Interesting notes about Falling Down. I somehow didn’t even know about that film, only discovering it years after the fact while browsing in a video store. Remember video stores? It immediately looked intriguing so I bought it and watched it, and enjoyed it in all of its strangeness and unsettledness.
I agree with BK’s observation re the lack of today’s technology in the film. I’d say it captures an oddly near-perfect time relative to all of that.
And yes, I remember that huge geographic leap, because I was very taken with the location shooting overall. It’s just too bad about that jump in believability. Nevertheless, now I must watch it again.