Falling Down: The Great American Cope

Falling Down is one of the most important films of the 20th century but not for the reasons you might expect plenty of people have discussed the film's impact as an example of frustration with the intangibility of the American dream and plenty more have praised its value as one of the few films that showcases the aggression of the not economically viable people the once upper middle class people who are left behind as the economy unshackles itself from them and sares beyond their reach some have praised it as a biting satire of what I have dubbed Society man films such as taxi driver or Joker which showcase the anger of men who watch the people around them slowly make their way up to societal ranks while they themselves stagnate at the bottom climaxing an outbursts of lethal anger at the system directed at the people around them I'm not here to talk about those things today I'm not here to talk about the film as good or bad critically speaking instead I would like to offer an analysis of the film that is in some parts pushed by the film's writer in some parts denied by the film's director and in most Parts ignored by the current audience of the film The main tenants I want to push with this video are that defense is an abusive bigoted scumbag and that the film itself seems to both Embrace and deny this fact before I begin I will offer a quick synopsis of the film nothing like the previous video this is just to make sure that everyone has a basic idea of the plot before I get into the nitty-gritty of what I want to discuss defense aka William Foster abandons his car in the middle of LA traffic on the hottest day of the year and he makes his way home to see his daughter on her birthday at the same time detective Prendergast makes his way through his final day as a police officer while his wife repeatedly calls him and interrupts his job as the film progresses defens encounters increasingly inconvenient situations familiar to the middle class world and he confronts them in increasingly violent ways it is eventually revealed that he is divorced and not allowed near his family and he intends to get near them in spite of this restraining order as he approaches his ex-wife's home printer Gast follows his trail of Destruction until eventually cornering him on a pier after a short confrontation defense dies via cop assistant suicide and falls down prast resolves to ignore his wife's Polie for him to retire and announces his intent to remain a police officer all right let's get into the meat of things defense is not a good person his racism is probably the most evident of his faults so I suppose we should start there to act like defense is anything less than a raging bigot would be to ignore all of the biggest moments of this film so many altercations that defense has with the world are viewed through a lens of white privilege and not just in the moment but through a historically relevant lens when given the chance to leave a Korean man's shop without causing trouble defense turns around and laments about how much the US had spent in war efforts and foreign aid to Korea during and after the war when confronted for trespassing on gang Turf defense talks down to the men referring to their land as a pissing ground saying maybe wrote it in [ __ ] English I could [ __ ] understand it and yet he has the go to act like he is respecting them throughout the whole altercation he only acts in self-defense after provoking violence from them first if he isn't weaponizing his status against minorities then he is being blatantly ignorant you mean he stole your baseball bat but he paid for the sod this guy's discriminating yes he is yeah I like this guy's racist or something that's absolutely absurd say is this is instead just going to be Michael Douglas this is Michael get sympathy from every police officer in La commit some kind of assault on a minority they go to the police and they find a way these these guys are driving to the cops right now defense values the system Above All Else the quickest way to align him with yourself is through the use of capitalist platitudes we see this both in his speech about the rights of a consumer and the Korean man's shop and his the customer is always right moment in the whammy Burger two instances where others endear them elves to him through this methodology are with the black man protesting in the street and the Nazi surplus store owner the black man laments his status as quote not economically viable according to the bank from which he was trying to get a loan which is so blatantly charged with racism that they may have well have said that he automatically has bad credit because he is black but defense for just a moment doesn't see his skin color here in any other instance in the film he would have waved off a black man shouting too loud in the street but since he used smart sounding words as as well as him being in the same boat as the recently laid off defense he sees the other man as equal to him likewise when the Nazi is threatening two gay men with a gun he motions over to his desk saying that he quote reserves the right unquote not to serve any customer defense perks up at this language sensing a kinship with the man it is only when the Nazi Reveals His True Colors to him that defense becomes hostile and non-receptive towards his Hospitality he does not however disagree with the Naz blatant racism and homop phobia only his status as a Nazi defense distinguishes the two by claiming that I'm an American you're sick [ __ ] what does sick mean not American if you were to ask defense what is sick he'll tell you was he sick take a walk around this town that's sick the construction in the street the homeless harassing him the entitled minorities the government tools trying to keep him down that's sick and it isn't just racism and xenophobia another vital part of defense's character is his past abuse towards his ex-wife and daughter again there is no questioning this Behavior Beyond his outright violent nature towards anyone who inconveniences him which he then spins around as though he were defending himself which in only two of about 10 encounters throughout the film could remotely count as self-defense everything in the film corroborates the idea that defense was an abusive father and husband if not physically then absolutely mentally his wife speaks plainly about how scared she was of his propensity for violence and even if the judge went too far on the restraining order given the circumstances of the case their decision was justified defense's own mother also speaks about how scared she is of her son she's scared to mess with his things in his room she's scared to even enter his room even to just eat dinner with him his mannerisms at dinner unnerved her into spitting her food onto her plate and whenever she did he looks at me like he would like to kill me later in the film defense watches home videos of his daughter's younger birthday celebrations and in nearly half of their runtime he is heard demanding that his daughter be made to engage in activities which clearly distress or upset her and all of her negative reactions are then blamed on his then wife the strongest piece of evidence though comes earlier in the film when defense breaks onto a plastic surgeon's property he inadvertently takes the caretaker's family hostage holding on to their daughter's hand and separating her from the rest of them unbeknownst to him he got blood from his own cut onto her hand but his reaction to this site tells you everything you need to know about his life as a father and as a husband oh you hurt oh honey sorry I didn't hurt you honey I didn't hurt you I'm sorry I didn't hurt you yeah do you catch that there though yeah like he obviously had the child but not not I not I didn't mean to hurt you not I hope I didn't hurt you so I don't think Elizabeth knows everything he's done with his daughter yeah that see that gave me chills first time I picked up on what he was saying there defense is racist defense is xenophobic defense is an abuser I called these things facts at the beginning for a reason this is where we get to the confusing part of the film you might expect that printer Gast as defense is foil would end up sympathizing with defense in some way there are several similarities between the men and the film makes certain to highlight these similarities and the changes in Prendergast psyche as the film continues he changes from a mild mannered people play ready to retire for the sake of his wife's mental health to a violent misogynist who berates his wife and tells her to cook him dinner for when he gets home demanding that she act more submissive towards him he also reacts violently towards his co-workers harassment whereas earlier he would simply brush them off if anything by the time they meet at the dock printer gas should be in a state where he is overwhelmed by these similarities between himself and defense and be required to either change himself for the better or lose himself in these negative traits that he has picked up from defense over the the course of the film none of these things happen instead when we get to that one scene with that one line that everyone loves repeating when they talk about this film we get to hear printer gast's response to defense which nobody talks about I'm the bad guy yeah not only that we get to hear the thesis statement of this entire movie laid out bare spoken aloud for all the people in the back you know they lied to me [Music] is that what this is about you're angry because you got lied to hey they lie to everybody they lie to the fish but that doesn't give you any special right to do what you did today it's so easy it was right there right there no you don't have the right to do what you've done but people just want to kill people cuz they didn't get their burger it is so it is so hard to misinterpret movies like this but just people are so aggressively stupid that it astounds me that guy's really happy on the right there whoa that's pretty Bodacious that he's protecting his daughter that's Prett sick I think he might be the good guy in this situation as for that confusion I mentioned earlier this message doesn't hit quite as hard when the film itself isn't quite sure of the answer to defense's question am I the bad guy he is the bad guy as I hope I've made obvious he's lying through his teeth whenever he acts like he's justified in his actions that or he's so far up his own ass that he genuinely thinks that he's acting right in a situation where he is clearly acting wrong he's far beyond redemption and forgiveness but the film doesn't seem to recognize that after killing the Nazi in self-defense defense actions take on a more explicitly vigilante esque tone killing Rich old men because they didn't build a park for defense to bring his child to lamenting the economic value of plastic surgery over the military industrial complex which he happened to work for punching antagonistic drivers for berading old women he acts like a downright superhero when you take away the selfish undertones that come with a majority of his actions now he's saving the world from people things that he would have been doing earlier that day you know I've seen that I I killed better than you and now I'm better than you that's true he killed a Nazi now he's a good guy even before this there are some moments that complicate his villain status after giving him two completely undeserved freakout moments with the Korean Clerk and the gang members he confronts a bum in the park the bum seems like a total deadbeat who simply isn't driven to pull himself up by his bootstraps a defense's mind and that isn't just his bias is talking the guy seemingly has access to food he lies about his situation multiple times and reacts with disappointment when he does get a free lunch at a briefcase that he could sell for his efforts on all accounts defense acted rationally and righteously here despite also acting self-righteously the film presents defense with several moments at which he could have chosen to end his Crusade well-deserved moments of self-reflection that he does not act on but the cinematography and score seem to present these moments as if we should consider him as redeemable even after he has directly threatened to kill his ex-wife over the foam by this point in the movie he did everything right have to say like this is the scene where he realizes he is a crappy dad right no this is the scene where he realizes that they are uh down at the dock and now he knows where to find them oh genuine question we've got like 15 minutes left in the movie do you think he'll have a realization maybe when he's on the chair the electric chair yeah I realized that I should have just shot her I thought I thought this guy was supposed to be like the hidden good guy there was like people people like this guy he dies tragically Hollywood style and the movie doesn't end on the pathetic monster that fell into the acidic Waters of the LA Bay but on the father and husband who has shown through the tapes he was watching earlier the tapes which we have already seen betray his cruel inner nature all of this greatly complicates the message the film is trying to convey is it a straightforward critique of what privilege can do in the mind of someone who believes giving others rights means taking away his own rights is it a satire of the stereotypical nuclear family stretched to its absolute limits a dead plan black comedy which uses the severity of defense's actions to get a laugh out of an audience which knows better than him or is it a traditional Hollywood narrative about a good man pushed too far punished for acting right and a world gone wrong I think the answer is far simpler than what you may think it's all of the above the director of this film Joel Schumacher has gone on record saying that William Foster is not a bad guy but he's had it surely this says enough about the story that he was trying to tell and the film corroborates that story the direction of the actors the score the cinematography everything supports this reading of Defense as a flawed hero everything but the the script apologies if I don't get this name right I don't think I've found it spoken aloud anywhere on the internet eie Rose Smith the writer of this film has done several interviews about it one such interview happening soon after the election of that one guy into the Oval Office he had much different things to say about defense compared to shoeer direct quote here take a look the guy is sick he has real issues he's not really taking a heroic stand although I think two things were going on in the movie one is how messed up he was and the other part of it was that he was doing things that made people feel good he is meant to fulfill a fantasy that people like him often had in the90s as a time of historic change within the American culture he is not however meant to be a good man unfortunately it's too late for this message to mean anything American culture has adopted defense as a Travis Bickle that you're allowed to relate to and years later there are memes of him as a symbol of White Collar frustration with the minor annoyances of day-to-day life he's not a person he's not not even a character really he's not William Foster he's defense a hyperbole a representation of the things that we almost want to do on our worst days but know that we shouldn't Evie R Smith knew he was meant to be gawked at marveled for a moment and cast aside along with all of our other intrusive thoughts but Joel schacher thought he was more than that and because of this the film treats him as though he's more than that his actions and his words speak volumes but the film is determined to speak over them the film believes that defense is not a bad guy so that's the impression that a lot of its audience walked away from the film with but I'm not blaming this on the film's audience on Modern audiences on audiences of the time or anybody really at least not solely I do believe that there is a lack of media literacy in a lot of the filmo crowd but misinterpreting a film can happen to anybody what doesn't just happen and what is hundreds of times worse is when absolute brain dead idiots preach false readings to the masses about how the film is correct to say that defense is not a bad guy because yeah you read the title The Great American cope isn't just the film pretending defense as a method to his Madness the Great American cope is watching this movie and coming away thinking that the system is the only flaws thing in the film The Great American cope is acting like the people with the most privilege are being subjugated by their government the Great American cope is dumb asses like the critical Drinker taking this film about an evil man doing evil things and attempting to explain the ways in which they're Justified and why seeing them as evil is a part of the leftist agenda and he isn't just wrong because he's rightwing he's wrong because he didn't watch the movie I won't be using footage from his video as I am not going to risk giving him the grounds to copyright strike me instead I'm going to high school essay this [ __ ] and take direct quotes from his video so just note that whenever I'm using the shitty accent it's his exact words from the lonely convenience store owner jacks up his prices to squeeze more money out of his customers blatantly false inarguably false the entire point of that scene is that defense is quote rolling back prices to 1965 he's not upset at the shop owner he's upset at inflation but he directs that aggression at the shop owner because in the moment he represents the system that's inflating prices and squeezing the Common Man dry both of these men are the common man but because one of them is behind the register He's the bad guy he also does it because the owner of the shop is Korean but that's not relevant to what the critical jinker is trying to say about this scene so I won't argue that point take the scene in the fast food joint for example where Bill tries to plead his case to the terrified customers at gunpoint again not what happens for one the scene itself is the darkest joke in the film the largest moment of hyperbole it has to offer the white color worker arrives too late for breakfast so he holds the entire restaurant at gunpoint until he gets what he wants it's not meant to be taken seriously he isn't being a preacher he's being a prop comic for two he doesn't get what he wants because the joke isn't on the people in the restaurant or the fast food workers it's on defense he changes his mind after shooting into the ceiling by accident because he has no idea what he's doing and says he would rather have a burger instead of breakfast again this scene is a joke it's literally just giving a Caren a gun to act like defense enter the restaurant intending to quote plead his case unquote to the customers or the workers is completely asinine his entire goal of the day is to go home not change the world when he gets the burger he gets upset again but the child raising his hand isn't meant to be a sign of the Innocence of Youth or anything like that it's another joke on defense only a child would care that much about a fast food hamburger not being up to the standards of advertising but if we do want to take this scene seriously we could ponder about the fact that the only person who humors defens his argument is African-American the minority in the US most familiar with being promised something huge only to be given a pittance but again critical Drinker wouldn't want to consider that so I will play on his level 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 oh so close they actually turned him down for his loan because he's black don't worry I didn't catch this my first few times watching the film either because I was so focused on seeing the situation through defense's eyes like he wants you to but yeah not economically viable he's black like I said earlier they may as well have just told him that his credit would never be good enough for alone it would have meant the same thing why else would he be protesting why else would he be specifically dressed in a white collar outfit if not to specifically point out what part of him is not economically viable why else would he say if the white man dressed exactly like him walking out of the bank he looks like a Happy C that's an economically he goes on to say if the snow glove that defense Buys in the scene which plays the song London Bridge is falling down Jesus Christ remember when movies had this level of thought and complexity P into them oh oh yeah because the deepest and most complex thing a movie can do is reference the title does this guy think those fake quotes on forchan were actually real also this isn't even the only time the film does this if anything it's the lamest recurring joke in the movie it's the only one I really don't like London bridges falling down down London bridg is falling down help me out now come fall down but even disregarding all of the bad faith arguments people make in favor of defense's actions and morality I know they are wrong by default I know he was not meant to be a good man I know this for a fact not because of the interviews not because of anything the film itself has to give me but because of something that I have heard exactly zero people talk about in relation to this movie The Missing Link in defense's identity James huberty James huberty was an evil man he was born in 1942 and grew up in rural Ohio the son of devout Christians his mother bailed on her family early in his life he had a passion for firearms eventually he married and moved out he worked as an embalmer but due to his inability to interact healthily with the public he quit after 2 years and began a career as a welder which would continue for over a decade during that time he had two daughters and moved into a large home in an affluent area making over 150,000 a year in justed for inflation as evil men do he spent a part of that time as a landlord on the side managing Apartments built on land where he had previously lived with his wife and daughters James huberty would regularly beat them he would hold knives to his daughter's throats and physically assault his wife on many occasions his wife would call Family Services but would later downplay incidents of assault so as to avoid further inciting his aggression he refused therapy and other forms of managing his stress he was deeply paranoid of his neighbors his co-workers and his government he kept a mental tally of all of the slats that people performed against him whether purposeful or even existent in the first place he made a point of teaching his daughters the importance of paying debts both good and bad he kept his home stockpiled with Firearms James huberty was laid off from his welding job in 1982 shortly afterwards he would contemplate suicide with a loaded gun to his head his wife talked him down he later told her that she would regret doing that after a 5we period of welding at a different company which shut down he relocated himself and his family to Tiana in the hopes of finding better job prospects his family adjusted easily and sparked quick relationships with their neighbors he did not 3 months later in ' 84 he moved his family back to the United States to San Cedro California James huberty was unhappy living in a majority of his Hispanic area as the only white family in their apartment complex he was openly rude to his neighbors he moved his stockpile of weapons into the apartment with him along with the furniture he was previously forced to leave in Ohio in April he was hired by a security firm to guard a condominium complex on July 10th he was fired for poor performance and physical instability on July 15th he told his wife that he suspected he had a mental health problem on July 17th he called a clinic and attempted to check himself in he was told his call would be returned in an hour due to a mixture of his nonchalant tone and workplace negligence his call was not returned on July 18th he took his family to the San Diego Zoo he told his wife that Society had their chance after he returned home he gathered a 9mm pistol an Uzi a pump action shotgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition for each he told his wife he was going hunting for humans as he left he told his eldest daughter that he wouldn't be back James huberty drove to a local McDonald's restaurant after a misfire outside the building caused employees to believe his actions to be some kind of sick joke he successfully opened fire on employees and customers alike for 77 minutes James huberty stalked every corner of the McDonald's building executing every living person he saw he killed 21 and injured 19 the oldest of which being 74 the youngest was 8 months old there were 45 in the restaurant that after afternoon a majority of them were Mexican-American a 911 call was made minutes after the shooting started the dispatch operator unfortunately sent officers to a restaurant 2 miles away and in the meantime he shot children and adults who unknowingly approached the scene eventually officers arrived and set up a lock down around the area the shooting ended when a police sniper caught glimpse of him from the neck down as he approached the entrance of the store he was killed in one shot to the chest and died almost instantly falling down was released in 1993 not even a decade after the S Cedro McDonald's Massacre as it would come to be known the similarities between its protagonist and James huberty aren't just evid they're striking audiences today would have no reason to know this connection because McDonald's managed to remove the incident from public memory in such a spotless manner the only reason I know about this incident is because I happened to choose James huberty from a list of names for a project researching Mass Shooters in high school the fact that I am the only person I know who knows about this incident is nothing less than a travesty This was meant to be the first episode of a montha movie but this isn't what I want this series to be you saw earlier that I inserted some audio from a commentary track I recorded with my brother that's what I want this series to be I want to make light-hearted videos about movies of any quality I don't want to make a whole series about getting mad at people or media I want to be passionate about my favorite art form and express my feelings about films in such a way that people will listen to them and I hope to inspire people to think more deeply and critically about their favorite art that's what this video was but then I postponed it for so long that that other video released and now I want to say something more important than watch movies and think about them I want to say this don't give your time or your brain power to listening to people that Mis interpret art for the purpose of suiting their own faulty worldview whether knowingly or otherwise and that's all that I want to say about him I didn't make this video to start any drama or cause people to get upset at me for watching a movie better than he did even if I did do that I just want to offer the internet a piece of decent analysis and hopefully I've done it in such a way that I can educate anyone who watched his video and came away from this important film thinking that it's about a good man doing good things there will be more videos in the future the next video will be completely unrelated to this and hopefully it'll be a lot more fun for me and for you next month will be the formal beginning to a month of movie thank you very much for watching and keep yourself safe out there don't fall for scams wherever they may be and however they may disguise themselves be smart think for yourself like And subscribe you don't have to do that if you don't want to this video is not it's not for the algorithm it's for me and it's for you and with all that said I hope you have a good day take care of yourself he fell down he fell down and that's uh that's the Falling Down movie yeah yeah did you like it did you I've seen it too many times to say whether I like it or not it's like it's like when you read a book too many times you know EX exactly what's going to happen and all you can think about is like I'm not like Mom I guess is what I would say mom can watch uh Goodbye Girl Like A maillian times in her life and like it just as much as the last time I just can't like a movie when I watch it this many times yeah which is why I'm looking forward to uh in further months only watching the movie like three times yeah and then I won't have to hyper analyze it quite as much as I did with this one say I think

Channel: Maxwell Paynewell

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Id: n1mr-KPE2zg

Length: 28min 59sec (1739 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 27 2024