Evaluation of Falling Down

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Falling Down is a 1993 crime drama film directed by Joel Schumacher and written by Ebbe Roe Smith. The film stars Michael Douglas in the lead role of William Foster, a divorcé and unemployed former defense engineer. The film centers on Foster as he goes on across the city of Los Angeles, trying to reach the house of his estranged ex-wife in time for his daughter's birthday party. Along the way, a series of encounters, both trivial and provocative, cause him to react with violence and unraveled mentally. Due to William Foster (Douglas) recent divorce and the restraining order his ex-wife Beth (Hershey) had ordered to keep him away from her and their child Adele can be viewed throughout this movie as being William Foster’s (Douglas) main area of stress mainly since his main aim was not to hurt anyone but instead to reunite his family despite the divorce, on his daughter’s birthday. It can be seem where his violent reactions all branched from any circumstance that tried to hinder him from getting home to see and reunite his family. In addition to this distress, William Foster was recently laid off from his job which had made it unable for him to support his child. Throughout William’s (Douglas’) marriage, he was seen as a very controlling husband that would not take no for an answer amidst all his support, interest and time put in in taking care of his family. This had eventually brought distress upon his wife, distress that was soon reflected by fear of him and his possible attack on herself and her child. The fear of William Foster (Douglas) in this film was not only expressed by his wife but by his mother as well who had admitted to his anger at her, since he had blamed her for the separation of his family. Foster (Douglas) was not seen to have any evidence of past psychiatric history throughout this film, other than his depiction as being excessively

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