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Category | Drama | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
Rating | Other Trailer(s) | None | |
Year Released | 1992 | Commentary Tracks | None |
Running Time | 107:55 minutes | Other Extras | None |
RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
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Start Up | Menu | ||
Region | 2,4 | Director | Joel Schumacher |
Distributor |
Warner Home Video |
Starring | Michael Douglas
Robert Duvall Barbara Hershey Rachel Ticotin Frederic Forrest Tuesday Weld |
RRP | $34.95 | Music | James Newton Howard |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | MPEG | None |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Dolby Digital | 5.1 |
16x9 Enhancement |
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Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 2.0
, 192Kb/s)
French (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0, 192Kb/s) |
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 |
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Macrovision | ? | Smoking | Yes |
Subtitles | English
French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English For The Hearing Impaired Italian For The Hearing Impaired |
Annoying Product Placement | No |
Action In or After Credits | No |
Falling Down tells of a man who just cannot take any more of what society is force-feeding him. We start with him stuck in a traffic jam of intense proportions in sweltering heat with flies buzzing around, kids staring at him out of the back of other cars (always annoying at the best of times), people screaming down mobile phones, broken air-conditioning in his car, and he just loses it. We learn later that he was fired from his job months before, and he also has a failed marriage and is unable to visit his little daughter. Foster, played by Michael Douglas, is this man, and we follow him through the grimy streets of America as he puts our society and "freedom" to the test. If you have ever felt that small things cost too much, or been annoyed that you couldn't get the breakfast menu at McDonalds 3 minutes after that menu closed, or one of countless other little things that we just accept, you might enjoy watching Foster go nuts. In an attempt to really drum into us what this man is feeling, director Joel Schumacher sometimes gets dirty, and there is a lot of violence, both physical and verbal throughout this movie, but it is certainly effective.
Robert Duvall is a cop about to face retirement, and he pieces together seemingly unrelated reports of crime and deduces that they are being carried out by one man, and he goes after him. This is the sub-plot, and it counterpoints the main plot well. His wife is a nagging woman, constantly going off the deep end at him, and it is only at the end of the movie that he asserts himself, which is the same kind of liberation Foster is feeling, albeit on a different level.
This is a fine performance by Michael Douglas, who is one of my favourite actors, coupled with a story that touches the common denominator, meaning that most will enjoy this movie. Watch it if you want to blow off some steam.
The image is uniformly sharp, probably too much so as I will explain later. There is a fair amount of detail in the image, and indeed long shots reveal unusually high levels of detail in, for example, people at a distance. The transfer was pleasing in this respect. Shadow detail was fair, but since the movie takes place in the open and during broad daylight, this is not something which would be a concern anyway. There was no low-level noise, and there was no film grain visible.
I was never really happy with the colours for most of the movie, and had to hold myself back from adjusting my set (so to speak). The palette looks washed out, and is too warm, which adversely affected flesh tones. It has a similar look to that of the early versions of Die Hard 3 for those who want a comparison. Maybe it was intentional, as it does tend to make you slightly annoyed in itself if you are fussy about these things!
MPEG artefacting was minimal, but present. It is
a common tale to tell with single-sided Warner discs. Pushed too hard for
one layer, this nearly two-hour movie is starved for bits and would benefit
by being RSDL formatted. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of profuse
aliasing in every place possible, and was totally out of control for much
of the movie. Car bonnets, blinds, clothing, steps, even Michael Douglas'
glasses suffered dreadfully. We just don't need to see this kind of
thing on what should be the ultimate video experience. As a side note,
I would like to see this and other aliasing-affected movies in progressive
format, and I am confident aliasing as we know it will now result in future
rave reviews of high resolution "film-like" images (I am thinking The
Mummy here, along with others). What do we do? Complain now and cheer
later? Well, anyway, for the vast majority of us with interlaced displays,
aliasing is not a good thing and this transfer suffers for it. There were
no film artefacts.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain | |
Film-to-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
Dialogue suffered from distortion frequently, especially towards the end of the movie. There were no lip-sync issues.
The soundtrack by James Newton Howard was unremarkable, and left no impression on me. The sound was also a little harsh, and certainly sounded compressed, just what you would expect from a soundtrack running at a paltry 192 Kilobits per second.
The surrounds were hardly used at all, and most of the action takes place up front.
One nice aspect of this transfer was the excellent
use of low frequencies. The subwoofer had a great time for the entire movie.
This gave the soundtrack a lot of weight, and was its saving grace!
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
The video transfer is sub-par for a relatively recent film.
The audio transfer is also not what should be expected, with frequent dialogue distortion, though the sub was happy.
No extras at all.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
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DVD | Panasonic A360 (S-Video output) |
Display | Pioneer Rear - Projection SD-T43W1 125cm Widescreen 16x9 |
Audio Decoder | d t s 5.1 & Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD Player internal decoder) |
Amplification | Sony STRDE-525 5x100 watts Dolby Pro-Logic / 5.1 Ready Receiver; 4 x Optimus 10-band Graphic EQ |
Speakers | Centre: Sony SS-CN35 100 watt; Main & Surrounds: Pioneer CS-R390-K 150-watt floorstanders; Subwoofer: Optimus 100-watt passive |