Conference bookie::movies

RE         <<< Note 55.0 by 12368::michaud "Jeff Michaud, DECnet/OSI" >>>
                               -< Falling Down >-

>	This one stars Michael Douglous, Barbara Hershey, Tuesday
>	Weld (wasn't she the one on "Dobbie Gillis"??), and some
>	other high powered actor whos name escapes me right now.

  Robert Duval.
  I'm not sure about Dobie Gillis, but I think Tuesday was in just about
every Troy Donohue movie ever made.

 I found the movie entertaining, similar in its plot to Death of a Salesman.
There are a few action scenes, but if you're looking for an Urban Avenger/
Death Wish movie, this ain't it. I'd give it a 3.5 out of 5.0

Regards
Barry

Tuesday Weld definitely was on Dobie Gillis.  I believe she played Thalia
Menninger.  Warren Beatty was also on Dobie Gillis in the early days.

    Hey, everybody who was anybody was on "Dobie Gillis". Heck, _Bob
    Denver_ was on "Dobie Gillis". And let me tell you, from what I've seen
    of the previews, "Falling Down" is no "Dobie Gillis".
    
    [Having deftly directed conversation back to the topic - could somebody
    who's seen this tell me: it looked to me as if the movie was intended
    to be gut-level disturbing, yet I keep hearing how many of the scenes
    were played for yuks. Now, I enjoy black humor as much as anybody, but
    that involves a little more than making a joke out of scaring a bunch
    of total strangers half to death...]
    
    -b

    It wasn't Tuesday Weld with Troy Donahue; it was Sandra Dee.
    
    Weld is a very good actress; she starred with Nick Nolte in something
    like "The Rain Must Fall" and she was nominated for an Oscar for her
    role in "Play It as It Lays."  I'm sorry she's not going to have a big
    part in this movie, but I'm looking forward to seeing it.
    
    As long as we all remember it's only a movie, wouldn't it be fun to see
    someone react the way we've ALL wanted to react at times?!
    
    Leslie

    RE: .4
    
    The Nick Nolte/Tuesday Weld film was "Who'll Stop the Rain", directed
    by Karel Reisz (1978), based on the novel "Dog Soldiers" by Robert
    Stone.
    
    - Dave

    That's it!  That's the name of the movie.  I was impressed!
    
    Leslie

    Saw this one over the weekend. Coming from LA, most scenes depicted
    situtations I've been involved in, and "there but for the grace of God" I
    could have reacted the same way the Michael Douglas character did.
    
    If it was intended as a psychological study of a man losing it, I
    agree, it missed its mark. But looking at it from the view that this
    might happen to anybody who had a tenuous hold on sanity, and loses 
    his job, and family (through divorce), it worked for me.
    
    Not a great movie, but a credible job by all. It seems all Tuesday Weld
    does in the last few years is neurotic women... 

    Tuesday Weld was also in the movie "Author! Author!" with Al Pacino;
    she played the ditzy mother of 6 kids (by almost as many fathers),
    married to Pacino, whom she leaves, complete with all her children.
    
    You're right, -1; she DOES play neurotic women all the time!  Oh, where
    is Thalia Meninger when we need her!
    

    I thought Dyan Cannon was the one in Author!Author!
    
    
    
    
    Catherine
    

    She may have been in it, but Tuesday Weld was the wife, the mother of
    all those kids.  Maybe Cannon was Pacino's new girlfriend?
    
    Leslie

    I ran out of gas today and had to walk about a half mile, in sub-zero
    wind chills, to the nearest gas station. The attendant told me they
    didn't have any gas cans to rent, and that I would have to buy one.

    I calmly told him I feel like Michael Douglas.

    What do ya know, he found me a can to rent, AND threw in a free cup of
    coffee!

    The whole situation was fairly good-natured, but later I thought about
    the possible social implications. Will this movie affect the way
    businesses treat consumers? It affected my situation today.

    "The customer is always right."

    -=- Paul

    re .11
    
    I'm impressed that you had the courage to say what I felt a while ago.
    I drove to the Post Office to get tax forms. I was having, similar to
    yours, a bad day. The doors had been locked 2 minutes prior (by my
    watch) and there was a woman in the lobby. I pointed to the forms,
    hoping she'd understand that this was all I wanted.
    
    She turned her back on me and walked away. In that moment, I felt as
    though if I'd had a gun, I would have blown her away. I was just that
    furious. 
    
    Sometimes I really think that people in the service industries don't
    realize how much frustration they cause when they refuse to perform
    small acts of kindness.

    Personally, I think the whole thing is pretty embarrassing.  A brief
    glimpse of the nightly news will provide real evidence of people with
    real problems, suffering real trauma -- not minor annoyances, not
    aggravating less-than-wonderful treatment at the hands of the "service
    industry", but real problems.  
    
    Sharing fantasies about shooting uncooperative postal employees is all
    well and good.  But on the other hand, you realize you would have to 
    also arm the postal employee so that he's equally ready for the public 
    when they show up after 5:00 and expect him to "perform".

    -1
    
    Um, aren't postal workers famous for being heavily armed already in
    LOTS of instances?
    
    Leslie :-)

    Re last couple: Issue #14 of "Murder Can Be Fun" includes an article on
    the statistically anomalous number of "massacres" instigated by postal
    employees (as opposed to members of other professions) within the last
    decade or so. Makes one wonder whether working for the Post Office is
    itself so very frustrating, or whether that kind of work just naturally
    appeals to folks who are easily frustrated... [Some of these incidents
    were triggered by loss of job, others by the ending of a social
    relationship, others still for no apparent reason. I don't know of any
    that were directly triggered by somebody getting snippy because they
    were out of Elvis stamps, but it _could_ happen.]
    
    In any case, I'd say the lesson here is, always be as courteous as you
    can; you never know when the other party is nearing the breaking point.
    (And if you can't be courteous, wear Kevlar, or go armed, or something
    like that.)
    
    [I still haven't seen the movie we're purportedly discussing, but as
    ignorance has never stopped me from talking about things before, I see
    no reason why it should do so now. ;-) But y'all feel free to go back
    to nattering about "Falling Down" whenever you're ready...]
    
    -b

    I saw this film last week and enjoyed it but was glad I only
    paid matinee prices.  In some ways it reminded me of the 
    Movie of the Week. Especially the ending.
    
    I live in Southern California. I don't live anywhere near the
    areas depicted in the film but have a good sense what they are
    like and where they are. I find it almost obscene that the only
    part of the film that I found 'unbelievable' was the bazooka 
    trick. Had they left that out, it would have been a totally
    probable film.
    
    Jodi-
    

    Jody,
    
    I know what you mean. I also thought about that later, and I think
    there was a message to the "entertainment" industry there. While
    Michael Douglas had no idea how to work the bazooka, a child of 
    about 10 was able to walk him through it, thinking he was in a movie.
    
    
    Marilyn
    
    

    Saw this Friday night, and left with mixed emotions.  There were times
    when the audience was laughing or at least making embarrassing sounds
    when I just sat there, immobilized, wondering why people were laughing.
    
    This was definitely Robert Duval's movie, in my opinion.  He's the best
    thing about the movie and thank God he was in it to provide some
    normalcy, because almost NO one was normally portrayed.
    
    I didn't understand Douglas's character at all ... it started out like
    he had just lost his temper on a hot day and decided to trek home; it
    ended up horrifically.  And really, there was no explanation for his
    character.  The movie was too jammed with too many intricate
    personalities which were never really explained.  The ex-wife (Hershey)
    was another study ... she was mean and bitchy at times (on the phone
    with Douglas) and then the frightened victim the next, with never a
    solid reason until the very end.
    
    Frederick Forest was great as the neo-Nazi owner of the army/navy
    store; he actually got a couple of laughs out of me until (here we go
    again!) the end of his part ...
    
    I enjoyed the scenery, having known the house that Hershey lived in;
    it's right next to the Santa Monica pier and Venice Beach, and it was
    almost as dilapitated when I walked by it 10 years ago as it is now. 
    Sort of a honky-tonk beach strip ... but very interesting on the
    weekends!
    
    Spoilers to follow:
    
    Everyone was DYING in the heat; clothes were plastered to everyone and
    you could almost feel the maddening temperature.  So why was Hershey
    wearing a long-sleeved black sweater and a pair of jeans? 
    
    If Douglas lost his job only a month ago and had been paying child
    support up until then, why wasn't he allowed to see his child after the
    divorce?  Hershey admitted to the cop that he had never struck either
    her or the daughter ... and yet she had a restraining order that also
    prevented father/daughter visitation?  When the daughter ran up to him
    at the pier, obviously overjoyed to see him, he commented on how tall
    she'd gotten so it was obvious he hadn't seen her in a long time.
    
    If Duval was retiring because his wife was in such a fragile mental
    state (due to the long-ago death of their child and his working the
    "street" when he got wounded), how could he just decide to stay with
    the force and still be married to her?
    
    What did Douglas's mother mean when she told the police that Douglas
    "blamed her" for his divorce?
    
    There was just too many holes ... either there was too much editing so
    that the movie time was reduced, or no one cared enough to explain.  An
    impatient father putting his child on a horse she didn't want to sit on
    is not a reason for divorce or for restraining orders.
    
    Leslie

    Frederick Forrest.  THAT's who that was.  
    
    
    I liked this movie.  It didn't make my hair stand on end, but I sort of
    appreciated the little social commentary.  Michael Douglas did a good
    job protraying your everyman gone slip-slidin' over the edge.  It was
    believable because it was so unbelievable.   It isn't always a big
    thing that make John or Jane Doe snap.  It's, as they say, the little
    things in life.  
    
    Robert Duvall was, well, interesting, but unfortunately, rather in a
    rather cramped role.  His wife was so dingy as to be silly, I didn't
    feel sorry for her, I felt like someone ought to put her out of her
    misery.  Not the intent of the script, I'll wager.
    
    I had some problems with the way people were presented and there were a
    few moments of wince-able dialog/action, but all in all, it was far
    better than I'd expected and certainly not a waste of $4.00.  If only
    the theatre seats were bigger....
    
    *** out of ****
    
    kim

    I liked this a lot more than I expected to.  As .19 said, I appreciated
    the "little social commentary."  I thought it was a pretty good
    description of what living in our crazy, stressful society could do to
    a person who feels pushed beyond the limits.  Michael Douglas'
    character seemed fairly complex to me.  Even though he reached a point
    where I could no longer condone his actions, I never completely lost
    all sympathy for him.  I saw him as someone who had tried very hard to
    do everything right, in his life, and just couldn't deal with the fact
    that he had still wound-up with nothing.  (Reminded me of someone I
    know, too, who fortunately has yet to go off the deep end to the extent
    that Defens did.)  I think there's quite a few men, especially white
    men, who feel this way these days, losing their jobs, going through
    nasty divorces, etc., and not quite understanding how the American
    dream passed them by.  I thought Douglas did a good job.  He was so
    tense the whole time.  I found myself really caught up in the movie,
    not bored at all.  I'd recommend it.  It's not a comedy, like the
    trailers led me to believe at first, but it's a good story.
    
    Lorna
    

    
    
    I treated it as a comedy. A light look at the stresses of society, and
    what it could do to someone who for other reasons, is about to snap.
    I think because I looked at it as a comedy, I could enjoy it more.
    
    Douglas's lines were a riot.  I laughed more during this movie than I
    do with most comedies I see.  It was so unbelivable.  Not the part
    about Douglas loosing it, I am sure that could happen. but how about
    the police work.
    
    Spoilers
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Don't ya think that if a madman were walking the street, they would
    have police put a Apb on him?  I would think he would have been picked
    up right after the Wammy buger incident.  Actually, after the thugs
    tried to kill him.  police sirens were going as defens walked away with
    the bag.  No one said "Hey!  This guy just shot that dude, and walked
    away.  he went that way"  And the other officer's including the chief
    though Duval was making a story up for one last cop adventure?
    
    A really good movie, but if you rent it, remember that it is not a
    adventure or thriller as typical with Douglas.
      

    I thought this movie wasn't very good.
    
    The plot was loose; Douglas certainly didn't
    seem to have justification to do what he
    did based on what was in the plot.  "They"
    used every horrid stereotype of any non-white
    non-mainstream person to justify his actions,
    or try to justify his actions.  Robert Duvall
    was the ONLY police officer who could figure this
    stuff out....puhlease...his wife was a lunatic who
    belonged in a hospital to help clear up her neuroses.
    
    
    UGH!!  I would rate it a negative star.

    re .21, I didn't think anybody was trying to *justify* Michael Douglas'
    actions.  I enjoyed the movie a lot, and I saw it as a sort've
    capsulized view of just how frustrated, angry, and confused many
    Americans are getting with the various pressures of present day urban
    life in the US.  
    
    I saw the movie as an exploration, not as a justification.
    
    Lorna
    

    in my .23, I meant to reference .22.  sorry.
    
    Lorna
    

                      <<< Note 55.22 by 57176::MILANESE >>>
                    -< UGH...In my opinion an awful movie >-

>    The plot was loose; Douglas certainly didn't
>    seem to have justification to do what he
>    did based on what was in the plot.  "They"
>    used every horrid stereotype of any non-white
>    non-mainstream person to justify his actions,
>    or try to justify his actions.  

I must ask... why the quotation marks around the word "they"???
And I really have to disagree with you about them trying to 
justify Douglas' actions... I mean, he had several screws loose
to begin with and just an ordinary traffic jam caused him to break.

He was not justified in what he did, otherwise the movie would've made 
him a hero, but rather the hero was Duvall's character...

/Scott

p.s. I have to say, my favorite thing about this movie was Duvall. Overall
     the movie is OK, but Duvall was simply great in his role and was very
     funny...

    You know, the universal "they",
    whoever, scriptwriters, director
    
    Well, I disagree...I didn't like
    the movie, although I did laugh
    at the Whammy(?) Burger Scene

    I just rented this movie and knew I was going to like it.  Well, I
    loved it.  I want my own copy.  Just kidding.  I think it was very
    gratifying to watch someone get his way based on what appeared to be
    the sounder logic in most of the circumstances.  Of course, I don't
    condone violence but sometimes you just have to make your point and
    people just don't want to listen these days.  Such a pity.  I thought
    it was a fun and sometimes funny movie.  Good acting all around.
    

    I think there are guys all over America just like Michael Douglas'
    Character.  It is definitely not unbelievable, nor was it funny
    The real issue was the service industry however.
     The only place you get have a nice day is at McDonalds. 
     The only  reason it works there is because
    the customer/server interaction time is so quick, there is
    no time for someone to be offended.  I enjoyed the sound of the
    slugs hitting the ceiling at that burger joint.  It reminded
    me of an episode I was involved in last year.