Falling Down - The Great American Lie

you know we often talk these days about

movies that have aged badly whether

because of change in technology Fashions

attitudes or because the Zeitgeist they

captured so perfectly at the time no

longer exists but there's another class

of movies that have actually become more

potent more poignant more meaningful and

relevant as the years have passed and

one of those movies is falling down an

absolutely excellent Thriller from 1993

directed by Joel Schumacher and one of

my alltime personal favorites the film

tells the story of Bill Foster a

workingclass man caught in traffic in

the middle of an LA Heatwave who finally

snaps under the pressure and fleas the

scene what follows is an epic poignant

and often violent journey across the

city of angels as Bill tries to make his

way home in time for his daughter's

birthday and along the way the film

delivers some of the most scathingly

brutal critiques of modern American

culture consumerism wealth inequality

social breakdown and societal

indifference that you're ever likely to

see it's a film that I tried in my own

clumsy way to review several years ago

and while I had a good stab at

explaining why I found it so impactful

at the time there's a lot more I want

you to say about the deeper meanings and

themes that the film addresses so well

and maybe even a few misconceptions that

I'd like to tackle and so here we are

staring down the barrel of the closest

I'm ever likely to get to a video essay

you might be bored to Tears by this one

or you might just find it helpful and

informative I'm not really sure to be

honest but I'm going to give it a try

anyway so grab your whammy burger and

let's get started part one the American

dream to understand where this film and

its main character are coming from you

need to understand the nature of the

American dream and how it became the

foundation of traditional American

culture basically symbolizing everything

the country aspires to and represents

only then can you see how it became the

framework for the Great American lie

that permeates every aspect of falling

down in Broad terms the American dream

is the idea of upward Mobility a true

meritocracy free from the constraints of

oppressive class systems or government

bureaucracy America sold itself as the

land of opportunity a place where people

could come from all corners of the world

to make a fresh start to carve out a new

future for themselves to stand or fall

on their own merits it was a world where

even the average man could attain wealth

success and happiness with enough hard

work Innovation entrepreneurship and

good old-fashioned can do attitudes and

it represents a kind of Unwritten

contract between you and the rest of

society that if you just follow the

rules do the right thing work hard and

contribute then you'll ultimately be

rewarded it's a noble idea to Aspire to

for sure but like so many noble ideals

is ripe for exploitation and Corruption

which brings us neatly to the world of

falling down part two a hot day the

movie introduces us to our main

character Bill who's stuck in heavy

traffic because Road works are holding

everything up and in fact the idea of

pointless and unnecessary Road Works

holding up people's lives becomes a

running theme throughout this movie and

it's great to see Bill's different

reactions as he progresses anyway at

first glance bill seems to embody the

essence of the American dream a typical

white collar worker with a shirt and tie

a simple practical haircut and glasses

the kind of solid Dependable middle

class guy you can imagine working some

cushy office job in a small town in

America driving home each night to his

family in a nice Suburban house with a

picket fence what you find instead is

that the American dream has become a

nightmare Bill's driving some shitty old

car that barely even runs the air con's

out a fly is constantly annoying him and

he's surrounded by the sweltering heat

and pollution of the dystopian LA

hellscape everyone else around him is

angry frustrated and miserable because

ultimately they're all in the same

situation as him all of them are toiling

through heat and noise to work all day

and jobs they hate just to make enough

money to get through the month so that

the whole thing can start over again all

of them have been sold the same lie and

these lies become a running theme

throughout the movie from the lowly

convenience store owner who jacks up his

prices to squeeze more money out of his

customers to the fast food chain

advertising plump delicious burgers only

to serve up cheap shitty food instead

the homeless man pretending to be a

military vet to con sympathy money out

of passers by to the construction

workers doing unnecessary Road repairs

just to justify their their budgets all

of them are symptoms of a broken system

a broken society that encourages greed

selfishness and waste and all in the

name of money everyone in this film is

out for themselves nobody cares about

doing the right thing or helping others

or contributing into a grander ideal the

American dream corrupted and distorted

into a dystopian uncaring nightmare

world that only Bill seems able to see

take the scene in the fast food joint

for example where Bill tries to plead

his case to the terrified customer at

gunpoint you get the sense that he's

really trying to make them understand

where he's coming from to help them see

just how much they're being conned and

[ __ ] over by a giant corporation that

could probably make way better food for

them but chooses instead to advertise a

complete lie and deliver the bare

minimum to maximize their profits and

it's interesting when he says this that

everyone else just stares back at him

like dumb mindless cattle and the only

person in the whole restaurant who

responds to his plea as a little kid

someone who hasn't been completely

absorbed by the system yet or later in

the movie when Bill stumbles into a rich

neighborhood while fleeing from the

police cutting his hand on a barbwire

fence and angrily lashing out at the

family who live there what he discovers

instead is that they're actually just

caretakers and the house is instead

owned by a rich plastic surgeon the man

at the very top of this pyramid makes

his fortune by turning people into

something that they're not in short he's

a man who sells lies for a living and

the thing is Bill himself isn't above

these lies either which brings me on to

part three the briefcase Bill's

briefcase becomes a pretty important

item for him as a character it's the

only possession that he chooses to take

with him when he abandons his car and

it's something that he's willing to risk

his life to protect when a pair of gang

members try to Rob him but why it

contains nothing of value as we

eventually find out when he gives it

away so why does he fight so hard to

keep it why not just hand it over well I

guess there's two conclusions you can

draw from this one is that it's a simple

matter of principle for Bill he's not

willing to just roll over and give away

something he worked hard to attain just

because two [ __ ] decide they can

take it from him he's still pumped up

and angry after his encounter at the

convenience store and probably in no

mood to be pushed around by anyone or

anything it's a fair enough assessment

but I think the more interesting answer

is what the briefcase represents to Bill

as a person a briefcase is something

carried almost exclusively by working

men professionals who work in skilled

jobs men that are intelligent and

productive and actively contribute to

society men that are economically viable

this is how Bill desperately wants to

see himself despite everything he's

going through even though we eventually

find out that it's no longer the case

and hasn't been for quite some time

Bill's actually been unemployed for

months now but he still goes through the

motions of driving to work each day

wearing his office clothes carrying his

briefcase trying to maintain the facade

that he's still part of the machine that

he's a functioning part of society that

he's still economically viable lying to

himself as much as the rest of the

world's the briefcase for him is more

than what it contains it's more than a

piece of leather and metal it's a symbol

of everything that bill chooses to

believe about himself the life that he

once had and desperately wants back

again and it's interesting that he

finally chooses to give it up to a

homeless beggar after swapping it for a

bag full of guns because he recognizes

it's just as useless to that man as it

is to him now bit by bit he's letting go

of the lies letting go of the facade of

the man he believed he was and accepting

the man he is now and it's interest in

how this is reflected in the weapons and

clothes that he carries with him and how

they all follow a logical chain of

events his first encounter at the

convenience store yields up a baseball

bat and without the baseball bat he

wouldn't have been able to fight off the

two muggers who tried to take his

briefcase which in turn yields up a

butterfly knife that one of them drops

and without the butterfly knife he

wouldn't have been able to take down the

gun store owner which in turn allows

Bill to trade in his shirt and tie for

more military style clothing and his

Ultimate Weapon to take out the Haiti

Construction blocking the freeway the

very thing that started this whole day

for him it creates a nice chain of

because of Storytelling instead of the

dreaded and then bill has a bazooka to

blow up the construction crew because he

killed the gun store owner he killed the

gun store owner because he had a hidden

butterfly knife he had the butterfly

knife because he took it from the two

punks who tried to Rob him he was able

to defeat the punks because he had a

baseball bat he had the baseball bat

because he took it from the convenience

store owner and he was only in the

convenience store because of the [ __ ]

road works that made him snap in the

first place nice part four not

economically viable one of the most

poignant scenes of the movie for me is

when Bill spots a man protesting outside

of a bank after having his loan

application refused A man just like Bill

dressed in the same exact clothes a man

who did everything he was told to do

followed the rules tried to play the

game the right way only to get beaten

and tossed aside by A system that only

cared about him as long as it could

exploit him as long as he was

economically viable a man who was sold

the exact same lie as Bill that if he

just worked hard and did the right thing

he'd be rewarded for it in the end but

he wasn't and with Nothing Left to Lose

with his whole world falling down around

him he's striking back in the only way

he knows how and it's no coincidence

that as this is going on Bill picks up a

snow globe as a present for the daughter

that he's not even allowed to see

anymore A desperate gesture by a

desperate man clinging to the whole of

something better and what Melody is it

playing to the man whose whole life has

fallen down as his counterpart across

the street is arrested and taken

away I small a small you know Jesus

Christ remember when movies had this

level of thought and complexity put into

them part five prena Gast Bill's Nemesis

in this movie and in many ways the flip

side to his character is detective prast

with the LAPD an aging cop on his last

day before taking early retirement and

head into Arizona with his wife an

affable softs Spoken Man Who avoids

conflict who took a desk job rather than

walk the streets everyone sees him as

kind of a [ __ ] he's disrespected by his

co-workers busted around by his

domineering wife and even his captain

makes no attempt to hide his disgust for

the man but as it turns out he's the

only one to connect Bill's various

random crimes and pretty soon he's hot

on the man's Trail and it's interesting

because the closer he gets to his Target

the more prendas seems to come alive

again because he's finally back doing

the thing that he's actually passionate

about because the reality is that just

like everyone else prast has been living

a lie not only has he been lying to

everyone around him but he's actually

been lying to himself he took a desk job

not because he was a coward but to Plate

his unstable wife who couldn't handle

him being in danger he took early

retirement and agreed to move to the

middle of nowhere because it was what

she wanted he tried to convince himself

that he wanted it too but the more the

film progresses the more h he actually

becomes until he finally admits that he

did all of it just for her I mean I'm

assuming he did it out of guilt because

he once convinced his wife to have a

child against their better judgment a

child that subsequently died and which

he seems to blame himself for and this

next bit is entirely guesswork on my

part but I always wondered if the film

was hinting that maybe just maybe his

wife might have been responsible for the

death because pigas makes a point of

saying that he always knew she wasn't

cut out for motherhood and that she did

it entirely for him he also remarks that

it was strange his daughter supposedly

died from infant death syndrome despite

being 2 years old and apparently strong

and healthy like I say it's just a

theory and the film doesn't confirm it

one way or another but it does give you

something to think about part six bill

is everyone you know it's interesting

how the discourse around this movie and

its protagonist has changed over the

years the general perception of Bill at

the time was that he was basically

always a villain deep down and the movie

is all about gradually exposing him for

who he really is is stripping away the

lies that he tells about himself to show

the violent controlling man beneath and

the main thing they used to cite this

are the revelations about Bill's past

that gradually come out that he's

divorced that his wife took out a

restraining order against him and that

even his own mother is kind of afraid of

him a whole movie showing a frustrated

Bill arguing with his wife is further

proof that the idilic life he wants to

get back never really existed and that

the man must be living in some kind of

delusion I'll be honest though I don't

fully agree with that assessment I think

what you're actually seeing in that

video is a marriage on the brink of

collapse two people who no longer love

or even like each other trying and

failing to put on the facade of

happiness for the sake of their daughter

telling yet another lie in the hope they

can make it come true somehow later in

the movie his ex-wife specifically

mentions that bill was never violent or

aggressive towards her in any way and

that she was personally against the

restraining order because she felt it

was an unfair punishment that would do

more harm than Goods but the judge said

we should uh make an example of

so he can't come within 100 ft of us

well that sounds fair so basically bill

got screwed over by an uncaring system

that saw him as just another case number

to be dealt with instead of an actual

human being with a life thoughts and

feelings and it doesn't take much

imagination to infer that losing access

to his daughter coupled with the shame

of a restraining order put bill on a

downward spiral that ultimately

unraveled his entire life it's just

another example of Bill doing what he

was told to do following the rules and

putting his faith in a justice system

that he was assured was fair and

balanced but just like everything else

it turned out to be a [ __ ] lie and

the people that it hurts most are the

dumb saps naive enough to trust it it

almost makes you wonder how many other

people have been screwed over and had

their lives ruined because some judge

decided to make an example out of them

it's worth noting as well that bill very

much clings to the idea of being a good

man a decent citizen who isn't so much

breaking the law as standing up for what

he believes is Right pushing back

against criminals who try to Rob and

even murder him greedy corporations

screwing over their consumers

unscrupulous businessmen hiking up their

prices and corrupt local governments

making life miserable for their own

citizens just to justify their own

existence he has a moral code that he

abides by he doesn't harm innocent

people and he reacts with anger when a

convenience store owner mistakes him for

a robber he sees that as a complete

insult because in his mind he's not a

criminal he's just do doing what he

thinks is Right another thing he clings

to is the notion of being a proud

American a patriot like he's appealing

to some old-fashioned sense of shared

national pride that nobody else around

him seems to feel anymore when a racist

gun store owner mistakes his random Crim

spree for racially motivated attacks and

assumes that they're like-minded

individuals Bill's reaction is one of

pure disgust again invoking the notion

that he's American and this other guy is

something very different when he's

cornered at the climax of the movie he

explains with a kind of weary Pride that

he used to work for the defense industry

helping to protect America a noble

profession that he believes should be

rewarded another lie that he was sold on

the other hand a more modern

interpretation of bill from the big

brained individuals of today could best

be summed up as boohoo straight white

man is angry at the world because he

doesn't have all of the privilege now

pass me the world's smallest violin

again this is a flawed analysis because

it misses the fundamental point that is

more than just the sum of his

demographic Parts he's more than just

the actor playing him he represents

every person who ever fell down and

couldn't get back up again every person

who followed the rules and did what

everyone expected and got punished for

it who did everything right and still

got screwed over by a system that was

stacked against them who spent their

entire life striving for something

better only to discover that they were

not economically viable every person who

bought into the Great American Dream

only to be handed the Great American can

lie and I say this because I want to

come back to the point I made at the

beginning of this little essay why this

film is even more relevant today than it

was in

1993 well I'll tell you why in a world

where the gap between rich and poor has

never been wider where kids are pushed

into expensive colleges to get useless

degrees that leave them with debts they

can never hope to repay where people are

making six figure salaries but can

barely afford the rent where the very

idea of owning a home is a crazy pipe

dream belonging to previous gener ations

where people are more Angry more

isolated more medicated more exploited

and more overwhelmed than at any time in

human history where young people are

quietly giving up on a society that

blatantly doesn't care about them

anymore this movie is more relevant than

it ever [ __ ] was that is what Bill

represents he's everyone because

everyone has the potential to end up

just like him all it really takes is one

bad day

anyway that's all I've got for

today go away now