MovieChat Forums > Falling Down (1993) Discussion > Could have been great - 7.4

Could have been great - 7.4


Why did they not get rid of/or make LESS extreme the Pendergast & the crazy wife scenes(s). Totally straightened out in one phone call! LAME

Lots of small holes but outstanding for 1993

reply

Agreed.

I could have done without a few scenes, or they could have cut them shorter.

Too much Drama with Pendergast and his Wife calling him 3 times throughout the film to come Home even before his shift is over and last day on the Job. A detective Work or last day is Not like having ones last day working at a Super Market or a Restaurant , a Shopping Mall or even your last day as a small business owner where you punch out when your shift is over.

Same said of all the time spent with the drama of De-Fens Ex wife and child.

I thought the scene with De-Fens Mother was well done and short and not dragged on which was fine.

I thought Too much time in the movie was also centered around the Gal Rosie, the chick who was a gf of one of the gang members who tried to kill De-Fens but missed and shot up Innocent people instead. They had Investigated her for what felt too long in the early- middle stages of the Movie.

Otherwise, I'm giving the Movie a plus, it was well thought out and entertaining.

Duvall and Douglas were great.

reply

Could have been great - 7.4


7.4?

No way; it's closer to a 7.467

reply

it is great.

reply

Agreed

reply

I thought I was the only one who didn't like the scenes with Pendergast's wife, she got on my nerves and couldn't wait for those scenes to be over, I also wished we would've gotten to see more of D-Fens, the scenes he was in were great.

reply

It's like movies aren't allowed to be completely original or imaginative. They're always predictable and formulaic.

This movie's premise is interesting, but then the movie gets stuck on typical, misandristic, 'white man crazy and evil' rails and never explores its interesting possibilities.

For example, the idea that this world and all its little annoyances can legitimately drive someone nuts, especially if they have a temper, could've been expanded a lot more.

I imagine this movie would be amazing, if the man was 100% innocent 100% of the time, but things just keep happening to make him legitimately mad and angry. We all know these situations that can drive you absolutely nuts - this movie could explore what happens to a regular human being if all those things just happen to fall on the same day without letting up, so the ordinary human being has no choice but fall deeper into madness until they snap completely, and the message could be that 'this can happen to anyone, because our lifestyle is so stupidly crazy and unnatural these days'.

But no, instead it's a real madman that was crazy and hallucinating even before anything happened.

I would rather have seen a more relatable character than some completely nuts weirdo that has no qualms about murdering people by shooting them and beating them up with a baseball bat. A normal human would AT LEAST regret what they did and see that there's something seriously wrong with them, no matter how temporarily.

I have lived in places with incredibly annoying neighbours that break every single ordinance from hanging carpets to dry outside your balcony, throwing burning cigarettes out from their balcony, World War III-volume noise in the hallway every day, stomping their floor like twelve dozen Godzillas after midnight and so on and so forth.

This could've been a good starting point - but then everything and everyone he meets would be just as annoying, and similarly irritating eventualities would keep happening.

reply

Just remember your most annoying bus / subway / train ride, how easy it is to feel trapped and irritated when you still have 12 bus stops to go, and people are being absolutely inconsiderate all around you and you have nowhere to escape.

So this movie shows ALL this wonderful potential, and then devolves into a typical 'white crazy man' story that isn't interesting even if you have never seen such a story before.

reply

D-Fens had a Borderline Personality. Same character as Alex Forrest from Fatal Attraction. Unable to see himself as the cause of any problems and blaming everyone else for everything bad happening to him. While his wife was rather unreasonably harsh and didn't handle things the best way, I otherwise think she had reason enough to want to keep him away. My stepmom was like D-Fens. She had disproportionate anger and mood swings and didn't simply care enough to think about how bad it made it for us, as she was entirely focused on herself. She just carried on her tantrums as if she was the only person that existed. I'm glad I never see her again.

reply

Totally agree.

The trailers made this film look amazing, exactly the concept you described, but the finished film devolves into a cop-chases-psycho thriller with loads of bloated scenes about irrelevant characters that wreck the pacing and lead to a meh ending.

There’s a great film about the craziness of modern life hiding in this mediocre thriller. I wonder if the original script was way better and the studio neutered it into something much more bland.

reply

the ending sucks because the main guy is cool and mostly right about everything and it sucks that at the last minute he is made to be the villain. he was cool. the rest of the movie is 10/10 but the ending brings it down to a 9/10

reply