Alex Gulsoy
Race in Literature
Culture Interpretations
"Falling Down" by Joel Shumacher
In the movie "Falling Down," D-fenz always tries to mend his way out of any encounter by talking to them by their race of origin. The first step he takes when dealing with any situation is talking to them in a rather civilized manner, but understandably losing his temper after having been tempted by them to do so. D-fenz's character was very intriguing from the start of the film because he would always find a way to stay culturally within his boundaries. The movie as a whole focuses on how in order to attain what you want you sometimes have to step outside of your comfort zone, just as D-fenz did throughout his journey to get back home. D-fenz did not start his journey with any expectations as to how other communities would treat him, he simply minded his own business unless someone bothered him first.
Many different subsets of cultures appeared in the movie which made it a very diverse in both its context and its story line. There are many instances in which culture gets reflected upon in this movie, and that is when the D-fenz takes us for a tour of all these very different places. All these different areas are supposed to be representations of the conditions in which these people live in. Many of these places are a bit over-exaggerated and do not truly reflect the reality of these neighborhoods and life within them. The characters within these areas were also a bit exaggerated in the way that when they would talk or act at certain moments, they were definitely overdoing it with the racial stereotypes. For example the Hispanics telling D-fenz to get off the stone, were over =doing it with the motion in which they walked around the stone, and the way they were repeating their words off one another was definitely unnecessary. Or the way the Korean vender couldn't pronounce certain words with an american accent was only to add more of an incentive to allow D-fenz to do what he did next. These small but very apparent instances throughout the movie were aligned in such a way that D-fenz would never cross the same community twice. The golf club owner, he was an elderly white man which is a stereotype to say that white people are more privileged and can afford nicer things. The fact that the Hispanics were wearing worn down clothing, explains that they were being portrayed as lower-class, not having as much money as the dominant race.
-Alex Gulsoy
Thank you for this great point of view and information! It is interesting to see that you were able to distinguish how many of these different neighborhoods are bit exaggerated but I believe that it is interesting to see how different cultures and neighborhoods were portrayed. In my opinion these different groups were viewed this was from only one point of view, therefore, this is the image and description we get of them. For example, throughout many of our readings we are told how Koreans are "misheard" due to their accent and so they tried to the put that in the film too. The cholos are viewed as low income people who care nothing about their neighborhood rather just their pride. That to me seemed wrong and like you said a bit exaggerated. Also there was the part that took place at the fast food restaurant and if I am wrong, the thrift store racist man, said it was D-fenz going after African Americans. They were brought but during a fast food scene. So to me some of these scenes seemed a little over board and only viewed in one way rather than those in that culture/neighborhood too.
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