The director's original intention was to explain how a middle-aged white-collar worker in a difficult situation, in a society full of various contradictions, has no choice but to go step by step into the abyss, wounding, shooting, killing, and finally heading for a road of no return. However, the overall arrangement is not convincing. For comparison, you can watch Clint Eastwood's film, which is also thought-provoking and reflects social issues.
From the very beginning, it was unrealistic to smash the small shop in anger, and the street behind it was openly shot. In fact, the paradox is: in order to arrange a series of changes for the protagonist, the director said in the words of the male protagonist's mother: he is ill and he needs help. Since the protagonist is ill, the incident itself is a story of mental illness, not a story of a so-called city hero. So is it entirely appropriate to use Falling Down for the title?
Despite the flaws, on the whole, director Schumacher made full use of the camera and sound effects to better control the rhythm of the film. Parallel editing The three lines develop in parallel. The male protagonist keeps approaching his ex-wife, the old police detective and his partner track the male protagonist, and the ex-wife seeks help and avoids in panic. The three clues finally came down to one point, and they progressed step by step, without any sloppiness.
The traffic jam section of the highway at the beginning of the film is edited so depressingly that you can't breathe. Watching this movie 20 years ago didn't feel anything, but watching it now is easy to think of Beijing's traffic jams and a hostile society. Douglas got out of the car in a rage and breathed it, which is what every driver wants to do.
The director arranged for Robert Duvall to play the old police detective who is about to retire, which has a better contrasting effect. The main line is moving, and the auxiliary line is static. The male protagonist is irritable and aggressive, while the old detective is calm and peaceful. He has his own problems. His wife kept harassing him, and his dead daughter was a nightmare he couldn't shake. He was also in a predicament and gave a good opposite image to the male protagonist. He doesn't swear, he patiently and tenderly comforts his wife, and he has sincere conversations with people when he obtains witness evidence. Even in the police station, he was not well liked by the leaders and was not understood by his colleagues. However, he insisted on maintaining his true character in difficult situations. In short, he insisted on being a good person.
In contrast, it can be said that the male protagonist is a patient in a sick society. The social contradictions reflected here cannot be avoided, and Schumacher also consciously shows us: slums, crime, the gap between the rich and the poor, racial discrimination, sexism, Nazism. The graffiti of the screen-filled slums, the private golf course with green grass, the munitions and Third Reich documents in the basement of a Nazi lunatic, the barbed wire of the plastic doctor's mansion, you have to make some comparisons, you can't There are some problems in not acknowledging this country and society. In this film, Schumacher may want to tell us that social conflicts are the root cause of this man's collapse. In the end, the male protagonist asks: Am I a bad person? Such a question is actually asking the audience whether he is a bad person? The answer is actually very simple. The male protagonist is not a bad person, but a patient who needs help like this society.
There are no dramatic action scenes, no intense gunfights, although there are multiple shots fired. But it has always been gripping, time passes quickly without knowing it, the plot and details are in line with objective reality, the narrative is calm, but the use of the camera is stylized and subjective. This is in line with Schumacher's style. He must speak with the camera, and he rarely uses long shots, but promotes the development of the plot through relatively fast-paced editing. At the end of the film, the male protagonist is trapped at the end of the long platform deep into the sea, and there is no escape. There is only one way to die. The upgraded camera falls into the sea, and the question is directly deducted.
A movie worth watching, if the plot can be sorted out again, the logical connection can be strengthened, and the background explanation of the male protagonist can be strengthened.
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