John Ganz and Jamelle Bouie on Falling Down

Director: Joel Schumacher

1993 / 113min / 35mm

Stuck in gridlocked Los Angeles traffic one sweltering afternoon, unemployed ex-defense engineer William Foster (Michael Douglas) abandons his car on the highway—shades of the opening of Fellini’s 8 1/2—to cross the city on foot… and doesn’t like what he sees. The unhinged Foster, with his crew-cut, pocket protector, and starched shirt, proceeds to become a white-collar one-man-army, lashing out against gang members, lousy customer service, neo-Nazi Frederic Forrest, and just about every aspect of what he views as a degraded contemporary America, along the way finding himself in the eye of a media storm, both praised as a vigilante hero and damned as a dangerous psychopath. “Douglas is terrific… one of the richest, if most thoroughly unpleasant, and difficult roles of his career.” —The New York Times

Post-screening conversation with John Ganz and Jamelle Bouie on Friday, July 12th

Part of One Night Only