The Last Movie I Watched

^you two!!

Stop spoiling it.

There is someone here who still hasn't seen it, but plans to!

 

Oops. Sorry!

 

Okay.

 

This movie is a social commentary. I think it's about intolerance. But it's weird... It has Douglas cast as a man not in control of himself whose wife has a restraining order on him. He encounters people of color, gang members, and a racist army surplus clerk among other things. The whole movie is about how he despises society and how he can't stand this and that.

i don't know how it ends yet, and won't spoil it in case you haven't seen it. But there's a problem. In my opinion, the main character (Douglas) is a prime example of what is wrong with most intolerant people. The real problem I see is that the movie doesn't do enough to show that all the violent things Michael Douglas is doing to the people he can't stand are wrong.

 

I saw it at movie theatre when it first came out back in 1993 and had mixed feelings

On one hand D-Fens plays an average Joe who lost his job and is at his breaking point, and at each encounter we cheer him on because he becomes the super hero of our everyday frustrations.

But then we learn he has a history of violence and his wife has a restraining order against him. So then we’re left with an unsympathetic nut case,.


Btw the movie ends the only way it could have.

 

I had seen it before and turned it off because I didn't understand my feelings. This time I sided against D-Fens from the get go. It was a good movie, but I feel like, in this day and age, you have to make it blatantly clear to movie-watchers that they must not under any circumstances take out their frustrations on their fellow citizens.

 

Yeeeeeah

 

Interesting analysis on Falling Down. Yes, it's intolerance, but I thought it was more than that. D-Fens is clearly unstable, but I think it's all a metaphor for feeling special. What is today termed "snowflakes." We're all at one point or another frustrated with the world and day-to-day life, but few of us opt out. We accept that the rules still apply to us, whereas D-Fens steps outside of society because he doesn't like it. Stuck in traffic? He does what we all fantasize about in that situation. He gets out of his car and just walks away. Can of Coke too expensive? He pays what he says. No trespassing? Fuck it, I'm walking across this construction site and golf course! Stopped serving breakfast you say?

So, to me, D-Fens is some kind of manchild having a tantrum every time he doesn't get his way. It's a movie that can be dissected many different ways, which is part of what makes it so compelling. That and Robert Duvall's partner

 

So um
I really related to his frustrations with modern life and cheered him on
But to be honest I dont remember the end where it came out he was abusive to his wife
But I thought of it more as a fantasy...what we all wish we could do but don't
Because, lets face it, modern life is a giant pain in the ass sometimes. And sometimes when your morning commute turns into a 2 hour wait in a freeway parking lot, you do wish you could take a baseball bat to something. Or at least I do

I took the movie as a sort of social commentary on the failings and trappings of modern life

 

I’ve been in that same exact situation before but at McDonald's, where I wanted to order from the breakfast menu but had to settle for the lunch.
I was upset but like most people no amount of frustration would cause me to pull out a gun and start threatening the restaurant staff

 

He never hit her but she had a restraining order. There was this part where the cops were questioning her about it. I felt like they were basically victim blaming in the situation. "So, he didn't ever actually hit you?" "No." "But you went to a judge?" or something along those lines. I felt like there should have been clarity that lets the audience side with the wife. But the audience likely feels/felt compelled to side with poor old D-Fens and demonize the woman for "abusing the power" of a restraining order. I think she says there was lots of shouting, but I don't remember exactly.

 

I watched Spun the other evening, not for the first time but the first time in a while. It was good because I was showing someone who hadn't seen it before, which is fun to do.

 

The Crystal Meth Movie with Brittany Murphy and Mickey Rourke?

 

That's the one. With an awesome soundtrack by Billy Corgan

 

That was a strange movie from what I recall. They repesented the main tweaking scene as more like a trip.

 

Drug movies are always sad to me. Requiem for a Dream is probably the saddest of drug movies, but Spun depressed me also

 

I recommend Human Traffic, it's primarily about Rave Culture, so you can probably guess what the main drug of the movie is, although a few others make some cameos.

There's one scene that's depressing (well two actually but the other is delivered in a humorous manner) but overall it's pretty funny and awesome, with a lot of quotables.

 

Saving Mr. Banks