Falling Down (1993) Limited Edition 4K UHD Review

5 stars, a fantastic restoration of a thought provoking masterpiece.

Falling Down is a 1993 American action drama film, written by Ebbe Roe Smith (The Big Easy) and directed by Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys, Flatliners).

This brilliantly disturbing look at human nature has enjoyed a 4K restoration and is available to own on Limited Edition 4K UHD from 20th July 2026, courtesy of Arrow Video.

“Have you ever heard the expression, ‘The customer is always right’? Yeah. Well, here I am. The customer.”

It’s a sweltering afternoon in Los Angeles and a man (Michael Douglas – The Game, Fatal Attraction) sits in his car, registration number D-Fens. With the air conditioning not working, he gets increasingly agitated and eventually gets out and sets off walking with his briefcase, leaving his car blocking the traffic. Further back in the queue, police Sergeant Martin Prendergast (Robert Duvall – The Apostle, The Judge) sees the problem and helps to push the car out of the way.

D-Fens starts his walk across the city, his destination the home of his ex-wife Beth (Barbara Hershey – The Entity, Black Swan) to attend (uninvited) the birthday party of his daughter Adele (Joey Singer – Chomp Squad). As he travels, he begins to encounter everyday annoyances along the way.

He finds the prices in the convenience store too high, and soon the store is trashed and he has a new baseball bat. Through run-ins with local gangs and fast food employees, neo-nazis and government employees, his arsenal and level of violence steadily rises. Prendergast, working his final day before retirement puts together the pieces and decides to try and stop him before it’s too late.

“Why have you put barbed wire on a fence? Is this how you rich people amuse yourselves? You put barbed wire on the fence so innocent people like me can hurt our hands looking in, huh?”

Falling Down is an extremely powerful film, which has aged very well and remains as relevant (if not more so) than it was when it was first released. The themes of frustration at everyday life are very relatable and on the face of it, the film seems like it is going to be a comedy. It soon becomes apparent that it is much more than that. While the situations are relatable, his responses are not and we are faced with the question of who is really the victim in this scenario.

Well written, with excellent acting performances from the leads and an impact which lasts well beyond the end of the credits, this nineties masterpiece looks and sounds fantastic following the 4K restoration. A must own for fans, which will grace any 4K collection.

“I wanna know what’s wrong with the street. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, I think you’re just trying to justify your inflated budgets!”

Falling Down is available to own now on Limited Edition 4K UHD.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• Brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films approved by cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Newly restored original lossless stereo 2.0 and DTS-HD MA 4.0 surround audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Archival audio commentary by director Joel Schumacher, editor Paul Hirsch, screenwriter Ebbe Roe Smith, LA Times writer Shawn Hubler, and actors Michael Douglas, Michael Paul Chan, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Frederic Forrest
• Man on the Edge, a brand new interview with screenwriter Ebbe Roe Smith
• At War with the World, a brand new interview with composer James Newton Howard
• Going Home, a brand new location featurette revisiting the real-life Los Angeles sites used in Falling Down
• Deconstructing D-Fens, an archival interview with Michael Douglas
• Original trailer
• Image gallery
• Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by film critics Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Simon Ward