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Did this movie inspire 'Falling Down?'

posted 18 years ago by wordinterrupted
2 replies | jump to latest

I've just watched "Stray Dog," and am convinced that it must have been a significant influence for Joel Schumacher's excellent film "Falling Down." The most obvious similarity is that in both movies the cop realizes he doesn't have his gun as he begins chasing the armed criminal, but there are more significant sturctural similarities as well. For example, in both movies, the cop and the criminal are almost mirror images of each other, and the cop has to retrace the steps of the criminal through the city. Has anyone else noticed these similarities?

[–] unholydarkness 17 years ago

I too have noticed the similarities. Here's a few others I picked up on. Both movies have the cop/criminal starting in the same situation. In Stay Dog it happend "before" the movie - they both were soldiers who had their bags stolen. In Falling Down they are both in the same traffic jam. In Stray Dog, the criminal changed into a suit of all white, in Falling Down it was all black. Both movies had a shoot out in a peaceful surrounding - Falling Down was at an ocean pier, Stray Dog was in a forrest with piano in the background. One could also argue that both criminals were "given" a weapon that they could not return: Stray Dog, the gun dealer was ambushed before he could return the gun and in Falling Down the gun dealer was knocked out so he could not return the rocket launcher. Both movies also feature the love intrest of the criminal as a lead role.

[–] 17 years ago

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