Falling Down
Added 2025-07-31 12:00:08 +0000 UTCGo to this site: Cinebingers.ca for the unedited versions of all our content.
👉 https://cinebingers.ca/smVrsGZKG3 👈 for the full reaction where you do not need your own copy.
👉 https://cinebingers.ca/7dF0hXlb54 👈for the full reaction where you need your own copy.
If you are on a phone/tablet, hold down the link above and press "open in browser", or go straight to Cinebingers.ca on your browser app.
movie runtime: 01:52:35
Comments
Perhaps the movie is suggesting the following lesson to all of us "normal" people with good and bad sides: it can sometimes be very tempting to throw out the rules and "go crazy." Looking at D-Fens, while everybody should agree that he goes too far, at least some of his actions seem cathartic and appealing. But can you draw a bright line of where he should have obviously pulled back? "One little time you pull out a prop, and where does it stop? Where does it stop?"
Happy Hanukkah
2025-08-03 04:11:10 +0000 UTCI always felt this movie was just about someone who clearly had some character flaws and the potential to be pretty horrible, but overall it being about just going crazy, snapping, and doing all the things we dream we could in our minds but we don't because we're sane reasonable people. At least I think that's the hook, almost SNL, South Park, Simpsons, Family guy sort of skits about doing the crazy things we think about but again wouldn't do. Deeper though he's clearly presented as a bad person underneath it all sort of waiting for the right circumstance to do the bad things he clearly didn't think were bad things but probably just didn't do because society deems it inappropriate. He threw the rule book out and just did all those things that clearly don't bother him doing. So yeah I guess I agree it's about the dichotomy of a good person and a bad person in challenging situations where D-fens blames everyone else for his problems and is just looking to take out his crappy life probably based on his bad decisions on others, so we see it in cases we sympathize with like the gang guys and then people we don't sympathize with.
Matthew Langley
2025-08-03 01:32:21 +0000 UTCGood summary Lex, Yea the traffic scene was very symbolic and sort of a straw that broke the camels back, he already lost it after the divorce, loosing a job and he's whole life unraveling. A flawed but tragic character overall.
P S
2025-08-02 11:52:49 +0000 UTCThe film is about the alienating and dehumanizing nature of modern society. The traffic isn't just an annoyance, it's a symbol of being trapped in modern life. The convenience store clerk's sin wasn't high prices, it was not being willing to work with his customer like a human being to find a way for everyone to get what they want. The problem with the fast food place isn't just that it's annoying, it's that corporate policies override people's ability to treat one another like human beings. Walk into any decent restaurant that isn't a corporate chain monstrosity and they're going to work with you to make you happy rather than being uncannily chipper while enforcing arcane hidden policies. This is the theme and D-fens, someone who is very keyed into personal respect, is just as guilty of it - rather than treating his family like real people, he treats them like props in the stories in his head. He's a tragic character because he understands the fault in everyone else but can't see that same fault in himself, and we don't know it at the start of the film but by the time the movie starts he's already way past the point of no return. By contrast, Prendergast's main strength throughout the film is his ability to connect with people as people and it's ultimately what allows him to save D-fens' ex wife and child. I think the film is clear from pretty early on that D-fens is not the hero of the story, but I also think it does a good job making him sympathetic. He feels to me like a deeply tragic character whose tragedy started long before his life started falling apart, when he started being an abusive asshole to the people who cared about him rather than getting therapy.
Lex Kuzma
2025-08-02 06:20:43 +0000 UTCThat stupid little hat line was my fav
P S
2025-08-01 16:21:54 +0000 UTCDon't like George's opinion, don't watch his channel. Pretty easy
Chris Foster
2025-08-01 12:59:04 +0000 UTCWell, she doesn’t kill, so it’s horrible, but most would see D-Fens as worse. But it’s just that the scale of the damage is smaller. However, shouldn’t Pendergast be getting her help instead of hiding it or retiring to be her caregiver? It’s also possible to interpret the film that she’s responsible for their child’s death and Pendergast won’t let himself face it.
jmundt33a
2025-08-01 12:48:37 +0000 UTCGeorge needs to shut the fuck up he has the same bullshit against men. The movie is about mental illness George is just a cold blooded guy when it comes to other men. Mental illness is very serious thing
Paul Mayes
2025-08-01 12:16:16 +0000 UTCDamn, I remember when they stopped doing that. It was a while ago, but I think it was mostly because people just didn’t get it. Nothing big I don't think.
G T
2025-08-01 12:05:01 +0000 UTCThe number of people who can only process this film through a tightly calibrated millennial lens genuinely surprised me. It’s not without flaws, and sure, it’s very much a product of its time; but watching people flatten it into “he’s an incel” is just depressing. I’d love to see a beat for beat remake with Jamie Foxx in the lead, just to test how quickly the discourse shifts to systemic injustice and social inequity or something 🤦 Glad to see at least one person here engaging with the actual substance.
G T
2025-08-01 11:59:44 +0000 UTC“Time to take it too far now / Michael Douglas out the car now”
Thirty Year Old Mulberry Field
2025-08-01 08:14:14 +0000 UTCOr perhaps it's an appeal/warning to those dread "conservative men" to consider therapy? Hmm?
Happy Hanukkah
2025-08-01 06:01:47 +0000 UTCOh, yah?
REDR58
2025-08-01 05:14:09 +0000 UTCI remember thinking this was awesome 30 years ago. I thought it was idiotic this time around. This is like a wet dream for conservative men who have never been to therapy.
Tom M
2025-08-01 04:14:59 +0000 UTCAnother good movie with Michael Douglas is Disclosure
Mike Jenson
2025-08-01 03:33:42 +0000 UTCHere's a thought: The movie obviously invites us to compare and contrast D-Fens and Prendergast. But perhaps we should be comparing D-Fens and Mrs. Prendergast*. For example, until this day when D-Fens finally snaps, is she in any way "better"? * Played by Tuesday Weld, who had an "interesting" life.
Happy Hanukkah
2025-08-01 00:10:45 +0000 UTC28:00 I tend to view the movie less as a character study of D-Fens, than an indictment of the modern world. The world can absolutely suck. Some people (like Prendergast) can cope with it. D-Fens, however, while not evil, was always flawed. As long as he had a framework that insulated him from the ugliness of the Real World (or lived in the mythical(?) Good Old Days with a better social compact) he was relatively functional and an asset to society, but once his support network got yanked away, he snapped. (Say, has anyone seen Joker?) I appreciate this movie for its ability to lead to interesting discussions. (In principle. You also have the "He's a HERO!" and the "He's an avatar of White Male Privilege!" factions.)
Happy Hanukkah
2025-07-31 20:56:31 +0000 UTC2:15 "Do it *now*, or else something bad will happen!" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hershel_of_Ostropol#My_Father (Not the best telling, but it's what I could find.) 4:44 The owner, he got pissed! Eat vegetable! 9:26 Incontrovertible proof that God is on his side. 10:55 "I hate people when they're not polite..." 🎵 17:20 😂 17:37 I am outraged at this. I hope the gay fellow doesn't proceed to go on a rampage. 35:22 I wonder if there might be any significance to that...
Happy Hanukkah
2025-07-31 20:54:12 +0000 UTCNot specific to this movie, but I'm curious, why did you guys decide to stop doing that game where only one of you would look at the movie poster and then describe it to the other? I kinda liked that.
Michael LaPorte
2025-07-31 20:52:13 +0000 UTCI go way past hero or antihero, but stop in the neighborhood of tragic villain.
Happy Hanukkah
2025-07-31 20:39:20 +0000 UTCQueen of the damned God Bless America Animatrix A.I. Artificial Intelligence IQ Mighy Ducks
Morion Williams
2025-07-31 20:36:31 +0000 UTCSince you brought up having to deal with the guy looking for money and him having a long story and all that, I'll just say that I just shut them down and hand them a few bucks if I have any on me. They obviously need the money more than I do and I have no problem helping them out when I can.
Christina Doxstader
2025-07-31 20:09:14 +0000 UTCI work in food delivery and every single day there someone giving a speech inside a fast food restaurant because they have to wait or pay more for something than they did 30 years ago, this main character is my nightmare
Matt88g
2025-07-31 17:20:27 +0000 UTCFor a long time. The image people seem to have taken with them is what was playing as the credits rolled. As if those smiles were never forced.
jmundt33a
2025-07-31 17:17:47 +0000 UTCRaymond J. Barry (the captain) was also the dad in Walk Hard, which is a movie I really hope they eventually watch. Probably need to watch Walk the Line first, but it's so worthwhile. (Not that Walk the Line isn't good - it's excellent - but Walk Hard is John C. Reilly at the absolute top of his game.)
Jeff K
2025-07-31 17:14:47 +0000 UTCHere's a bit of trivia for you: Steve Park, the actor who played the Japanese cop, is the same guy who played Mike Yanagita in Fargo.
Hans Olav Sletnes
2025-07-31 17:06:58 +0000 UTCThe interesting thing about this movie, and why I think it has withstood the test of time, is that thing George kept alluding to -- the relatability of so much of what is presented. But it is like funhouse mirrored through this twisted persona. And the complex part that keeps it from being a one off "let's play the laughing psycho" bit is how the character doesn't know he's the bad guy. He's not "And here...we...go" ing, he's reacting. But he's got this internalized rage, and not least at himself, and so his reactions are all explosively over the top. In many ways its a lot more interesting, if a lot uglier/closer to home, than a big scenery chewing villain performance. At the end when he says "I'm the bad guy? How'd that happen?" It feels legit. Its a character study taking you down a seamy ride with a character full of seething anger but who has a residual self image of who he thinks he is, or was. He could do anything at any time, but the movie resists the cheese of having him always do it in MUHAHAA fashion.
Cc Decc
2025-07-31 16:55:13 +0000 UTCYour saying he didn’t do anything wrong?????????????
Matt88g
2025-07-31 16:41:05 +0000 UTCIt's interesting, I was re-listening to the Blank Check podcast episode on Romancing the Stone and they were talking about pretty much this exact thing, and how he could never really break through as a movie star until he began to embrace this sleazier persona (starting a little bit with Romancing the Stone, even though he wasn't TOO sleazy in that - great movie, by the way, that George and Simone should watch), and then he had a string of sleazier and sleazier characters and the audiences just ate it up. And then pretty much the only non-sleazy role he played after that was in The American President, in which he was the pinnacle of wholesome and good. Maybe he had to get older before people could stop seeing him only as the sleazy-yet-charming guy? Who knows.
Jeff K
2025-07-31 16:21:46 +0000 UTCI completely agree with George's sentiment of "you're taking it out on the wrong people". I feel that way whenever people start rioting and burning down their own neighborhoods, you're hurting people that had nothing to do with whatever it is caused your anger. The people that are really the cause don't give a shit that you're burning down local businesses and destroying your own homes. It's so stupid.
Stugotz
2025-07-31 14:13:01 +0000 UTCSo, for some reason…maybe someone with more cinematic knowledge of the 1970s or early 1980s can explain this, Michael Douglas starred in big money movies with social commentary (some of it biting) as obvious and memorable villains. However, America at large did not get it. He was so likeable or seductive or something that loud and lasting chunks of the audience saw him as an avatar or worse, a role model. Specifically, Gekko and this character. I am bewildered by this.
jmundt33a
2025-07-31 13:34:09 +0000 UTCSome of the things in this movie seem a lot more extreme now than they did when it was released. For example at the fast food place his complaints about wanting breakfast during "lunch hours" were met with cheers by audiences because at the time McDonalds had this same policy, breakfast items could only be served during breakfast hours, people felt the exact same way D-Fens did. And from a certain point of view he didn't really do anything wrong, outside of potentially being abusive to his mother, wife, and daughter, he was just taking a more hardline stance against everyday annoyances. He didn't hurt anyone that didn't deserve it, and only killed one person who was physically attacking him.
Anthony
2025-07-31 13:19:10 +0000 UTCThe Captain I remember most as Raylan’s father in Justified and the Lieutenant from The Ref. Note—For some reason, in the mid-1990s a couple of Hollywood writers had aging characters say “what can I do you for?” As a way to harken to a time decades past. If our Rage Ball is “rolling prices back to 1965,” this gun shop owner is being marked in some ways as a kindred spirit at first blush. Lois Smith doin’ work, eh? This, Twister, Minority Report, all the way up to at least Age of Adaline.
jmundt33a
2025-07-31 13:11:40 +0000 UTCPeople overlook he was a domestic abuser.
Kevin Kerr
2025-07-31 13:09:07 +0000 UTCNope. The opposite of a vigilante hero.
jmundt33a
2025-07-31 13:02:11 +0000 UTCSome days we all get a bit D-Fensy
Roger Davies
2025-07-31 12:38:20 +0000 UTCGreat ! Now you can watch this masterpiece of a clip (and I personally also love the song) by the Foo Fighters and catch all the references ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PkcfQtibmU
Wrwemi
2025-07-31 12:23:58 +0000 UTC
