3.10 - FALLING DOWN (1993) and America

The Joel Schumacher season continues with the 112-minute cry of rage and frustration that is FALLING DOWN. We talk about the film’s presentation of different sides of modernity in America, its use of borders and locations, and various takes on its ideas of diversity and alienation: basically, we get stuck in to a good old-fashioned discussion!

Next Week’s Film
8MM (1999): another popular (thus easily available) one for our third Schumacher film

This Week’s Media
W1A (2014—): John Morton, Hugh Bonneville, Monica Dolan
BLADERUNNER 2049 (2017): Denis Villeneuve, Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford

Recommendations
TOTAL RECALL (1990): Paul Verhoeven, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin
SAVAGE STREETS (1984): Danny Steinmann, Linda Blair, Linnea Quigley
IE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE (1995): John McTiernan, Bruce Willis, Jeremy Irons
WONDER BOYS (2000): Curtis Hanson, Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire

Footnotes Sam mentions a possible cultural forerunner of Bill Foster, in Willy Loman: https://en.wikipedia.<wbr />org/wiki/Death_of_a_Salesman. Foster’s plight is further explained in the idea of the ‘soured’ American Dream, a concept explored in these two books, written either side of the film: https://books.google.co.<wbr />uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=<wbr />hqafM0xZjqIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&<wbr />dq=american+dream&ots=<wbr />1nYMaswH1d&sig=<wbr />jR7R4UiQIfLCnVZjkf5DVIp_ZhM#v=<wbr />onepage&q=american%20dream&f=<wbr />false and https://books.<wbr />google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&<wbr />id=PTF0mlZE26AC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&<wbr />dq=american+dream&ots=<wbr />nIDzdsXxDg&sig=xDqKx2Zh-<wbr />mSHDhaH8LwQAqw5qPA#v=onepage&<wbr />q=american%20dream&f=false. While the title of this article is a little obvious, it has some interesting stuff in it: http://www.laweekly.com/<wbr />film/falling-down-25th-<wbr />anniversary-michael-douglas-<wbr />was-the-villain-8164453. Finally, the film’s IMDB page (particularly the trivia section) is worth a look: http://www.imdb.com/<wbr />title/tt0106856.