Would you like to know what happens when Mr. John Average decides to step on the warpath in the scary and hostile jungle of a metropolis? Are you curious to see how easy it is to lose directions in a time of profound changes? Then Falling Down is the movie you should watch sometime.
William Foster, the main character of the movie, is a divorced defence-industry worker who has been made redundant recently. His only aim is to get home in time for his daughter's birthday party in spite of the restraining order against him. After getting stuck in a hellish traffic jam, he leaves his car, pops his cork and engages in a violent rampage across the city. It seems that everyone stands in his way: a Korean convenience-store owner, who feels Foster's wrath because he doesn't want to give him change for a phone call and he doesn't speak English well enough; or the two Hispanic thugs who make the mistake of pulling a knife on him. In the end he teaches them a lesson with a baseball bat taken from the convenience-store.
As he makes his way across the streets and parks of Los Angeles, he becomes a walking time bomb by beginning to pick up more and more weapons, as if he took it to the next level in some first-person shooter video game - ranging from a baseball bat to a bazooka. In the scene you're about to watch, Foster encounters a road repair crew, whose members are not doing much actual work as traffic backs up around them. He wants to make his way through on foot but he is stopped by one of the repairmen. Angered by the repairman's rude and negligent manner, he accuses the crew of doing superfluous repairs in order to justify their budget. When the repairman finally admits that there is nothing wrong with the street, he blows it up with the bazooka so that they will have some real work to do.
On the surface of it, this movie seems to be a sardonic portrayal of all the social ills and discomforts people have to endure living in a big city: population diversity, high prices, traffic congestion and flaring tempers. (Sad but true: the Los Angeles riots of 1992 broke out as the movie was being shot.) But if I dig a bit deeper, it's not only a film about violence in society but it also shows the stages of a mental collapse that cannot stay invisible behind the facade of normalcy. Foster is not a psycho on the loose, he's just a frustrated man who fails to adjust to the changing world around him. It's hard to tell whether he is a victim or a criminal but I felt a hard stab of compassion for him at the end of the movie when - realizing he can't see his daughter again - he murmured, 'I'm the bad guy? How did that happen?'
___________________________________________________________
Az értőnek:
Repairman:
Hey, hey, where do you think you're going? You can't come this way.
Foster:
What are you doing to the street?
Repairman:
We are fixing it. What the hell does it look like?
Foster:
Two days ago it was fine. You' re telling the street fell apart in two days?
Repairman:
Well, I guess so.
Foster:
Pardon me, but that's bullshit! I want to know what's wrong with the street. See, I don't think anything's wrong with the street. I think you're just trying to justify your inflated budgets.
Repairman:
Are you nuts?
Foster:
I know how it works. If you don't spend the money that projected this year, they won't give you the same amount next year. I want you to admit there's nothing wrong with the street!
Repairman:
Fuck you, pal, huh!
Foster:
You're not gonna hold us hostage here with these yellow lights and these big trucks.
Repairman:
I'm just here to keep people from falling in. That's all.
Foster:
I want to hear it from you. What's wrong with the street?
Repairman:
I don't know. I really don't know. I mean I think it's a sewer job.
Foster:
You're lying. What's wrong with the street?
Repairman:
Nothing.
Foster:
I knew it. See, I knew it was fine. But I'll give you something to fix.
Repairman:
Oh, Jesus! What the hell is that there?
Foster:
Here!
Repairman:
Hey, Charlie! Oh, please, man! We got a goddamn nut here! Fucking guy back there with a bazooka!
Boy:
You got to pull that thing off.
Foster:
What thing?
Boy:
That. Pull it off then pull on both ends. The whole thing gets bigger.
Foster:
Like this?
Boy:
Now flip that thing up. It's kind of like your aimer.
Foster:
How do you know about this?
Boy:
I saw it on TV. Hey, man, what's the name of the movie? What's the movie you're making?
Foster:
Uh, Under Construction. You like it?
Boy:
Yeah, it's all right. Where's the cameras?
Foster:
The cameras are on. Just stand back. What do I do now?
Boy:
Just look through the aimer. What are you aiming at? Hey, man, what are you aiming at?
Foster:
That yellow monster down there.
Boy:
Well, look at it and pull the trigger. It's really easy.
Foster:
Where's the trigger?
Boy:
That one right there. But aim first, man.
Foster:
Okay.
Boy:
Look out!
Foster:
Nothing happened.
Boy:
Must have been a dud or something like that...Cool, man!
