MovieChat Forums > Falling Down (1993) Discussion > Michael Douglas is anti-gun and stars in...

Michael Douglas is anti-gun and stars in this movie - odd.


Why do anti-gun / anti-rights actors frequently appear in movies where their character either uses many firearms or uses few firearms many times.

Stallone once called for house to house searches to confiscate guns. What would his bank account look like if he didn't appear in movies using guns?

My wife likes "American President" which drops gun control into Douglas's final speech. After I saw that, I had no interest in seeing the movie again.

Liam Neeson came out against private ownership of guns just before "Taken 3" came out. Would he consider doing "Taken 4" with stern lectures and hashtags as his chief weapons? I doubt it.

Anybody else distressed by this hypocrisy?

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It depends how much you expect the roles actors play to reflect their stances in real life. And looking at this film, it is at least questionable whether Douglas is playing a character he wants the audience to endorse. D-Fens is more an anti-hero than a hero.

"Chicken soup - with a *beep* straw."

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Hypocrisy? No. This is hardly a pro-gun movie, even though weapons play a major part of the movie. You really think this movie is promoting his character as someone to emulate?

Apart from that, actors frequently play characters that don't mesh with their personal beliefs or behaviors. You think that someone playing Jeffrey Dahmer, Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Doctor Doom really believes in evil, widespread death and destruction?

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Maybe I'm feeling microagressed. 8>) Still, while I don't believe that the actors _are_ the characters that they play, it bothers me when an actor repeatedly plays a character that uses firearms while speaking out against citizens owning them.

Blofeld and Doom aren't real people, and while I'm sure that there actually are people who wish to rule the world or just see it collapse, I don't believe that many watchers are taking notes for their own plans.

As a gun guy, I end up in discussions with regular folks who do believe that way that firearms are portrayed in film s UisU real. (e.g., guns that never need reloading, pistol bullets that pierce bulldozer blades, a silencer on a revolver being as quite as a whisper, a modern Smith & Wesson revolver "going off" when dropped on the floor.)

I have never seen a police show (or any other show) where the responsible ownership and/or use of a firearm by a citizen has been portrayed. Only criminals and irresponsible citizens have guns. Citizens who actually use guns are wrong and dangerous.

I believe that the misrepresentation of firearms in media and on screen contribute to the publics willingness to accept (and demand) "sensible" gun laws while having no idea of what problem(s) they are trying to fix. You might as well ask me to write safety regs for nuclear reactors. My knowledge: atomic stuff happens, steam is produced, turbines turn, electricity comes out.

Sorry, I'll get off my soap box before I fall and hurt myself.

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The script is one long homage to the perils of gun ownership. Convicts and gang bangers shooting up the streets, mugging and raping innocent people, a violent nut who probably couldn't buy one legally gets a whole bagful with ease and ends up menacing minorities and women, before lucking into the *really* big gun (rocket launcher) from a white supremacist who dies a just and violent death after making politically incorrect statements about black people. The nut job engineer, who happens to work for the military industrial complex, is an abusive wife beater who lives with his mom and probably would have murdered his wife and kids if the police didn't intervene first.

The film presents every Hollywood stereotype there is about conservative white men. They are uniformly mentally ill, predisposed to violence, homophobic, racist cavemen who require forcible removal from polite society.

I saw this movie when it came out. The trailers looked interesting, presenting the story of an anti-heroic middle-class American man who gets fed up and starts calling BS on the destructive lack of morals and ethics in modern society. Instead, the script pulls a fast one, the protagonist just turns out to be a pathetic and deluded suburban wife beater who gets his just desserts, a bullet that completely voids the first 90 minutes of the story.

That's why this is among the most disappointing films I've ever seen and received one of the lowest ratings I've ever given on imbd. And EXACTLY why Michael Douglas loved this role.



"You didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya?"

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"after making politically incorrect statements about black people."

yeah, those statements were just "not-PC", right? oh those damn social justice warriors.

"The film presents every Hollywood stereotype there is about conservative white men. They are uniformly mentally ill, predisposed to violence, homophobic, racist cavemen who require forcible removal from polite society. "

you wrote this 22 hours ago, so you have witnessed the election, right? if republicans (this has nothing to do with "conservative", big difference and btw, i am bipartisan) don't want to be seen that way, how about speaking against those in their own party that are, which as it seems do 95% of all the talking.

"I saw this movie when it came out. The trailers looked interesting, presenting the story of an anti-heroic middle-class American man who gets fed up and starts calling BS on the destructive lack of morals and ethics in modern society. Instead, the script pulls a fast one, the protagonist just turns out to be a pathetic and deluded suburban wife beater who gets his just desserts, a bullet that completely voids the first 90 minutes of the story. "

and now comes the ironic part: i am 100% with you on this. 100 effin percent.

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I think you are overlooking the OP question, why would Michael Douglas want to appear in a film filled with gun violence?

That's the question I'm addressing. The film does not portray gun use in a positive light at all, contrary to the suggestion of the OP, and it is clearly an indictment of the middle-class white American male struggling with the loss of his dominant role in family and society. Did it escape you that Douglas' character was a laid off defense contractor who blamed his ex-wife for his troubles?

I have no idea if Douglas would refuse to appear in a movie that championed conservative principles, but if he wanted to promote a left-wing political message there is absolutely no reason to object to this story. The OP's question is nonsensical and I thought I pretty clearly showed why.

I rated the film poorly not because of politics, but because of its lousy cop out of a resolution. What exactly is the film supposed to be showing us? A character study of a man falling apart? If he's gone mad, does that mean everything the character says and does up to the point his insanity is made clear is no longer valid? That anyone who cheered along with him when he ranted about the cost of a Coke, or refused to be mugged or vented about blind corporate rule is as nuts as he is? The terrible ending basically refutes the necessity for the first 90% to even exist.

Jean-Luc Godard said the best way to criticize a film is to make a better one. If you want to see this same story, but done well, watch "Observe and Report", a film that is 100x better than this schlock-fest.

Finally, bringing Donald Trump into an entirely unrelated discussion says more about your own peculiar bias than anything else.

"You didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya?"

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"I think you are overlooking the OP question, why would Michael Douglas want to appear in a film filled with gun violence? "

he's an actor.

"That's the question I'm addressing. The film does not portray gun use in a positive light at all, contrary to the suggestion of the OP,"

the portrayal of guns itself in the film is actually neutral.

"and it is clearly an indictment of the middle-class white American male struggling with the loss of his dominant role in family and society."

before i was with you, but since you had to throw the word "white" in there, you lost all credibility.

"Did it escape you that Douglas' character was a laid off defense contractor"

no.

"who blamed his ex-wife for his troubles? "

example please. who knows, she might have her part. we will never know.

"I have no idea if Douglas would refuse to appear in a movie that championed conservative principles"

because it doesn't. where do you even get that from?

" but if he wanted to promote a left-wing political message there is absolutely no reason to object to this story."

and here come the paranoia. and you ask yourself why a certain kind of republicans are prortrayed as maniacs.

"I rated the film poorly not because of politics, but because of its lousy cop out of a resolution. "

that it is.

"What exactly is the film supposed to be showing us? A character study of a man falling apart? If he's gone mad, does that mean everything the character says and does up to the point his insanity is made clear is no longer valid? That anyone who cheered along with him when he ranted about the cost of a Coke, or refused to be mugged or vented about blind corporate rule is as nuts as he is? The terrible ending basically refutes the necessity for the first 90% to even exist. "

and that's the part we both agree on.

"Jean-Luc Godard said the best way to criticize a film is to make a better one. If you want to see this same story, but done well, watch "Observe and Report", a film that is 100x better than this schlock-fest. "

i think i'll do. thanks.

"Finally, bringing Donald Trump into an entirely unrelated discussion says more about your own peculiar bias than anything else. "

nope. it was the perfect example. you asked why republicans are portrayed as (shortened version) evil and insane. first of all, you are projecting this broad statement onto an even broader amount of people and your projection is dead wrong. that's the problem with this paranoia of a "liberal left wing blah blah blah conspiracy" bs. that's not even a skewed version of reality, that's plain and simple mental illness. nobody is picking on kasich, mccain ...etc or their followers. good people. not everybody shares their opinions, but widely accepted as good people. now, if you look at trump, no matter what your party affiliation is, or even if you have none, there you have your prime example of everything that is wrong and evil. there you also have the answer to your question. and the fact alone, that even the slightest criticism to said person will always get answered with a) acusing the person to be on the other side and b) with "but hillary", deepens that problem even further. we had 8 years of "no matter, what our elected president does, we will stall it, no matter the costs, no matter the damage" and you ask yourself, why that is received as bad?

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This movie got your lowest rating? Wow, have you not rated anything made in the last 10 years? As I said in another thread, this is mainly a dark comedy (Douglas said so himself). How does him getting shot "void the first 90 minutes"? It's about a guy going off the rails... did you somehow expect it to end some other way?

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i agree on the first part, but as for the second part i understand where he is coming from and that has been brought up by quite a lot of people. in the first and second act, for the most part douglas' character is somewhat portrayed as the protagonist: a normal guy that whose fuse has blown. a guy who does what most of us would excuse, if not would like to do ourselves. the middle class guy that is fed up with being crapped upon. kill the effin nazi, strike fear into the effin street gang, show the corporate fast food chain what you think about their "10:01 and you won't get breakfast, even if you stood in line since 9:45" rule ...

to do a full 180 at the end by changing that image in a way, that he was an unstable douchebag to begin with, is just a copout and for that time the safe way to go. if they wanted to go that route, they should have started it differently. "he was a quite man" for example spreads that kind of doubt from very early on and ergo works much better as a whole.

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If you really want to know, I have 1374 titles rated. 13 only those are lower than "Falling Down", which I guess puts it (barely) in the 2nd percentile. Which is about right.

"You didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya?"

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He's an actor.

Next question.

"Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules. "
-Walter Sobchak

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