THX 1138

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

THX 1138 (1971), produced by Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope company, is based on George Lucas’s college project. It shows his early interest in science fiction and the threats to freedom that he later explored in the Star Wars films. Here Lucas uses a depressing futuristic landscape, like 1984 and Brave New World, to comment on contemporary situations.

The pervasive white setting removes all color from life, presenting a sterile existence, devoid of variety and individuality. Everyone having shaved heads adds to the feeling of uniformity. The whole world is self-contained in a windowless environment contributing to a sleek, modern version of imprisonment. The holograms seem distorted as do some communications, creating a feeling of disorientation and alienation for the audience. The robot policemen presage our current apprehension about AI taking over the world.

The Director’s Cut version opens with a bit of Buck Rogers footage, which was shown like other short serials in movie theaters many years ago. The selection paints a future that is optimistic, stressing the benefits of scientific technology. What follows is the inverse of that prediction. Even the opening credits run backwards, suggesting that technology may advance but not the state of humanity.

Robert Duvall plays THX 1138 whose work consists of constructing robots which adds to the dehumanization process of the populace. People no longer have distinctive names and instead are assigned alpha-numeric codes, demonstrating how humans are just parts in a governmental machine. The State anesthetizes the population, like the use of Soma does in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. A female voice states, “if you feel you are not properly sedated call 348-844 immediately. Failure to do so may result in prosecution for criminal drug evasion.” It may sound like the opposite of current attempts to stamp out illegal drug usage, but the opioid crisis in the United States generated billions of dollars in legally sold drugs.

Individual desires are suppressed, probably because they ignite passion that could lead to personal satisfaction not controlled by the State. Therefore, sexual activity between individuals is considered “illegal.”

After 63 workers die, a voice tells the other people at the plant that the total for the section that suffered casualties is “242 to our 195. Keep up the good work.” The state dismisses the loss of workers to industrial accidents, since it prioritizes the whole, not the individual.

THX 1138 has anxiety about his life. He goes to a sort of confessional, called a “unichapel,” which has an image of an enlarged face of a man. IMDb says that it is a picture of Hans Memling’s “Christ Giving His Blessing,” quite a desecration of a religious painting as sued here. The man in the picture is called OMM, which is like the Hindu and Buddhist religious chant for serenity, another satiric thrust as used here. THX must sign in by repeating “Blessings of the state, Blessings of the masses,” and extolling “the Party.” There are many sayings repeated in the movie, like “Thrifty thinkers are always under budget,” which remind one of the proper responses in The Handmaids Tale that are a form of mind control. The stress again is not on the individual, like what is encouraged in a Communist or Fascist world. There is a voice that just repeats the prerecorded impersonal messages, “I understand,” and “Yes, fine.” THX says he couldn’t concentrate on the job, that his mate is acting strangely, and he doesn’t feel well. The film takes the idea that “confession is good for the soul,” and shows how the State utilizes it in an impersonal way for its own purposes. No matter the problem, the voice says, “Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy.” This world’s religion is consumerism, which apparently should make you “happy” no matter the emptiness a person feels. THX has heard all of this before and starts to exit the booth early showing how this activity is not making him “happy.”

LUH (Maggie McOmie) is his mate. THX does not interact with her but instead watches a naked woman dancing on a screen while he uses some device that helps him masturbate. It appears that the State determines how sexual energies are channeled into nonpersonal activity. There is a holographic video of a robot policeman beating an individual. The image seems to encourage acceptance of violence against individuals. The robots emit soothing voices while they brutalize people, which creates a discordant, satiric effect. Another video that is supposed to be funny jokes about getting a vehicle and running into a crowd. The indoctrination here is that human life is dispensable. THX says the video is funny, but does not laugh, as human response is deadened.

He keeps going to the automated confessional saying he is not well. He says he only shares space with LUH. Subconsciously he is rebelling against this marginalized existence. She shows tenderness when he comes back to their domicile. They make love but are under surveillance so intimacy is not private here. She has substituted medication which allowed him to be affectionate and wants him to stay off the drugs so that they can escape and live in the “Superstructure,” which we learn about later.

SEN (Donald Pleasence) is a coworker who can manipulate computers. He says his roommate was destroyed which he says was “inconvenient,” a cold way of describing a loss. He summoned LUH , had a talk with her, and said he now wants THX to be his roommate. He says THX rates “very high in sanitation,” which fits in with this sterile environment as a priority. SEN wants conformity to the norms. THX considers SEN to be in violation of manipulating roommate selection, which shows he wants to stay with LUH and is showing resistance against manipulation, something which is unusual for this world.

THX files a violation against SEN, but being in drug withdrawal, he falters at work using radioactive material. He is arrested for drug usage violation. He is tried and the prosecution argues, “We must not continue to consume these erotics. We must exterminate the source of sin. Economics must not dictate situations which are obviously religious.” The State condemns sex as a “sin” which it must “exterminate” as an impediment to the hive-like operating system of this society. Conformity is its religion. The prosecutor says that the loss of THX to the workforce is not an excuse since the “sin” is so reprehensible. The State limits personal freedom to comply with its own dictates of social order.

It is determined that THX is to be held in detention and conditioned. Black-uniformed policemen prod him with shock sticks. He is forced to take pills, electrodes are used to monitor his brain activity, he is injected with chemicals, and other intrusive acts are done. They take control of his motor activities, and he is in the fetal position which shows how THX is forced into an infantile state so that any adult aspects can be reformed. There is voiceover from technicians who are experimenting with his bodily functions, dispassionately making him into a lab rat. IMDb states that Lucas has this scene to show his animosity toward doctors after his own near-fatal car crash when he was younger.

LUH enters the white cell where THX resides and states that she is pregnant. They joyfully have sex but then police robots enter. THX resists but is paralyzed by them. SEN and others are added to the detention area. There is one individual who appears mentally challenged and there is a dwarf, or “shell dweller,” who lives in the outskirts of the city. It seems outsider types who don’t fit in with the norm established by the State are removed from society. SEN is there because THX reported him. He gives speeches that IMDb notes are from President Richard Nixon’s speeches as Lucas satirizes what politicians were saying at the time the film was made. There is an attempted rape of one of the females and the destruction of one of the robot cops. It seems that extreme control over certain individuals creates an equal and opposite antisocial reaction by some. (The robot police are awkward, malfunction, or just fall down sometimes, which makes them appear as android Keystone Cops).

THX and SEN wander very far in the vast white landscape. The film becomes even more surreal as they encounter a third individual, a hologram, SRT (Don Pedro Colley) who decided to escape his confining existence. His plight mirrors the actual citizens. They exit into an area jammed with citizens bumping into each other. The documentary that accompanies the film states that Lucas feared “the empire crushing humanity.” Obviously, this idea flourishes in the Star Wars films. THX and SRT escape into an embryo-growing compartment, which conjures up how individuals are produced by the State in Brave New World.

Police androids search for SRT and THX in maze-like walls of electronic equipment which suggest manipulation and restriction. During the hunt for THX there is always a cost-estimate analysis being heard as to whether THX is worth the effort. The two then enter a morgue where the insides of the dead have been harvested for apparent recycling. Those servicing this area even have their faces whited-out, and they appear like ghosts, giving the whole scene a haunted appearance, as if all that is left of humanity are apparitions.

SEN enters the area where the monks of OMM exist. He prays to the oversized portrait of the Christ-like figure, apparently wishing to change and go back to the community. But a monk realizes SEN has no ID since he is a prisoner and SEN attacks the monk.

THX and SRT tap into a computer and discover LUH has been “consumed,” that is, reprocessed as a fetus to be grown as a new individual subject to the State. The technology here is frightening as it reduces individuals to new parts to be developed for society.

SEN in the trams underground encounters children playing a game which has them moving in unison to block their companions as they run through the group. The scene suggests a no-escape maze, symbolizing this culture. Apparently, SEN will be apprehended, but the audience does not see this act.

THX and SRT steal highly complicated sports car vehicles. SRT slams into a post, implying the overly technological world can be destructive. THX rockets through the underground expressway followed by android cops who, again, malfunction. (It is funny to hear a voiceover saying that a “Wookie” was run over, foreshadowing the Star Wars character).

It becomes too costly to continue the pursuit of THX, and the cops are called back. He climbs up a ladder lining a shaft. He is warned that he cannot survive outside, which turns out to be a lie. THX reaches the surface where there is an oversized sun greeting him. It is an escape from an underground hell to an ascension into the natural world. But whether he can flourish there is left unanswered.

The Great Santini

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The Great Santini (1979) is based on the autobiographical novel by acclaimed author Pat Conroy about a dysfunctional military family. It is set in 1962 in Beaufort, South Carolina, and stars Robert Duval in an Oscar nominated boisterous performance as Lt. Colonel Bull Meechum, a celebrated Marine pilot who is a disaster as a father and husband. In the Martin Scorsese films Raging Bull and The Aviator, the qualities that make the men in those stories successful in their careers destroy their private lives. The same can be said about Meechum. According to Conroy, his father took the nickname of The Great Santini from a magician he saw as a child. However, it is possible that Conroy chose the name for his book to suggest F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, whose title character was a showman who dazzled on the surface but had character flaws below, and both titles suggest circus sideshow performers.

 

The film begins in the sky as jets participate in practice maneuvers over Spain. There is no war going on in 1962, so what is left for gung-ho Marines is a pretend conflict with Navy fliers that is not as satisfying as the real thing. The activity creates a lesser version of accomplishment. Over the communications link Meechum brags and is demeaning toward his targets. The banter and singing that occurs consists of adolescent macho posturing as the planes engage in daring maneuvers to compensate for the adrenalin rush of a true battle. 

 

To celebrate their faux victory, the Marine fliers have a loud, vulgar, drunken party, with Meechum throwing wine glasses around as substitutes for bombs as they attempt to imitate a true victory event. Meechum salutes their bravery and how they are feared and invincible, which is a genuine statement as to how he feels about his fellow Marines. But, that fearlessness makes Meechum reckless on the ground. A Navy Captain comes into their dining area and tells them to behave and keep the noise down. Although Meechum says they will comply, he actually has other plans. He rambles through the restaurant, pouring drinks in the glasses of patrons and rolling over their tables. He grabs the Navy Captain’s wife and kisses her. He has an open can of cream soup hidden inside his sports jacket and with his back to the people in the room, pretends to throw up, spilling the soup on the floor, which the other Marines start to eat with spoons. The scene nauseates those there and empties the place. It suggests this is the way thrill junkies generate excitement in the absence of battle.  

 The next shot is of Meechum’s family praying for the man at an aircraft hanger, which seems fitting given the Lt. Colonel’s personality and profession. The conversation between the Mecchums is argumentative, reflecting discontent among them about having to move around so much. Mother Lillian (Blythe Danner) plays the diplomat as older brother Ben (Michael O’Keefe, nominated for Best Supporting Actor) walks with sarcastic sister Mary Anne (Lisa Jane Perskey) toward their father’s landing plane. Although typical sibling contentiousness is present, the language of the children contains an alarming amount of violent words concerning punching, knocking out teeth, and death, reflecting the influence of their father. Lillian prepares them for “inspection” as Meechum can’t separate military from domestic life. She especially warns Ben about how to act, and his less than enthusiastic welcome contrasts with the exuberant response of the others when Meechum emerges from the plane. It is evident that Ben receives the brunt of his father’s hard-line Marine attitude.

 

Meechum and Lillian are in bed in the middle of the night and she has obviously missed her husband, saying how the worst time was when she was in bed alone and longed to feel him with her. She says how proud she is of him as he has now received a command that he has waited “too long” for, which adds to the pressure on him to excel. It is funny that she calls him “Colonel” in bed, which shows to what degree the military inhabits their life. His alarm clock goes off at three in the morning and he immediately gets out of bed and does push-ups as if he is in boot camp, and awakens his family at this early time to move to their new home.

 As they ride in their car they sing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which combines religion with war and democracy, a strange mixture of conflicting elements. When the children want to sing “Dixie,” Meechum calls that song a “loser” tune, since the South lost the Civil War. It indicates Mecchum’s drive to win and not tolerate accepting anything less than a conquest. As the others sleep, Meechum wakes up Ben. Ben asks if his dad is ever afraid when he flies. Meechum says absolutely, which is not a typical manly response. But, he says that fear makes him a good pilot, suggesting that being afraid keeps one alert to danger. Ben says that he might not want to be a Marine. Dad will have none of that, saying Ben will go to college and then enter the Marine Corps. After that, it’s up to Ben what he wants to do with his life. Meechum’s life is not capable of deviating from the plan. When Ben asks if his father would want to die in action, Meechum’s response is that it would be better than dying from hemorrhoids. They laugh over that remark, but it does show the belief that Meechum has that an action-packed death in the line of duty is a satisfying way to perish. 

 They arrive in Beaufort, which Mary Anne humorously dismisses by saying she might have mistaken it for Paris, France. His pessimistic family, most likely based on prior experience, has no faith in Meechum securing a nice place to stay. He surprises them as he drives them to a huge house. Meechum has a sense of humor, although warped at times, and the ability to surprise and please as he calls Lillian Scarlet and himself Rhett Butler. 

 The next scene has Meechum holding a riding crop and addressing his children like a drill instructor, as he tells them he has had enough of them complaining about moving to Beaufort. He tells them that any dissatisfaction will cease at a time he specifies, and says because they are Marine kids they “chew on nails” while other weaker children eat “cotton candy.” They must respond like recruits by yelling “Yes, Sir!” Dad says Meechums excel at everything, including grades and sports, and he wants them to live up to their name. It is a stoical, tough, competitive behavior to adopt, which is especially difficult to endure for any child, since youths are usually unsure of themselves and react emotionally to outside judgments. He calls Ben “sergeant,” and the boy must dismiss the “troops,” Funny Mary Anne says that her father is less like Rhett Butler and more like “Godzilla.”

 

When Meechum arrives on the base he learns from the attending sergeant that the colonel he wants to see might be in a bathroom. He wants to pull another of his adolescent stunts, so he enters the stall next to the one where a man is. He pulls him by his feet and dunks his head in the toilet. The other man turns out to be a corporal. Meechum invents an elaborate, hysterical story using a false name and says he is on a top-secret mission to evaluate soldier readiness, noting that many men were killed at Pearl Harbor while they were in the bathroom. In addition, he says that the man he assaulted did not use proper hygiene and “germs with names you can't even pronounce are preparing to launch a devastating attack that will render you helpless in the defense of your country.” The man can improvise.

 

He goes back to the office of his friend, Colonel Virgil Hedgepath (Paul Mantee), and wants to pull a humorous stunt on him. But, Virgil is ready and is just as adolescent and funny as Meechum. He has Meechum in a headlock and wants him to admit he has menstrual cramps. He already knows about the corporal in the bathroom because he most likely set up Meechum to attack the wrong man with the help of his sergeant. Virgil says that Meechum has been brought in by Colonel Varney (Michael Strong), who doesn't like Meechum but needs him to whip a squadron into shape if Varney wants to become a general. Meechum notes he wasn’t promoted, but Virgil says Meechum is lucky he didn’t get thrown out for the soup joke. Virgil advises Meechum to knock off his shenanigans while he is there. The film links juvenile, reckless behavior with the daring needed to go into combat, but it may also imply that extreme pranks may be a release valve for the pressures that build up dealing with life-or-death situations.

 

Varney tells Meechum he is a disgrace to the Marine Corps and on his way to becoming an alcoholic. But because Meechum is a terrific pilot and a good trainer he needs the pilots ready because the Cuban situation is becoming dangerous and they have to be ready. At this point circumstances are gearing up to what became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, which had the world moving to the brink of World War Three between the United States and Russia. The movie seems to be saying that it is a bit scary that our military success relies on men that seem reckless when they are not engaged in their profession.

 

Meechum finds a maid for the family, a large African American woman named Arrabella Smalls (Theresa Merritt). Her last name is obviously a joke considering her size. She doesn’t find the bellowing Meechum intimidating, and challenges him to a punch-in-the-shoulder contest which she wins, causing Meechum to respect her based on his brutal criteria for admiration. Meechum’s macho attitude is on display in his homophobic slurs that he spews out concerning his youngest son, Matthew (Brian Andrews) and people he reads about in the newspaper. Lillian says Arrabella will either get used to Meechum's ways or will not, but they will “still be there,” showing how Meechum’s antics will never change in his state of arrested development. 

 When Meechum addresses his squadron he tells them that they should consider him to be God, and anything he says will be as if it is coming from the Bible’s Burning Bush. There is no questioning here, since Meechum’s authority is absolute. He is definitely the Old Testament version of God, a harsh taskmaster. He tells them they will be the best at what they do or will “die trying.” Meechum does not allow for any middle ground of success.

That do-or-die mentality carries over into the next scene as Meechum plays one-on-one basketball with Ben with the rest of the family in attendance. Lillian warns Ben not to “goad” his father, but Ben has learned from his dad that verbally abusing another is okay. So, Ben says that Meechum is gaining weight, is getting tired, and may be ready to collect “disability pension.” Since winning is everything to Meechum, he already has been committing fouls. As he dribbles, Ben says that none of them has ever beaten Meechum at anything, but he now does a good loud imitation of his father, and calls himself “The Great Bentini,” and scores the winning point. Meechum is incapable of being gracious in defeat, and wants to change the rules, saying Ben has to win by two points. He can’t conceive of himself losing, which suggests a deep insecurity. Meechum acts nasty to Marry Anne and smacks Lillian’s arm away when she says her husband will not “cheat” Ben out of his win. He speaks abusively and threatens to “kick” her “butt” if she doesn’t go into the house. Ben will not play anymore as he walks to his room while his father repeatedly bounces the basketball off the back of his head. Meechum calls him a “mommy’s boy,” and says he will make him cry like a “little girl.” Ben gets in the last word by saying “this little girl just whipped your ass good, Colonel.” By addressing Meechum by his rank, Ben stresses that the victory at home is also a win over his father’s role as a soldier, using Meechum’s joining of the two worlds against him.

 

Later that night, Meechum is still outside shooting baskets in a thunderstorm, not able to let go of his loss, the weather mirroring the tumult that rages inside the man. Lillian talks with Ben, and her son says he prayed for there to be a war so his father, who he calls “King Kong,” would have someone else to fight instead of his son. The reference to the huge ape fits the savagery and huge ego of Meechum. Ben is insightful in diagnosing his father’s compulsion to beat others as being fueled by an anger that retaliates against anything that will not allow him to satisfy his need for dominance. Lillian assures her son that his father loves him, but Ben notes the weird way Meechum shows it. He asks his mother if she loves her husband in a manner that shows his wonder as to how she could. She affirms her love for Meechum, but Ben says he treats her “crappy.” Lillian says harsh words don’t hurt anybody (which sound like she is in denial) and claims that Meechum has never physically hurt her. She says his father only wants Ben to excel. He points out the mixed signals his father sends because every compliment is matched with an attack on him, both physical and verbal. Lillian says that his father’s continuing to stay outside practicing shots shows his admission that the gap between them has narrowed. That he has to go to extreme lengths to improve himself is Mecchum’s way of saying he loves who Ben has become. Her noting that Ben has to understand that he has a strange father is an understatement.

Ben heads out with Arrabella’s son, Toomer (Stan Shaw), to go fishing. Toomer has a limp and stutters, but conveys his sense of humor, calling Ben’s small dog a cat, and comically boasting the horse that pulls his wagon is really the famous racehorse Man O’War. The good feelings shared between the two young men as they ride into town contrasts with the hatred of a couple of youthful bigots they encounter. One of them is Red Pettus (David Keith), who cruelly makes fun of Toomer’s speech impediment.

 

Toomer’s home is a dilapidated bus, the image illustrating the level of poverty he inhabits. Yet, he overcomes his situation by always laughing and having fun. He tells Ben he has to make friends with an aggressive dog there named Gray if Ben is to be accepted. Toomer says Gray doesn’t like white folks, and lets Ben feed him to lessen the animosity. Toomer is funny when he says the dog isn’t “mean,” he’s just “prejudiced,” ironically suggesting that the two really can’t be separated, even though some might want to make that distinction.

 

Out in a fishing boat, the natural beauty of the area shines, and the two might remind one of Huckleberry Finn and Jim floating alone, away from the pressure cooker life inhabited by Ben’s father and the racists of the town. As the day winds down and they share the peacefulness under the stars, Ben says, “This is terrific.” When Ben points out a shooting star, Toomer provides poetic commentary on human flaws as he says the phenomena is really Jesus shedding a tear because of the world being “hateful” and “sinful.” 

 

From this tranquil isolation there is a return to the oppressiveness of human interaction. Ben and Mary Anne must deal with being the new kids in school again. Meechum wakes up his son at four o’clock in the morning (the time Ben was born?) to throw an eighteenth birthday present at him. It is Meechum’s first flight jacket that he had been saving for Ben. He relates how he was away and drove a hundred miles an hour to get to the hospital on the day Ben was born. When he arrived he said that the toughest little fighter pilot came into the world. This scene is touching in the way it shows how proud Meechum was about the birth of his boy. But it also illustrates that positive feeling is realized within a military context, which hardens the emotions associated with the event. 

 

Lillian placed a letter in Ben’s books wishing him a happy birthday. In contrast to Meechum’s macho manner and gift, she tells her son that the quality that makes someone a man is gentleness (which is amazing considering who she married). She also wrote that Ben already has that quality, and she wants to assure him that he will always have her support. Even though it’s his birthday, she stresses that Ben gave her a gift which is to show how boundless her love can be for her son. 

 

Meechum invites his son to the base tavern with Virgil in attendance, and, when he arrives, Ben delivers the good news that he made the varsity basketball team. He is at first reluctant to have an alcoholic drink because he is in training, but when he is once again pushed by his liquor loving father, he orders a martini. Meechum has everyone there join in on a birthday toast, which wishes Ben a long life, a wife as wonderful as his mother, and a son he is proud of as much as Meechum is of Ben. It is a praiseworthy sentiment, showing that Meechum can be admirable if he allows himself to be. But, Meechum lets his son get roaring drunk to show his father he is now a “man.”

 

Meechum has to carry Ben as the young man has passed out, which spoils the birthday party the family planned. Meechum, instead of apologizing, makes a speech as if he were addressing the troops, saying Ben needs his rest because he is now on the basketball team. Meechum doesn’t really know how to interact with his family, and has made his son's birthday about himself, celebrating it the way he wanted. Later in bed, he blames Lillian for being too gentle with Ben which will prevent their son from achieving greatness. He wants to give his children the gift of “fury,” so that they can devour the world, or it will devour them. It appears his savage take on life is an adherence to the survival of the fittest belief. Lillian pretends that she is asleep, avoiding a confrontation.

 Compared to the ferocious and predatory view of Meechum, there is Toomer, who shows Ben the intricate beauty of nature. Toomer describes pollination as the bees showing their love for life, in a sense getting married to the natural process. Ben calls his companion a poet, and Toomer says everyone is “a natural born liar,” which insightfully notes how writers take the world and add the ingredient of imagination to cook up something fanciful. 

Ben is about to play in a basketball game, and the desire for his son to be great overwhelms Meechum with nervousness. But, he exhibits his concern through hostility toward his children. Mary Anne is again very funny as she says she too is so worried about the game it has caused her to develop cancer and rabies. After Meechum storms out, Lillian says Mary Anne has to read her father’s signals, to which she replies all of his signs show that he is a “psychopathic killer.” Mary Anne goes after her father and goads him more, saying that they should get to know each other better. His response is a racist remark about wanting to remain an enigma, like a “chink.” Mary Anne then asks if a daughter can be a real Meechum since she doesn’t have a jump-shot. Maybe, she offers, she can only be “a single-cell Meechum.” She says that she is pregnant by a black boy who is a pacifist homosexual, and is also a bald, crossed-eye dwarf. He storms out saying he is going to the base club. Mary Anne calls out to him, and it appears despite her sarcasm that she only wants her father’s attention. But, like him, her humor is harsh, and she doesn’t know how to show affection.

 

At the game, Meechum, who is inebriated, as one of Ben’s teammates notes, comes into the locker room and piles on the pressure by saying that there are college scouts in the stands. He has the audacity to tell the other players to make Ben look good. Meechum is always about what will make him be a winner, even if it is through others. The Marines’ Hymn plays as the teams come onto the basketball court, which grafts that military branch’s need to be the best onto the event. There is a player on the other team, Abbot (Reggie Malphrus), who taunts Ben and is physically aggressive, at one point knocking Ben to the floor. Meechum, as usual overly competitive, tells Ben that he should match the unsportsmanlike behavior and take the opponent out of the game. If Ben doesn’t, Meechum tells his son not to come home. For Meechum, the game becomes secondary now and the enemy comes down to one person, and the brutal code of manliness dictates that Ben must physically beat the enemy. He stands on the sidelines and glares at his son, which amounts to intimidation as opposed to encouragement. Ben is rattled and misses both of his free throws. He then throws the ball to Abbott so he can charge him, which results in breaking Abbot’s arm. Ben is thrown out of the game and in the locker room Coach Spinks (Joe Dorsey) says their team is being badly beaten, not only because they lost a top player in Ben, but the assault probably rallied the other team. Spinks tells Ben that he should have had the courage to tell his father that he was dead wrong, and defied him. Ben apologizes and feels very guilty about having buckled under to the will of his father.

 

Toomer encounters the nasty Pettus when the former is trying to sell his honey. Pettus smashes Toomer’s honey bottles and continues to ridicule Toomer’s stutter. Toomer grabs Pettus by the neck and puts his head under his wagon next to the wheel, threatening to tell his horse to move forward and rip off Pettus’s head. Toomer is talked down, but Pettus uses racial slurs and vows retribution. The film implies that there is always the threat of racial violence simmering beneath the surface of Southern hospitality. And, there are different types of bullies, such as Meechum and Pettus, who try to belittle others by stressing their victims’ weaknesses.

Pettus gathers others for payback. Arrabella begs Ben to help her son. Ben calls Meechum who orders his son not to get involved. Apparently doing the right thing doesn’t bring a competitive reward so it’s not worth pursuing for Meechum. Meanwhile Toomer has rigged his beehives to topple over and he unleashes the insects onto Pettus and his companions. They all run away after getting stung, but Pettus stays. Toomer tried to protect his dogs by keeping them in his bus. But Pettus shoots one of them and tries to kill another, However, Toomer is shot instead as he pushes one of the animals out of the way. Pettus is shocked that he hit Toomer, and starts to run, but Toomer lets loose his dogs who chase Pettus down and attack him. Toomer, who loved nature, is forced to use its darker side in the forms of the bees and the dogs to combat human evil. Ben arrives and sees the dead Pettus and Toomer, who even though he is dying thinks only of the beauty of the wilderness and says he will miss going shrimping with Ben. Ben drives the dead Toomer and encounters his father who slaps him for not obeying his “direct order.” Meechum only knows the rules of military rank and does not allow for ways to deal with civilian contingencies. When Meechim realizes Toomer is gone he asks Ben why didn’t he tell him. Ben’s answer is that nobody tells his father anything. Meechum only issues commands; communication is a one-way street with him. 

 Meechum has drinks with Virgil at a bar and doesn’t want to hear from his friend how brave Ben was to go to help Toomer. Meechum most likely feels guilty that he didn’t help to protect Toomer. He admits that being a career soldier in peacetime presents problems, which we see in the next scene where he gets into a fight with Lillian about his not trying to aid Toomer. He attacks his wife and then all the children come to her rescue, subduing him as he relents. Meechum needs an enemy to fight, even if it turns out to be his family. 

 

Meechum goes off and Lillian tells Ben to bring his father home. Ben’s first response is to say that he should die outside with the snakes, equating his father with reviled serpents. He eventually relents and finds his drunk father on the ground next to a tree where he is talking about his family. He says how Lillian is too protective of Ben, leaving him open to danger and how Ben must always be on the defense because the enemy is all around. He starts to cry when he says he is the dad, probably sensing he has been a parental failure. Ben says he thinks he finally understands his father. Being a pilot surrounded by the enemy was how Meechum saw his role in the family, which was always being attacked, and he wanted to prepare them for the onslaught. Ben tells his father that he loves him, but Meechum can’t handle the sentimentality, and reacts the only way he knows, by drunkenly trying to fight his son. Ben is able to be playful with him in this situation now that he allows for the motivation behind Meechum’s rough exterior. He brings him home in a reversal of the scene where his father brought him to their house after Ben’s birthday, as they switch roles.

 On a night flight, Meechum’s jet catches fire and he crashes because he wanted to pilot the plane clear of the town below him. His last act was one of self-sacrifice. He died in his aircraft alone, which is really where he felt most at home. Lillian wants them to maintain an outward display of emotional control at the funeral to honor her husband’s desire to be strong in the face of adversity. At night, Ben is alone with his mother and he says he used to pray that his father would crash so he could be free. He now cries out of guilt for those prayers. But his mother tells him that he was free when he tried to help Toomer. The point here is that Ben defied his father and exercised his own judgment to do what he knew was right. So, his dad did not have to die for Ben to have his freedom. He had already become his own man.

After the funeral the family must leave Beaufort. Ben assumes the role of authority left vacant by his father’s passing. He asks if they have to go to the bathroom because there will be few stops. Mary Anne, in character, asks if he wants an affidavit. When they ask Ben why they always leave at three in the morning he answers as his father would have that it’s because there is less traffic. Things may seem like they were before, but Ben is not his father, who was always at war, maybe even with himself.

The next film is The Stranger.

Falling Down

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

There are far too many incidents where a male goes off the deep end and becomes violent, sometimes killing his family before committing suicide. Falling Down tells a story about one such individual, but the character is complex, and there is an attempt here to explore why these individuals who feel broken by the hopelessness of their lives are ticking time bombs. The movie starts out with a close-up of the face of Michael Douglas who plays D-Fens, (the name used in the film’s credits), his mouth and then his eyes, which stresses how he views things. It’s a hot day and it is claustrophobic in his car, adding to the pressure cooker sensation experienced by the main character. He and others are caught in a massive traffic jam in Los Angeles. While they are waiting, a woman is doing her make-up and children are playing catch in a bus, trying to deal with the situation. The camera presents an American Flag, implying what America has become, a vision of life going nowhere.

D-Fens looks nerdy with his eyeglasses, white shirt and tie. He has a crew cut which makes him, contradictorily, look like a military man, maybe suggesting he wants to get out and attack. He is observing his surroundings, appearing tense, as the Garfield window doll and people honking and yelling on their cellphones are adding to his frustration. Bumper stickers say, “Financial Freedom,” which we discover the main character does not have, and “Christ Died for Our Sins,” although D-Fens does not feel redeemed. One sticker indicates a lack of caring about others with the words, “How am I driving? Dial 1-800- Eat Shit.” D-Fens’s A/C isn’t working and flies pester him. Even his window handle won’t work. He starts to swat insects all over the car, as he appears unhinged. He gets out of his car with his briefcase, looking like a man at the end of his workday, but appearances are deceiving. He upsets the man in the vehicle behind him since the abandoned car will add to the traffic problem. De-Fens tells the man he’s “going home,” which we all want to do, but with this man we learn he really doesn’t have a place he can escape to.

He starts to walk between the stopped vehicles toward an underpass embankment as he begins his urban odyssey. Detective Prendergast (Robert Duvall) happens to be behind D-Fens’s car. He sees a billboard that depicts a woman’s blouse that is low cut, and there is a superimposed drawing of a fellow on her upper chest who appears to be climbing out of the piece of clothing. Prendergast laughs, showing he can keep his sense of humor despite the situation. Prendergast exits his car and notices that the abandoned car’s license plate says, “D-Fens.” A motorcycle cop comes by and tells Prendergast that he is calling for a towing vehicle, which Prendergast realizes is overkill and takes too long, despite it being the proper procedure. The detective says they should just push the abandoned over to the side. The motorcycle cop says there are high speed vehicles that make that move dangerous, which shows how the cop’s rigid bureaucratic adherence is blind to the fact that nobody is moving. The civilian says D-Fens said he was going home. As the two policemen push the car aside, the civilian driver, despite the inappropriateness of the situation, makes a sales pitch for linoleum and ceramics to the cops, showing how capitalism dominates no matter what is going on. The motorcycle cop is sarcastic, saying “lucky me,” when Prendergast informs the officer he caught him on his last day as a policeman, and he becomes angry when Prendergast grabs his bike so it won’t fall. Not the best attitude to bond with others.

Beth (Barbara Hershey), the ex-wife of D-Fens, is returning home to her house at the beach with her daughter, Adele (Joey Singer). D-Fens calls on a public phone, but can’t get himself to say hello. He walks through a seedy graffiti-covered section of the city. He goes to a food market store and becomes more frustrated because he can’t get more change for a phone call unless he buys something. The owner, Mr. Lee (Michael Paul Chan), behind the counter speaks broken English, which makes it difficult for D-Fens to understand, fueling his anger. He announces that the soda he picked up is too expensive to get change for the call. He wants to bargain for a lower price. His American xenophobia surfaces, telling Mr. Lee the owner wants to take his money but won’t, “even learn my language,” arguing that is a prerequisite to be a worthwhile citizen. He lumps all Asian cultures together, so even though the man is Korean, he assumes he is from China. D-Fens says his country has given a great deal of money to Korea, and gets into a physical altercation with the man. A collection of souvenir flags spills to the ground, symbolic of the sullied image of America being presented by D-Fens’s actions to the audience, but also indicating how D-Fens internally feels that his country has declined by letting in unworthy immigrants. He grabs the baseball bat (a very American symbol) the shopkeeper reached for and begins smashing items in the store. The frightened Korean man tells D-Fens to take his money. Outraged, D-Fens says he’s not a thief, that the Korean is a crook for charging so much for the soda. D-Fens does not see himself as a criminal, but a man who feels he has been disenfranchised from the American Dream. He says he is rolling back prices to 1965 as he stands up for his rights as an “American consumer.” He channels the anger of many working-class people who feel they are being exploited. He asks the price of different products, and then smashes the displays as the owner announces the high numbers. He stops only when Mr. Lee agrees to the fifty cents D-Fens is willing to pay for his soft drink. De-Fens pays that amount, and walks out with his first acquired weapon, the stumpy wooden bat. However, D-Fens’s violence shows he has a pathology which goes deeper than just feeling disillusioned with the direction of the country.

Prendergast finds sand in a drawer of his desk, as his fellow cops play a prank on him about retiring to Arizona. They joke about how one man was run down two minutes after leaving the office on his last day by an impounded vehicle. It turns out that their joke foreshadows the serious situation that Prendergast will encounter. Sandy (Rachel Ticotin), who is Prendergast’s ex-partner, asks if he will be leaving early since it’s his last day. His conscientiousness and reluctance show when he doesn’t see why he shouldn’t put in a full day of work, even though he has been lately relegated to a desk. He looks at a photo of a young girl, and his look is sad, suggesting that his daughter died.

There is then a good segue scene showing D-Fens’s girl, Adele, as she plays with a water pistol (more foreshadowing), linking the main characters’ lives concerning children and Prendergast’s profession. It is the daughter’s birthday, and the mother is on the phone talking about a party, causing D-Fens to become even more frustrated by a busy signal as he tries again to call his family. He walks past an ominous set of large block-printed graffiti which repeats the word “KILL” several times (additional foreshadowing).

Prendergast gets a phone call from his needy wife, Amanda (Tuesday Weld) who is worried that he was making the move to Arizona because of her. He dodges the issue by saying that the main thing is that they are together. She is so insecure that she wants him home right away. So, he has marital problems, as does D-Fens. He has a snow globe in his hand and he sings, “London Bridge is falling down,” referring to the British bridge that was moved to Arizona, and where they will be going. But, we now get the reference for the title of the film, although in this story it is America, from the point of view of D-Fens, that is “falling down.” Prendergast cheers her up by getting her to sing along, and calls her “my fair lady,” the line from the song, which shows his affection for Amanda.

D-Fens looks at the city through a hole in his shoe, another image of how his view of America is from the perspective of a person on a low rung of the social ladder. He picks up an abandoned classified ads section which has circles around the previous owner’s job prospects that probably didn’t pan out. He uses the paper to cover the hole in the shoe, which is all the ads are good for, employment prospects not being plentiful for people in this poor section of town. Two Latino men approach D-Fens, harassing him, saying he is trespassing on private property and loitering. White people might sympathize with the Caucasian guy here, feeling that all he is doing is walking through an area that is different racially from where he comes from. Even though the action of the men is not justified, it suggests the many times a person of a different skin color was targeted for walking through a white neighborhood and charged with the same offenses. Also, for many impoverished people, their neighborhood is all they have left. D-Fens says there were no signs telling him to not sit there. One of the Latino men says the graffiti is a sign that warns to stay away. D-Fens sounds reasonable when he says that this is a territorial dispute and he respects that this area is their home. He says he understands their argument because he wouldn’t want them on his property. His remarks sound bigoted, but as we see later his anger is not just ethnically driven. But, they won’t just let him move on, saying he must pay a toll. They want his briefcase, which he refuses to turn over. One of the men flashes a knife. D-Fens, again erupting in frustrated rage, grabs the bat hidden behind the briefcase, and clubs the men, who flee, as he throws the bat at one of them. He tells them to “clear a path” since he declares again that he is going home. He picks up the knife of one of the young men, replacing the bat with a weapon dedicated solely to harm.

In contrast, the retiring Prendergast turns in his weapon as he looks at a newspaper article about a policeman getting shot, possibly indicating his reluctance to retire and give up the fight against lawbreakers. Mr. Lee shows up to report how his market was trashed. He is brought to Prendergast, but after explaining there was no robbery (Prendergast’s assigned department), since the man took no money and actually paid for his soda, the crime is reclassified as an assault. Lee says the man took his bat which he used for “defense.” It doesn’t click just yet with Prendergast about the license plate that said “D-Fens.”

Members of the Latino gang go searching for D-Fens, along with a young woman, Angie (Karina Arroyave), who urges them to let go of their desire for revenge and get treated at the hospital. De-Fens calls his wife again and says he is coming home for his daughter’s birthday. Beth says he can’t come home, she has custody of the child now and he doesn't even have the means to pay support, so he has no paternal privileges. She says it is not his home anymore and Adele is doing fine without him. These words hit at his failure as a parent. We now realize that he is not just some frustrated worker who was caught in traffic trying to get home. He has had severe financial and marital problems, and she is his ex-wife, who is afraid of his unstable behavior which pre-existed today’s events. Beth threatens to call the police.

The gang of youths find De-Fens talking on the pay phone. They kick Angie out of the car, probably because they believe they are doing men’s work, which amounts to acts of revenge. These guys have quite an arsenal of guns. They begin shooting automatic weapons, missing De-Fens who is behind some cars and instead they wound innocent bystanders. The gang members drive their car erratically as they try to wound De-Fens, and get into a terrible accident. Only one member is conscious. De-Fens is unfeeling about the bystanders who were shot as he approaches the car and simply says, “You missed.” He picks up one of the weapons and shoots the awake youth in the leg, acting like he is giving him a lesson on how awful it is to get shot. De-Fens takes their bag of armaments and tells the conscious car victim he needs to take shooting lessons. There are complicated emotions at work here in the presentation of the story. On the one hand we may be outraged by these violent youths who have no respect or decency for the welfare of others. But De-Fens, who acts like a vigilante who is demonstrating the anger due to wrongs inflicted on law-abiding citizens, is also unfeeling in his actions toward others, and also breaks laws because he feels he has a higher purpose to right wrongs.

Prendergast has an exit meeting with his captain, Yardley (Raymond J. Barry), a white self-absorbed macho guy who is seen punching a boxing bag in his office, turning the room into a gym. Yardley is condescending, acting like Prendergast is going out on early retirement with a reduced pension because he couldn’t cut it anymore. He implies that it may be due to Prendergast getting wounded, so he is safe now at a desk job. Prendergast is very deferential, and says no, it has nothing to do with his injury. The captain then asks about Prendergast’s kids, but he has none, since he lost his daughter, which shows how little Yardley knows about his own men.

De-Fens watches poor people on the street, with one man trying to sell stuff and another holding up a sign that reads he will work for food, which most likely adds more proof of his country’s decline. De-Fens tries to walk through an area but he meets another obstacle because there is a closed section where construction is being done. Meanwhile, Beth has called the police and talks with a cop. The film continues to add details about De-Fens’s personality. She confirms that she has a restraining order because of her ex-husband’s bad temper. She says that he never hit the child but there were times when she ran away before he could harm his wife. Beth says he has the potential for hurting others, which has been borne out by this day’s actions.

A man in the park (John Fleck) tells De-Fens that he drove from Santa Barbara and needs money and asks to lend him some cash that he will send back to De-Fens. The suspicious De-Fens wants to see his driver’s license. The man says he doesn’t have a license. De-Fens than questions how he drove a long way with no license. The guy says he hasn’t eaten in days, but he is munching on a sandwich. The beggar then has the audacity to demand money, which De-Fens refuses to give, and tells him to get a job. The man wants one of D-Fens’s bags that he can sell. De-Fens makes a decision here when he says he no longer needs the briefcase and gives it to him. This action shows he has quit attempting to be a working man who fits into society and instead embraces the bag of guns because he is bent on destroying whatever obstacles that stand in his way. The briefcase only contains lunch food, which confirms that De-Fens’s appearance of being a working man is a fake. We have here the depiction of the marginalized American white male’s anger being directed toward those he considers to be unproductive members of society who want to siphon off the hard-earned wages of the working class. This perspective however does not take into account the dire plight of the working man which may be due to exploitative employers, and does not consider how poverty-stricken members of society have been penalized by punitive aspects of a profit-driven economy.

Prendergast sees the young Latino woman, Angie, who was in the gang’s car that went after De-Fens, being interrogated. Prendergast does not yet know that Mr. Lee’s market and the drive-by shooting are connected. When the woman mentions a white guy with a baseball bat he barges in and confirms that the man had on a white shirt and tie. The detective kicks Prendergast out, not valuing the retiring veteran policeman’s help. But Prendergast looks at a city map and can see how the two altercations fit together geographically and chronologically.

De-Fens tries to order breakfast at a fast food restaurant just three minutes after the time that service ends. The employee is smug in her denial of him being able to order what he wants. De-Fens is similar to Jack Nicholson’s character in The Last Detail and Paul Newman’s Cool Hand Luke in that he is rebelling against the constricting rules closing in around him. De-Fens then asks for the manager, who is just as insensitive, not agreeing with De-Fens’s reminder that the “customer is always right,” a public relations line that isn’t even aspired to at this point. De-Fens pulls out an automatic weapon, which accidentally goes off, firing shots into the ceiling. De-Fens is amusing as he still tries to be normal in the midst of his antisocial behavior. He tries to placate the customers, saying he means them no harm and wants them to continue enjoying their food, as if that’s possible at this point. De-Fens almost sounds shaken as he asks again quietly for his breakfast, which they immediately give him. The implication is that an average person must resort to extreme means just to be treated fairly. De-Fens then changes his mind and wants lunch. He walks around the restaurant asking if everybody is doing okay, not in touch with the emotional trauma he has inflicted on them. When he asks one woman if she is enjoying her lunch the lady vomits out of fear, and De-Fens quips she must not like the special sauce. De-Fens is then critical of the squashed hamburger he receives which contrasts with the photograph on the wall of a large beef patty. In a way he is articulating the public’s feelings about being treated badly. But, he refuses, although dangerously, to submit to the mistreatment, unlike most submissive people.

Prendergast has lunch with Sandy. She questions his move to Arizona, noting that the decision is his wife’s idea. Prendergast says his wife only had her looks to fall back on when she was younger, and she is not handling getting older well, so he is accommodating her wishes. And he adds that the main reason he is being unselfish is because, “I love her,” which is the most important redemptive characteristic of human beings. Prendergast stands in contrast to De-Fens because the policeman can deal with the traffic jam, his family issues, and his job situation, in a civilized manner, at least up to this point, whereas De-Fens has snapped because he cannot deal with these conflicts.

Another detective interrupts their lunch, reporting the incident at the fast food restaurant. The cop says that it was odd that the man paid for his lunch. Prendergast, showing he still has game when it comes to being an investigator, remembers that the man who busted up Mr. Lee’s market also paid for his soda. He tells Sandy to find out if the man at the fast food place wore a white shirt and tie. She later calls him back and confirms the clothes, but informs Prendergast that he doesn’t have a baseball bat but was instead carrying a bag full of guns, which demonstrates how the lethal potential of his choice of weapons is escalating.

As De-Fens walks through the city’s depressed area, he encounters an African American man (Vondie Curtis-Hall) picketing in front of a savings and loan building, carrying a sign which reads, “Not Economically Viable.” He shouts out that is why the bank denied his application for a loan. He is arrested and says that is what happens to people who are “not economically viable.” The thrust here is that once a person falls on hard times the rules are rigged against him to try to recover. As the police car stops next to De-Fens, the black man says to De-Fens, “Don’t forget me.” As IMDb notes, the man and De-Fens are wearing the same type of clothes, even duplicating the tie pattern, which shows how De-Fens feels connected to this black man. De-Fens nods his head, as if promising that he, for one, knows what can happen to the unsuccessful in society. As the man is taken away, De-Fens buys a child’s snow globe (echoing Prendergast’s London Bridge globe) as a birthday gift for his daughter. He places this innocent child’s object, ironically, in the same bag next to the weapons. Later, when a man complains that De-Fens is hogging the public phone booth, De-Fens destroys the booth with gunfire. He again shows his dark humor by saying, “it’s out of order.” De-Fens has progressed to the point that he is beyond accommodating anything that gets in his way or questions his actions, which shows the danger of unrestrained individuality.

The hole in De-Fens’s shoe is getting worse. He goes into an Army surplus store. The owner is a neo-Nazi named Nick (Frederick Forrest) who listens to a police scanner. As he shows De-Fens some hiking shoes he shouts derogatory comments at a couple of presumably gay men in the store. De-Fens shows here, as he did with the protesting African American, that he is not prejudicial toward any one type of group. He doesn’t like anybody who acts badly, which includes the white workers at the restaurant or this fellow as he pulls out a handgun when one of the gay men confronts him.

Prendergast tells Angie he knows she is telling the truth about the white man who attacked her gang friends. But, he also correctly concludes that De-Fens took a gym bag full of guns off of her friends and asks Angie to confirm the number of weapons. She says there were “lots of guns,” not exactly a positive argument endorsing the proliferation of firearms.

Meanwhile, De-Fens sees a police car park near the store, and Sandy and her partner approach the establishment. Sandy questions Nick, asking if he saw a man in his late thirties, who was wearing a white shirt and a tie, and carrying a gym bag. De-Fens is in a fitting room trying on shoes. Nick pushes the gym bag out of sight and lies by saying he hasn’t seen De-Fens. He then closes the store. Nick brings De-Fens in the back which has all kinds of weapons and military gear, including Nazi books and war souvenirs. He says he heard about De-Fens’s activities during the day on the scanner, and starts to use anti-Semitic and black racial slurs. He keeps saying he is backing De-Fens because, “we’re the same, you and me.” De-Fens says they are not the same, distancing himself from this man by saying, “I’m an American,” which to De-Fens means all of those qualities that he feels are worthy, including, “freedom of speech, the right to disagree!” He calls Nick, “a sick asshole.” Nick is outraged and tries to handcuff De-Fens while spouting his racist language. De-Fens tells Nick he can’t spread his legs, lean forward, and also have his hands cuffed behind him because of “gravity,” explaining “I’ll fall down.” This is another reference to the title of the movie, suggesting that he and the rest of the country’s people are all in this precarious position. (As IMDb notes, Nick’s extreme disgust about homosexuals mingled with his preoccupation with male rape in prison, along with him standing in a position that implies he may sexually assault the bent over and bound D-Fens, suggests that Nick may be gay, and is in deep denial). When Nick takes the snow globe out of the gym bag and throws it, smashing it, De-Fens stabs him with the knife he took from the Latino man, meting out some ironic justice that takes down the bigot with a person of color’s weapon. This irony is suggested by Nick’s statement, “This isn’t one of mine.” Nick looks at his wound and says, “Oh my God,” to which De-Fens again mixes in dark humor by saying that Nick gets it, because he’s exercising “freedom of religion.” Instead of leaving, De-Fens again goes too far and shoots Nick.

Prendergast tries to do his job on his last day by trying to convince Captain Yardley and the other cops working the case involving De-Fens that he has evidence that the incidents are tied together, and the perpetrator is heading west. The captain dismisses Prendergast’s argument, and tells him he doesn’t like Prendergast because he never heard him curse, claiming that is the sign of “real men.” He also claims that Prendergast was afraid to go back into the streets. Prendergast assures him he wasn’t afraid, not saying that he took the desk job to soothe his wife’s fears. The captain here reveals his macho prejudice, showing that there are nasty people on both sides of the law. Sandy decides to help him on his quest which is in counterpoint to De-Fens’s law-breaking journey.

De-Fens calls his wife and sounds menacing, saying he is on his way home, and he realizes that he can’t turn around because his actions have put him, “past the point of no return.” He compares himself to the Apollo 13 astronauts who had to go around the dark side of the moon before reemerging and heading back to earth. He seems to know that he has gone to the “dark side” of his soul and now has reappeared as someone who can’t go back to trying to fit in with the rest of society. Even though the police who had stayed a while at her house after Beth called have now left, she lies to her ex-husband, saying they are there. De-Fens is now frightening in his single-mindedness, intimidating Beth by saying there are countries that say it’s okay, “to kill your wife if she insults you.” His argument in favor of free speech seems not to extend to one’s spouse.

Prendergast and Sandy arrive near Mr. Lee’s store to question him. After getting out of the car, Prendergast looks up and sees the billboard that a graffiti artist painted on. He is at the same spot where he was earlier in the day in the traffic jam. He now remembers the guy who left his car close to where the crimes took place. He recalls the personalized license plate read “D-Fens.” He sees Mr. Lee and calls out “Defense,” which is what the shopkeeper said he kept his bat for. Prendergast tells Sandy to find out the address associated with the plate, since a witness said the man said he was going home.

We are in another traffic snarl as people sink to their baser natures, calling each other ugly names while stuck in a sea of cars. (Too bad they don’t sing and dance as they do in La La Land, but that was a fantasy). De-Fens punches one driver who is yelling ugly epithets at a woman, shutting down the bad behavior he has been ranting against. He has traded in his white-collar outfit for what he found in the surplus store, and he now looks like a soldier, wearing what GI’s put on when going on a mission in a jungle, which is how De-Fens perceives this urban sprawl. The traffic is a mess because the street is closed off for repairs. A worker tells De-Fens he can’t pass there (not a good day to tell De-Fens he can’t do something), and that he is there to stop people from “falling in” due to the underground construction (another reference to the film’s title). De-Fens tells the worker that the street was fine two days ago and believes there’s nothing wrong, that they are just keeping inflated budgets by acting as if work has to be completed. He again voices complaints that one can hear from any average person who has suffered because of forces beyond one’s control. The worker sees a gun tucked in De-Fens’s pants. De-fens keeps demanding that the worker say what he wants to hear, that there is nothing that needs repair. Afraid, the worker tells him that there’s nothing wrong, which satisfies De-Fens, who is so self-righteous in his crusade, he won’t allow anything to contradict him. De-Fens then says that he will give him something to fix. He took a rocket launcher from the surplus store. A boy on a bike tells him how to use it because he saw how to do it on TV, satirizing the questionable skills exposed to children through the media. But the boy here innocently thinks that they are filming a show, which De-Fens, joking ironically, calls “Under Construction.” The phallic-shaped launcher and the guns could represent De-Fens trying to regain his masculinity. De-Fens prematurely (another sexual reference?), triggers the weapon, releasing his anger, firing the device under the street causing a large explosion.

Prendergast and Sandy arrive at the home of De-Fens’s mother (Lois Smith), which is where the license plate led them. De-Fens’s real name is William Foster. One of the walls in the house has pictures of a man in a military uniform, presumably De-Fens’s father. There are small American flags in a vase. The impression is that this was a patriotic family, which points to the feeling that his country has now failed De-Fens. The mother is herself defensive, and Sandy alienates her by acting official. But, Prendergast wins her over by praising her display of little crystal figurines. The woman shows them her son’s room which is very neat. She thinks he is still working at a defense plant. Prendergast senses the mother’s wariness about talking about her son. He believes she knows something is wrong with him. He gets her to reveal that her son sometimes won’t even speak at dinner. The mother says De-Fens eats like a machine and she is so nervous she chews the same piece of food. When she spits it out she says he looks at her like he will kill her. We get a picture of a disturbed control freak who can’t handle things not going the way he wants. Prendergast finds De-Fens’s wedding ring in a drawer and a picture of his ex-wife and child. Prendergast finds out the ex-wife’s maiden name is Trevino and Sandy discovers that De-Fens was fired from his job a month ago, suggesting that his mental instability was already becoming manifest for a while.

De-Fens, not following any restrictions on freedom, climbs a fence that says “No Trespassing” onto a private golf course. He tells some senior men that he is passing through. One of the men is an elitist who yells about how he doesn’t want someone from the outside interrupting his game. He hits a ball at De-Fens, who pulls out a shotgun, and calls back that he is trying to kill him with a golf ball because of his silly game. He says that the land should be used for children and families to have picnics and enjoy a petting zoo, implying the area has been cut off for those who can afford the expensive fees. He shoots their electric golf cart which then rolls off toward a water hazard. The man who hit the golf ball falls down (referring to the title again), appearing to have a heart attack. He gasps that his pills are in the cart. De-Fens has no sympathy for the damage he is causing, as if the man has received justice for trying to prevent De-Fens from passing through the fairway. He tells the suffering man he’ll die wearing his silly little hat. For De-Fens, his will supersedes the lives of others at this point.

De-Fens scales another fence as he has moved from the poor side of town to the rich one, and he sees wrongdoing no matter the economic area. He complains to a man who is having a cookout with his wife and little daughter that his barbed wire caused him to cut his hand, as if he has the right to go wherever he pleases. The man is actually the caretaker and he is barbecuing there while the owner is away. Once De-Fens realizes that these people are not part of the exclusive upper class, his anger subsides. The people at the golf course have called the police, and De-Fens moves the family under cover. He finds out that a plastic surgeon owns the property. De-Fens jokes and says he is in the wrong field, and wonders if there are “correspondence courses” for that medical specialty. But, while he is trying to be funny, he holds onto the child’s hand, as if substituting her for his daughter. De-Fens confesses that he was fired, and is “obsolete,” (which hints that part of the reason, which happens to many people, may be he was replaced by automation) and can’t even support his daughter. He echoes the situation of the African American man who was arrested, and most likely many others, saying he’s “not economically viable.” De-Fens is astounded again for being viewed as a bad person when the man asks to be a hostage, but to leave his family alone. De-Fens says that he has no desire to harm the man’s family. He then reminisces about how ideal things were with his family and mentally escapes into a daydream fantasy about how everything will be the way it was.

At the police station, Prendergast and Sandy check out Beth’s single name, Trevino, linked with Foster, De-Fens’s name. Prendergast learns about the murder of the surplus store owner. Sandy reveals that she visited the store earlier. Then they get word about the man dressed in military clothes who terrorized the men at the golf course and the family at the doctor’s home. Prendergast looks at De-Fens’s progress on the map and deduces that the ex-wife lives in Venice even before Sandy provides the address.

Beth called the police after De-Fens’s threatening phone call, but the policewoman who arrives at her house shows no compassion, acting like it’s just a prank. Only Prendergast and Sandy seem to really care about following through on the case. De-Fens calls Beth from Santa Monica Pier, which is right next to Venice, and talks about how the ice cream shop they frequented no longer is there. She immediately hangs up as she realizes he is very close and takes her daughter out of the house. He quickly understands that she may try to escape, but when he arrives at her home, they are gone. De-Fens looks at home videos of his family when he lived there. He now has the daughter’s water pistol replacing the real gun he held before, showing how torn this man is between his affection for his family and his pathological violent impulses to have things his way. But the home movies dispel his idealized version of the past. They reveal how domineering he was, yelling at his family, and scaring his daughter who cried as he tried to force her onto a toy horse he bought.

The Venice cops tell Sandy in a phone call that they can’t justify a visit three times in one day to satisfy the complaints of a “hysterical” woman. This is a flaw in the plot because it is difficult to believe that they would not investigate when other cops call them verifying the danger Beth is in. So, we have the main characters move to a confrontation on the Santa Monica Pier (which shows up in several Hollywood films). Before that happens, Prendergast takes on some of De-Fens’s aggression, finally setting his wife straight. She calls him and is jealous that Sandy answered the phone and yells at him to come home. He tells her to “shut up” and have dinner waiting for him when he gets to his house, as Sandy stifles laughter on the side. And, when Sandy’s partner makes a negative remark about Prendergast’s wife, the retiring cop responds to the insult to Amanda by punching the guy. (This event occurs at an office goodbye party for Prendergast, where, as IMDb points out, there is a retirement cake decorated with the London Bridge, another reminder of the film’s title).

By watching one of the videos De-Fens realizes that Beth may again want to bring their child on her birthday to the pier, and maybe Beth would not think that he would go back there after going to her house. Prendergast and Sandy arrive at Beth’s house. Sandy goes in and De-Fens shoots her and escapes. Prendergast gets the neighbors to call 911 and he goes after De-Fens. Beth and her daughter are at the pier and the girl is thrilled to see her father running toward them. He hugs and kisses Beth who says she wants him to leave them alone. He reminds her that they made vows that said “‘till death do us part,” which is frightening considering the circumstances, and he then pulls out a handgun. 

She says he is sick, and De-Fens says that walking through the city is what’s really sick. Prendergast shows up and acts folksy, not confrontational, eating a snack, and saying he used to fish off the pier, but the fish are now poisonous, and the water can infect a swimmer. He says he is retiring to a place that some would call paradise, and others would say there is nothing but a muddy lake there. Prendergast says everyone has their own idea of paradise, which connects to De-Fens’s concept of perfection for himself and America. While Prendergast talks he flashes his revolver at Beth to show he’s a cop. Prendergast says that paradise for him was having babies. He said his wife had a child for him which tells us why he is now willing to sacrifice for her. He says that his daughter was two years old, went to sleep, and didn’t wake up, which connects with De-Fens’s feelings of loss. Prendergast hands popcorn to Adele who shares it with her father, as he puts his gun down. De-Fens is distracted as he hears police sirens, and Prendergast intervenes, getting Beth and the girl to run away. Prendergast says he knows that De-Fens was going there to kill his family and then himself. De-Fens is surprised to realize he is now “the bad guy.” He says he helped build missiles to protect America, and should be rewarded, not punished. De-Fens says they lied to him about who gets rewarded. Prendergast says they lie to everybody, so that doesn’t make De-Fens special, only his little girl does. Prendergast wants him to give up. De-Fens says he has a gun and they should have a showdown, as if they are in a Hollywood Western. He says if he gets killed at least his daughter will get the life insurance, and he doesn’t want to see his girl grow up while he’s in prison. He counts to three and draws, but he only has his daughter’s water pistol, so he knows he’s going to die. Prendergast doesn’t know the gun is a fake, fires, and after being shot, De-Fens falls into the Pacific Ocean, an affront to its peaceful name.

Captain Yardley, now in front of the press and trying to grab positive publicity, hypocritically now praises Prendergast. Prendergast passes by the cameras and as the captain thanks him, Prendergast now finds the right time to curse and tells him “Fuck you very much.” He sees Sandy off to the hospital and tells Beth to let her daughter enjoy her birthday party without mentioning her father to keep her in an innocent state for another day. In answer to Adele’s question about his name, he says it’s “Mud,” which he says it will be when his wife finds out he decided to still be a cop. The movie seems to be saying that there is a need for him and other decent individuals to try to keep the country from “falling down.”

The next film is Get Out.