Please Tell Me, What Is The Point Of This Movie???????????????????????

                                  For about half a dozen years following "Fatal Attraction," and certainly up till 2013, when he camped it up in "Beyond The Candelabra," as Liberace, Michael Douglas made a series of films, where he was portrayed as America's Everyman.  And one of these films, which turns 25 this year, is Joel Schumacher's exercise into the vigilante realm, "Falling Down."

                                   The one remarkable shot I wanted to show you I was not able to find.  What has become known as "The Hamburger Scene" starts with an overhead shot of Douglas' character, William Foster, walking into the burger joint, across a parking lot, painted over with a gigantic cheeseburger and pickle.  This is the kind of creative filmmaking one does not see anymore, and though Schumacher could never be accused of making masterpieces, the style--in color, composition nd lighting--evidenced throughout this scene alone, speaks of a creativity, a way of looking at things, that is long gone.

                                   I missed "Falling Down," when it was first released.  My mind must have been elsewhere, though what was marketed as the tale of a middle aged malcontent fed up with society, tapped into a lot of my social anger.  At the time, I thought this film was a perfect fit for me.

                                     Now, twenty five years later, I caught some of it--because some was all I could watch--on YouTube.  The hamburger scene alone is worth watching; it encapsulates the entire film into one scene, and the best one of them all.  "Falling Down" turns out to be a disappointment that goes nowhere, because after watching Douglas rant his way through one bureaucratic realm after another, by the third time, I found myself saying, "OK, I get it!"  Cut to the ending--suicide by cop?

                                      So, I ask myself, what was the point?

                                      Did it have some kind of relevance in 1993 it does not have now?  I think the problem was the idea was dragged out far too long.  Consider how Rod Serling might have handled this as a teleplay--the "Patterns" of its day, which it was so desperately trying to be-- or even  a vignette on "The Twilight Zone!"  But two hours of this?  No, thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                       I am sure this film is required viewing for group members of the Alt Right, or White Supremacists.  As of now, they are the only ones who would find this garbage interesting, and would see it as their own twisted justification.

                                        If I were Douglas, I would cross this off the resume.

                                        He scored more of a career triumph in the camped up, glory hole scene, as Liberace!!!!!!!!!!!!  What a hoot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!