Falling Down Supremacism

When director Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down began filming in 1992, Los Angeles was experiencing the worst riots in American history, resulting in the destruction of thousands of buildings and the deaths of hundreds. Through it all, Falling Down was produced on location, providing the world with a skewed, twisted recount of the past. Indeed, Falling Down provides an alarmingly accurate portrayal of the white male self-victimization narrative seen within the years of 1992, 1965 and the future in the character of D-Fens, a frustrated man who hopes for a time gone-by while blaming others around him for his failings. The irony of the film is palpable throughout; a privileged citizen parading the streets with weaponry and anger, terrifying those around him - ranging from the immigrant to the fast-food worker, all of which are far less privileged than D-Fens himself - only to raise his hands in the air as if to say,

The supremacist is impressed by his bag of guns, declaring “I’m with you. We’re the same.” D-Fens responds in disgust and soon after kills him. Here, the hypocrisy displayed by D-Fens illustrates the grand contradiction between the past, present and future. An overt revisitation to the racial past of the white supremacist elicits a dismayed response from D-Fens, yet he will cut through a Korean man’s store and treat him with the same lack of respect a white supremacist may give to a person of color. The scene parallels D-Fens and the white supremacist in such a way that reveals an ultimate truth: the racial past has never disappeared. It has only manifested itself in different forms of anger, aggression and victimization. No white male wants to be labeled as a racist, and yet they cannot but blame their problems on those of color. At the end of the day, both want only to return to a time where they need not worry about minorities and