Falling Down was a reasonably popular movie released in 1993 starring Michael Douglas as William "D-FENS" Foster, who Wikipedia describes as "a disgruntled, unemployed defense worker who abandons his car in the middle of a traffic jam and goes on a violent rampage trying to reach his family for his daughter's birthday." But as John Wilder explains, "Falling Down [Is] A Movie You Should Hate, Because It Hates You." John goes through the subtle means by which the movie propagandizes you, but the answer to why "the movie" hates you is summed up by this quote from its writer, Ebbe Roe Smith:
“To me, even though the movie deals with complicated urban issues, it really is just about one basic thing: The main character represents the old power structure of the U.S. that has now become archaic, and hopelessly lost. And that way, I guess you could say D-FENS is like Los Angeles. For both of them, it’s adjust-or-die time–that’s what the movie is about.”
And by "adjust-or-die" he meant that white guys need to adjust or die. Because that is what the ending of the move was about. Or as John explains it:
If you’re a white guy and thought that this movie was about you, from your frustrations with fast food to the epidemic of divorced dads who couldn’t see their kids, notsofastguido. The author hates you. The director hates you.
They hate you and want not only to replace you but to eradicate you from memory. In the end, D-FENS is shot to death in front of his ex-wife and kid. Erased from history just like he was erased from his job and erased from his family. His life, his dedication, turns to dust. Even the lines, “I’m the bad guy? How’d that happen? I did everything they told me to,” are meant to demoralize you.
In that way, no different from the theme (yes, singular) that plays out in the Knives Out movies by Ryan Johnson, except that Johnson's propaganda is about as subtle as a MOAB going off.
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