I’ve lived and worked in Stockholm…and I’ve come to know the Swedes pretty well. They are not inclined to open confrontation, especially on a solo basis. Most demonstrations are crowd affairs. People are not culturally attuned to “standing out” and “calling attention to themselves.” The cultural background for this is affectionately and self-deprecatingly called “Jantelagen.” (Look up the ten “laws.” It’s a hoot.) That said, it is deeply ingrained in modern Swedish culture.
It takes supreme courage and sheer guts for someone to step out of that well-defined comfort zone and take a stand like that woman did. It’s also informative that the nazi white shirts are hanging in a group. Europe has got a problem, as do we in the US, and it’s good to see good people gather their courage and will to take a stand for decency.
The Swedes will never let these fascist assholes represent them.
I remember seeing Falling Down (1993) with a group of friends. And I still resent wasting my time.
“Falling Down” is about about how tough White Guys have it today, and why we should sympathize when they lose their minds and kill people.
The movie revels in emotionally-driven violence – starting with righteous indignation, escalating from baseball bats to knives to automatic weapons, before simmering down to play “Let’s Kill the Ex-Wife”.
If this movie were a human being, I would say of it:
I agree. Brave and courageous. But also sad. Where are the people who should have stood with her?! Why does she have to be the only one?
I’m not sure I would have chosen to do what she did, to stand alone. But I think, or would like to think, I would have moved to stand with her.
It begins to empathize to give some depth, then points out how much of a fucking loser psycho the guy is well throughout the movie.
The main character of Barry Lyndon is a complete shit, but that movie is no less interesting. Not that I think the two are similar degrees of art, but you can have a star that’s not treated as a hero.
So much to hate about Falling Down, so it’s shorter to list the good things.
It has a number of scenes that end in what feels like the middle, one being where the gun-wielding protagonist asks the room, “does anyone see what’s wrong with this burger?”, and one little boy raises his hand. Cut. These were the only interesting film decisions in this otherwise completely Hollywood paint-by-numbers affair.
When Michael Douglas first crests the hill and looks out over the highway, we see the real L.A., full of disgusting smog. I had just been living there for several years and had grown so sick of the blue blue skies in all other Hollywood portrayals of L.A.
Most of the radical right groups have realized they were not doing themselves any favours styling themselves like the social misfits they are. These days they usually look like economy students with polo shirts and sweater draped over their shoulders, or just plain conservative. I haven´t seen a real skinhead in ten years.
This just shows how these neo-Natzi are just grown up school yard bullies. In my experience, if you stand up to the bullies and show no fear, most will back down if you do not provoke them more. I think their testosterone filled brains short out when they do not get the response they expect.
Good for her for not being intimidated by these bullies.
I haven’t seen Barry Lyndon, but it’s on my “see movies by Kubrick” list.
Falling Down was directed by Joel Schumacher –
– who also directed Phone Booth (2003), which I liked a lot, and has a seriously contemptible protagonist who gets his come-uppeance.
Maybe that’s my kink – I want the contemptible protagonists to get their come-uppeance. In Falling Down, it’s not really the protagonist’s fault (he is mentally ill), and what he gets is shot dead.
What would the alternative have been in your mind? Using violence against a woman on camera? These people are more aware of their public appearance than you might think, or Lagerlöf the photographer for that matter. To think of right wing extremists these days in the same terms that would have applied 20 years ago is to underestimate them and that is very dangerous.
Also, testosterone and Neo-Nazism are not causally related.
In Sweden, it also doesn’t help that they’ve taken in number of refugees, from radically different cultures, that, adjusted for population, would be as if we had taken in 6.5 million in the US, in the last year alone. It’s putting a huge strain on their system.
Maybe that’s my kink – I want the contemptible protagonists to get their come-uppeance. In Falling Down, it’s not really the protagonist’s fault (he is mentally ill), and what he gets is shot dead.
I don’t think he’s portrayed as mentally ill. He’s supposed to be just another Mr. Ordinary (white, hetero, middle class) who’s “pushed too far” by people he’s used to being able to pretty much ignore, and then as unusual and even heroic because he “fights back and gives all those whiners what they really deserve, grrrrr!” In sum, totes shite.
