doing things is over, and he's pissed. A good man screwed by the world.
Anger at nothing or getting shit on by everyone around him? what movie did you watch?
Getting shit on by not having a breakfast sandwich?
@@JL_Lux Again have you seen the whole movie? He loses his job, gets shot at by gangbangers, is harassed by the homeless, his divorced wife wont let him see his kid, a white supremacist tries to recruit him then tried to turn him into the police at gun point, and then all the little shit like the traffic the grumpy convenience store owner, etc. The breakfast sandwich thing is just one of many thing this psycho perceives as a microaggression or transgression against him. We know this character is mentally unstable from the first 10 minutes of the film and you see him crack more and more as the film goes on. So maybe watch the movie before you say stupid shit.
@@t-bonestickyfingers1336 he lost his job. Tough shit. He was a terrible husband and his wife was correct in taking her child away from him. He wasn’t a good partner or a good father!
The homeless man has more of a reason to be crazy than him. So does the guy dying of aids. The black man got arrested for protesting mean while his ass is standing there mad for no real reason. THEN the police don’t even believe it’s a white man - so he benefits from white privilege. Yet none of them go around killing. And he is Very similar to the white supremist! They both wanna go back to the 1940s
@@JL_Lux None of your argument makes sense. It made me laugh. Thank you for the laugh. LOL
In eastern Europe we usually call 1:23 the kids who couldn't understand that they should act mature enough on social media to not show their real age
Edit: so anyway, liberal youtube commentary is the most conservative thing about this movie on the internet
Came here because F.D Signifier mentioned you in his video and really glad I did. Great video! *Subscribed*
Thank you so much! I really owe him one for shouting me out!!
great video lmao, love the ending
1:29 woah, did they watch the film at all?
The character is literally compared to a Nazi, and found being much worse, and the climax of the film is him realizing he's the bad guy and doing something selfless.
Hey man this was a really good essay good job 👍🏾
Thanks dude
Hoo that part about customers in food service is relatable.
I think the funniest part is that D-Fens is racist towards everyone EXCEPT Black people.
That Tasha Robinson review seemed to get the same impression of the character as I did but she somehow missed entirely that he's not the hero. This is a critique, not an endorsement, of that self-pitying, entitled, martyrdom attitude.
He "did everything he was supposed to do" and now he feels entitled to the promises made to him by a bygone era.
He is forced to realize that the time he came from wasn't so great either. He watches as the nazi chases a gay couple out of his store and then says with disgust "we're not the same" (despite his nostalgia for an era where chasing off gays would have been perfectly acceptable). He begins to relate to the black man who the banks have deemed "not economically viable" (again, despite wishing for a past where that man would've been treated even worse). For the first time this 1965 (he gives his desired date in the convenience store) privileged conservative white man is forced to see the world from a less privileged viewpoint and he doesn't like what he sees. By the end he is yelling at those who have done well out of the privilege that he used to share and they are so unaccustomed to it they die on the spot of heart failure. Conservatism is all about holding on to the past and fighting change; the customer is always right, speak english in my country, roll back your prices to 1965, there's nothing wrong with the road! but after finally seeing where a lifetime of that treatment left him--what his temper and privilege lead him to and how those who suffered for his privilege must've felt he's not so keen. Every interaction with some one he thinks he's better than leaves him with a weapon upgrade. The world just hands him the tools of violence and at first seems to reward him for using them, for most of the actual movie from when we meet him he isn't falling down but failing up. Bat>knife>bag of guns>bazooka>water gun... He never "got around to" beating his wife and times have changed enough that he doesn't get the chance to when reality catches up to him all he has is a water pistol mirroring the rise and decline of the ideology that handed him his upbringing, education, cushy job, beautiful wife, child, then messy divorce, restraining order, unemployment.
He's trying desperately to cling to some idea of a rosy past that probably never really existed and it just ends up divorcing him from reality--which I think is a pretty clear critique of conservatism, but maybe that's just my personal bias. The guns serve to magnify the microaggressions of entitlement--sorry the trigger is sensitive, go back to eating your lunch, I'm a nice guy, I SAID GO BACK TO EATING YOUR LUNCH--everyone has to tiptoe around him but he gets to make jokes and act like it's not a big deal. He gets "home" and his nostalgia falls apart as he watches his home movies only to discover--surprise!--he was always the asshole as he watches himself yelling at his wife and toddler on the screen. And then he's shocked when Prendergast, the first person he feels equal with and able to relate to, tells him that he is the bad guy and sends him to float with the rest of the trash.
Excellent analysis.
excellent job
God I love this movie
One of the best films of the 90s
Good job with the Billir Ellish, Ellis? What ever good job on that.
Thank you
You pretty much summed up how I felt about the film. I think this story could've worked but the messaging was off. The anger is misguided. Michael Douglas is great as D-Fense but the anger towards the system should've been better written. I've read how people interpret him as a "confused victim" and, while there are good arguments for that, there are contradictions to that like you've pointed out. The Whammy Burger scene was something I was looking forward to in context, since I've watched the clip before watching the movie, but watching it in context was incredibly disappointing.
Yeah I’m not sure how much of it is “product of the times” and “something to say about the system”. If that makes sense
@@BanzerFilms136 Totally agree. I've been back and forth on that when thinking about it haha
@@evanfrew1834 I think both of you make a good point, they had many chances to explain WHY he was going off the handle and losing control, but they just didn't flesh things out as much and to me you have to identify with vigilantes otherwise they become fugitives, and there's only one harrison ford fugitive movie. Why did a sane man lose his marbles? They should explained it to us more, because honestly d-fens was starting to look like a pure criminal that wasn't trying to fix things and make things right. Idk.
@@cm-pr2ys He was fired and divorced. He couldn't see nor provide for his family. Thats why he lost himself. In my reading, i never got the notion that he
wasn't even trying to fix systemic issues. I saw it as an hyberbolic reflection of our own society, the dispairty in concern and agency with have for particular issues and our dismissive response to said issues. He was never a vigilante, he believed he was the 'goodguy' until the end. Just like others, he will justify his extreme actions/views under the veneer of social/moral justice.
.
Bro good video but if you never been in the same position you don't get it.
Awesome analysis fuck the office. This movie takes me back to my childhood I miss the 90s.
You just simplified this whole movie and made it out to be some political shit that has nothing to do with the point of the film. I hate you people who do this crap this is a genius film and d-fens is a perfect example of a complex character that you can sympathize with and hate at the same time (similar to real people like you actually). He is meant to be the catalyst for the viewer to question his motivations and actions he is supposed to make you think of BOTH sides of the argument. This film is how people handle their problems, we are supposed to sympathize with d-fens until we realize that he is actually the "bad guy" as is shown in the film by the video of the birthday party. D-fens loves his daughter and his wife more than anything but he has deep anger issues. He would have never thought in a million years that he would hurt his family, but the anger he had deep inside him built up until it explodes.
If his wife didn't get a restraining order on him then this explosion he had would have been directed toward his wife and daughter. If you notice the cop played by Robert Duvall has almost the exact same problems as D-fens but the cop handles his problems differently and D-fens is actually making HIS life, and the people he loves' lives, a million times more difficult by flying off the handle and trying to solve his problems with his anger issues and personal crusades against society. By doing this he becomes the "bad guy" instead of moving on with his life and just making the best out of it like the cop does. D-Fens can't accept change and lashes out in anger. All the issues presented are supposed to be controversial issues meant to make you think an analyze whether or not d-fens was justified in his anger, that is the whole point of the film.
He makes some good points at times, he never actually hit or hurt his wife, the Korean store owner thought he was a sucker and raised the price just for him, because back then in 1993 a coke was 50 cents everywhere always, and it was maybe even a quarter at some places. He let his anger get to him at the fast-food place and when he pulled his gun out, he couldn't turn back. That scene was to show you that his anger would make him do things that he regrets (such as eventually hurting his wife and daughter) and that he can't take back.
The scene where he murders the Nazi is supposed to make you question if he was justified to kill a man that is obviously one of the biggest pieces of shit society can muster, and to show you how similar D-Fens actually is to the neo-Nazi. The killing of the Nazi is his transition into the "Bad Guy". The scene afterward where he is at the golf course is just to show you that he has become the bad guy. He causes the man to have a heart attack and then justifies is because the guy was an obvious piece of shit (similar to the nazi that he killed) so he decided it was justified. The same way he would have eventually justified hurting and possibly killing his wife, daughter, and himself if his wife never got the restraining order on him.
Bro this is not a genius film, and you are lying to yourself or just clueless if you don't think it's political.
@@clavicleofcernunnos I'm not lying to myself or clueless. Go find something to do with yourself other thank talk out your ass to people or at least provide an argument instead of wasting my time. Play with your dolls or something productive.
PLEASE MAKE MORE VIDEO ESSAYS! 😔
I will by the end of November!!!
Good breakdown!
Thanks man!
This probably my favorite movie
Proof that most video essays can communicate the entire message in relation to what they're about in like 10 minutes instead of 10 hours.
Great job obliterating this sort of "heroic" billing of D-Fens with just what you should...what's literally in the movie.
i love this film precisely because i hated the protagonist. LOL.
I’m predisposed to hate video essays
But this one was actually good
Hey....you're not alive....
GreySkullification aka TheeTopBrick
Yeah probably
No it was actually terrible
It feels like you added more things to this "review" than you should have. This movie was to show how the world was collapsing back in the 90s, homeless, AIDs pandemic, gang violence increasing, over-inflated budgets for the road construction so they have to fix perfect roads; and not the mention, the protestor who got arrested for practicing his 1st amendment rights. All of these things that I listed were real problems and still are real problems society is facing today.
There was no collapse in the 90's... go soak your head
@@tedsmart5539 Obviously you do not have very good comprehension skills, i said “how the world was collapsing” the keyword is “was” referring to beginning to collapse. Sorry that your reading comprehension skills aren’t that good.
I'm a firm believer of the idea that one's moral compass is not contingent on the actions of other people so these kinds of main characters, especially those with a deep-seated sense of exclusive victimhood ("I'm the *only* one this world is screwing over!!), kind of piss me off lol everybody is suffering dude get over it
Seriously, if d-fens put more effort into positive change instead of killing people...well things would probably be a bit better. The whole south american thing was cringy. IF he can't get back together with his ex-wife, take a vacation and go to vegas or something. Idk.
They address this in the movie, the detective tracking D-fens is in a very similar position, his life is pretty rough as well and it doesn’t look like it’ll get better, except instead of going on a rampage he remains optimistic and nice to people. Even at the end he tells him that, yeah, life sucks but everyone is struggling just the same and it doesn’t give him any right to threaten and kill people.
He's complex like all humans. Why must it be black or white
Because the man in question thinks in black and white, he is just the bad guy.
@@brandonmorel2658 How the character thinks is an error, he IS a complex person, we are complex people.
Are the 2 murderer guys in gang land that try to Rob him good men?
Did you miss the part where he says that the grievances start out legitimate and only get pettier?
It's not a super hero movie.
You simply don't understand the movie.
India made their own version of Falling Down called “Domblivi Fast”.
This sounds incredible
@@BanzerFilms136 I’ve seen parts of them of the movie, but I don’t know what they’re saying.
m.th-cam.com/video/b4yOigE-j7Q/w-d-xo.html
Anger at nothing?! You're a silly person.
Feels like the movie was mostly about the perceived lack of personal agency from someone who had serious mental health issues and no good outlet for it.
TO be fair it was 2 minutes past 11 oclock. And 20 hours? Bit of an exaggeration. More like a couple of minutes. Also.... Cartoon characters? You may be surprised to know there are actually people like that in real life, they're called entitled people and these people are absolutely real. Take a look inside any WalMart or a Popeye's parking lot some day.
Disappointed I gave this video a view. Love hearing a kid who probably has no life experience try to explain a middle aged man's perspective..
It really does feel like a parody lol you're right
You may have watched the movie but clearly didn’t understand it. LOL
I thought the movie was fine.
I did too
I can tell you have had minimal life experience if you really think D Fens was angry at nothing.
19:23 I listened and read that statement 4 times, and have no idea what the hell she’s yapping about. Anyone? Anyone?
It's the most honest social commentary movie ever made. Anyone can be a Bill Foster. Bill is every working class guy that's ever lived and didn't know it. You think you live in a "Free" country? Name something that's free? I'll give you "Air". Go for 2? You understand some of the pieces, but you're missing the picture. You still gotta lot to learn. Welcome to Amerika.
😂
An ultimately flawed, poor and mediocre review.
I don't see where you get the racial theme when it is absent from this movie. Many behaviors and reference are explained with more in depth reading, more attention to details and a better understanding of context : all of which are lacking in this video.
D-FENS is a jaded man stuck in the past, unable to move on, to catch on society, society that is evolving fast. The first and most catastrophic event was the divorce and restrain order of questionable reason. His unemployment status left him without purpose. His lack of proper mental health care is what let this happen. As the quote on the posters says "an ordinary man against an everyday society : an urban truth"
Bill is ultimately a discarded asset left to rot that put up a last stand before falling down. Society never cared for him, leading to his unstable condition. Society injustice and evolve left him stripped from purposes and good will, eventually turning into the madman he was designed to be. The movie also critics the 90s, generally speaking the modern society :
-LA's gang violence, and ultimately, non sense. The comment of Bill regarding the gang markings are not "racist", have you ever looked at a gang landmark? It's gibberish. Cannot be understood by the untrained eye, thus leading to his comment on the matter before lashing out at them and berating them on how stupid their claim is. Film also depicts the futility of Gangs and their tragic consequences : innocents being hit and family torn with death, sorrow and worry towards the gangbanger.
-Fast food's stupid policy of timed menus. It was true in this time with McEggmuffins or smth by Mcdonald's. That's why it's referenced in this film.
-If you ever had body language knowledge, Bill is visually disgusted by the shop owner and strongly disapprove his actions, but because he isn't confrontational in nature he backs up. How do you think he built up all this rage if he confronted people more often?
-His actions against construction worker. It's a true insight towards government fiddlings, as an inside man he knows well and easily picked off the reason of this "repair", it's a reality that dept' of governments intentionally waste money to keep their enveloppe.
There's also clear visual evidences of who he his. Classic shirt and tie from a white collar individual. A 70's military hairstyle. This is a man stuck in the past.
The reason we cheer for him is that everyone wanted to commit these misdemeanors and crimes but had moral to stop them. A madman don't. He's an embodiment of our sins, a sort of Jesus of revenge and madness eager to vent off his rage and his confusion in a world that no longer recognize him, in a world he no longer recognize as fitting. That's also why he lashed out at the gorcery store owner, and also why he freezes inflation at the 60's-70's (remember her hairstyle).
In conclusion, is a jaded man unable to move on that lashes out all his frustration towards a society that discarded him. The cop arch is exactly the same, except he takes the opposing route, labeling it as "not interesting" just tells us you didn't understand the movie.
His wife had “questionable” reasons? Are you sure about that?
This is way better than the woke shit.