FALLING DOWN

[snow.white]

Falling Down is about two strong characters, D-Fens and Prendergast, who cross paths in the name of justice. Both characters seek justice in what they seek to accomplish. They are both in relationship conflicts because they have lost loved ones. Similarly, the characters get frustrated with the course of their lives. They both want to hang on to what they still have left. Although the characters are similar, there are some ways that these characters differ. D-Fens is more about taking taking the law into his own hands and Prendergast is someone that is ready to enforce the essence of the law.

D-Fens and Prendergast want to be accepted by the people around that. They want to be accepted by society and socialize normally. Their illusion of "normal" gets them into trouble. They both do not want to accept that they are past a point of return. Unlike Prendergast, D-fens is more likely to express exactly how he is feeling because of the difficulties that he's experienced.

D-Fens and his short temper put him in a postion for someone like Prendergast to enforce the law and get rid of any threat. As a law enforcer Prendergast is nothing close to the quick-tempered ways of D-fens. A criminal will not know he is doing wrong until he is forced to understand the truth. Prendergast is, interestingly enough, a person that is kind hearted and caring. He would not be able to accomplish half of the things that D-fens does.

Although these characters may seem similiar, they want to tackle their troubles on opposite sides of the law. D-fens and Predergast may both seem like they are genuinely seeking to heal their wounds, but can go about it in very different ways.

Teacher's note: Super well-organized. I like the way you paint Prendergast and D-Fens as two sides of the same coin which at the same time makes them similar and different. Brilliant! Thanks for posting. --Mike http://www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[buketbavas]

Fallig Down is a really different movie for me because it always makes me nervous. Even when the last part of the movie was so sad for me, but I am glad to have watched it. In this movie there are two main characters. One of them is Bill (Micheal Douglas), the other is Prendergast (Robert Duvall). They both show us differeces and similarities in their characters.

First of all, there are some interesting differences in their lives. Bill has some psychological problem, and he is also divorced from his wife, which makes him more crazy. Also he doesn't have a job, so he has no money. Sometimes he does not eat anything. On the other hand, Prendergast is very rational and very normal person. He is good husband too,and he is just on his last day of job. He would like to have a perfect finish. He is taking his salary. Almost everything is good in his life.

There are also some similarities.They both have a doughter,and they both wear suits. Actually they both love their familly.

To sum up, people can get life lesson from this movie. It was good to watch it.

Teacher's note: Thanks for posting. Suggestion--please edit (proof-read) before posting and read my instructions. I went through this essay and put spaces after all the periods, corrected the spelling, grammar (some very basic errors), and various typos. Always have a high level of respect for your work, especially when you publish it. Also I organized this essay according to my instructions. Now it's easy to see that this is not a balanced essay. There is not enough discussion of similarities. But I like how you handled the differences. You point out some good examples. Keep writing! --Mike http://www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[chuanqiandai]

Hi Mike. This is Victor.

In Falling Down, there are two main characters, D-Fens and Prendergast. D-Fens has recently been fired, and Prendergast is a very kind policeman who is going to retire today. After I saw the movice, I noticed some similarities and som differences in their lives.

First, D-Fens and Prendergast each have their own family and love their family very much. They both have a wife, a child, and a job. A lot of people think that they have a happy life. That is what I thoought at the beginning of Falling Down. But by the end of the the movie, I had learned that they both have a big problem in their family. Second, they always follow the right thing that comes up in there mind. But both of these two guys are unhappy with their lives.

The different between D-Fens and Prendergast is that D-Fens is a criminal and Prendergast is a policeman. Also, they have different lives. For example, D-Fens is divorced from his wife, but Prendergast isn't. D-Fens has a daughter but Prendergast's daughter died because of desease. D-Fens lost his job, but Prendergast is just going to retire.

In my opinion, Falling Down is a very good movie because it means a lot. But in fact, I don't think D-Fens makes the right choices. It is very crazy that he kills a man beacuse he thinks the other man might try to stop him from going home! Actually, I agree that D-Fens is very unlucky in his life. He lost his job; his wife doesn't want to see him. But as a man, he can't fall down when he gets in trouble. Prendergast eventually makes up his mind to never give up.

Thanks for reading.

Teacher's note: Good post, quite thorough and thoughtful. I like the way you tracked how D-Fens and Prendergast change during the movie. This is called the "character arc." Falling Down has two interesting character arcs making it a doubly good movie. --Mike www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[Amy]

Hi,Mike. This is IEP2 Amy.

The Movie ' Falling Down' is about two guys who have been struggle with life. I can say that thay have qutie some similar things in their life in some ways, but, at the same time, they are pretty different.

First of all, there were some interesting similarities I could find from two guys . First, D-Fens and Predergast have trouble with wife. D-Fens who has ex-wife, lovely daughter is not supposed to approach to exwife and daughter since they got divorced. Dispite the fact that he shouldn't do that, he decides to visit her to see his daughter on her birthday. Predergast is nice guy, but he seemed he cannot explain at all to his wife even thought when she's been pretty overreact to him. Second, they are both on a way to have in the film. like I mentioned before, D-Fens decided to visit ex-wife house to see his daughter no matter she wants or not. Predergast was having a last day of a cop. he was supposed to retire nextday for his wife. Third, they are both have gun. To be correctly, D-Fens didn't have guns at first. However, since he becomes crazy, expecially when he met someone who interrupt his way to daughter, he steals guns from the gangster guys who tried to kill him.

On the other hand, there are some interesting differences between Prendergast and D-Fens. They each react quite differently to stress from obstacles or the things they didn't expect to see. In other words, they are having both pretty rough day. For example, when D-Fens goes into a Korean market to get change for the phone booth, he cann't understand why all the products are so expensive, especially the price of a can of Coke. As a result, he can't get enought change for a phone call. He reacts by exploding in anger at market cashier with threatening attitude. Throughout the movie, he cannot control his anger and thinks only his way. Of course Predergast is also having a bad day. His coworkers make fun of him in front of his face. He must be feeling pretty bad and uncomfortable, yet he doesn't lose his mind. he is able to control his anger and stress.

In conclusion, I think even though D-Fens and Prendergast had many similarities at first, they bring totally different results each other by how they handle difficulties, obstacles, and stress. I'm pretty impressed with this move, not only about story but also about direction. It's not a happy subject, but I could often laugh while watching this movie. How ironic but amazing.!

Teacher's note: Thanks for a thorough examination of two rather interesting characters, especially when placed side by side. As with some of the other essays, there were obvious misspellings and numerouos typos as well as syntax errors. I hope you saved the original, so you can make a comparison with the corrections. The organization has been cleaned up a little as well. I'm glad you liked the movie. --Mike www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[anneyano]

Falling Down shows how small differences can lead to huge mistakes about right and wrong. Both William 'D-Fens' Foster and Detective Prendergast have good intentions about justice, but one of them turns out to be a bad guy, and another one turns out to be a good guy.

There are a lot of similarities between William 'D-Fens' Foster and Detective Prendergast. For example, the bad relationships with their wives even thought they love them, the life with full of frustrations, and having their own "justice."

On the other hand, their behaviors are totally different. D-Fence turns to be a bad buy of this movie, but Detective Predergast is a hero. D-Fens seems to be a very unreasonable person. However, he is just doing what he believes are right things for his justice, and he wants everything to be the way it was. So that, until the very last moment, he hasn't noticed that he is the bad guy. Meanwhile, the Detective Predergast was too good for everyone. Actually, one of the reasons why his boss hates him is he is too good person to say something bad to anyone. (I was so happy when he said some bad words to his boss)

At the beginning of this movie, I felt it was one of the most disgusting movies ever. There were tons of violence without any reasons (that's the way it is in this world though), angers, sadness. However, by the end of the movie, I felt sad, but at the same time I was confused because the "D-Fens" guy was not that bad anyway, at least he was just trying to do right things, but his behaviors were not acceptable by everyone. And I thought, many crimes have experienced as same as D-Fens. Although, they have good intentions sometimes the good actions turned to be bad. These are pretty much what I felt

Teacher's note: I like the way you documented the change in your perception of Falling Down. I think this is just how the director wants us to feel. I had a similar experience the first time I watched this movie. I grossly underestimated its message because the full impact doesn't hit until the very end. Please be sure to proof-read your work before posting. There were a number of typos that are easy to catch. We all do this without knowing it, so hence the importance of editing. Thanks much for posting. --Mike http://www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[Tilun]

Do you become conscious of

[klaudiaguca]

The movie 'Falling Down' is about a guy, called D-fens, who is an unemployed and desperate father. Although he is divorced and not allowed to visit his ex and his daughter, he set the goal in his mind to get back home for his child's birthday. While walking home he is doing justice, since he is unhappy with the general situation of his home town L.A. and it's crime rate, rising living expenses but also his own, unfulfilled life. This anger about his miserable life, which is manily caused through the enstrangement of his family and the loss of his job make him act violent and aggressive towards the people, who delay his arrival home. Prendergast, his opponent and retiring cop, is the one who tries to stop D-fenses 'amok'.
There are few similarities between the two main characters: Marital difficulties, the will to go home and the fact that both of them have a daughter.
Prendergast, however, lost his daughter due infant illness complications and still deals with this tragedy. His wife also suffers from it and is mentally ill. She is the one that forces Prendergast to quit his job, so they can both live on without fears and start all over in a new town.
Although there are paralells between the two, I must say that the differences predominate.
First of all, they both deal completely different with their frustrations and anger. While D-fens loses control and his temper, Prendergast tries to cool down upcoming problems. He behaves rational and diplomatic and tries to solve situations calmly.
Another difference is that Prendergast is following the law, moreover is working for it. D-fense on the other hand, is breaking it.
All in all, I must say, that both characters are very different, since D-fens is considered as the bad guy and Prendergast the good one, which is pointed out at the end of the movie.

Klaudia

[nurkassym]

Basically, the movie is all about two characters that are very different from each other. One of them works his whole life being a policeman, and the other one is really unpredictable. They have different sights of their characters but on the other hand they both have something similar.

Prendergast is living his life being a quiet person. All his life he sits in the office filling out the papers for his department. He has a stable life. On the other hand, D-Fens is an unpredictable person who was living all his life being frustrated over the things that are happening to him. He has a character of a person that doesn

[Charlykolo]

The two main characters Bill Foster and Detective Prendergast live two different stories but are really similar in many points.

They experience many difficulties in their private lives (wife, children..), they are disrespected by their own environment (colleagues, society,..). Both are in a situation of submission, not listened to by others; that is because they like procedure and honesty, not like the world around them.

They have differences too, Bill Foster has the courage to break the 'rules' and change his fate to be free one day, but the detective needs this story so that he may rise to the occasion of being fearless for the first time in his life.

So, Falling Down speaks about decadent behavior nowadays. The movie shows us that the majority are cowards and the healthy minority is illogically punished and misunderstood.

Nicolas Gauvin

Teacher's note: There seems to be a very interesting push and pull between the French language and English. For this essay, I inserted a few strategic vocabulary changes and fixed some grammar. You have the skill to say much with a few words. Thanks much for your post. --Mike
http://www.moviesgrowenglish.com

[Kamil]

Falling Down is a film directed by Joel Schumacher in 1993. Michael Douglas is playing the lead role of William Foster (credited as "D-Fens"), a divorcee and unemployed former defense engineer. Along the way of the movie, We can follow him in a series of encounters and listen to him reacting with violence and irony about the society.

We can say that William Foster and Pendergast have some similarities because they both have marital problems and seem to be misunderstood and underestimate.
However they don't react in the same way through those problems. D-Fense loses his temper and only listen to himself. He becomes a marginal and breaks the law instead of Pendergast who still follow orders and keep staying in the society.

Falling Down is a good movie because Schumacher trick us with brightly. During the first part of the movie, we are sympathetic to this poor man William Foster, we agree with him because we have all dreamt about revenge justice.
Meanwhile the movie is rolling, we start to understand the point of view of Schumacher which is, how William foster left the society and became the evil of this society although he thinks that the society is the evil.
People think that is a movie about personal defense although it is a warning for those who wants to use it.