Traditionally, fathers are stoic figures and the disciplinarian of the family. They bring home the bacon and are not often seen engaging with their kids. This Father’s Day, we celebrate fathers of different kinds with three different movies with diverse fathers; there’s one who believes in his son’s innocence no matter how incriminating the circumstances are, another who’d go to lengths to ensure his children grow up righteous, and a third who must learn to change himself in order to adapt to his family.
Based on the true story of Gerry Conlon, In the Name of the Father explores the delicate, awkward relationship between father and son against the backdrop of the chaotic political climate of Ireland in the 1970s.
Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a carefree, reckless and naïve young lad in the 70s, who, during one night in Belfast, is at the wrong place at the wrong time; a riot has broken out, and to avoid being implicated, he is sent to London to lay low by his father, Giuseppe Conlon (the late Pete Postlethwaite). Except that Gerry didn’t lay low, and ends up stealing from a prostitute and heads home to Belfast to brag about it. This triggers a series of unfortunate events. Someone has reported his presence to the authorities, and he, along with three other friends, are arrested, forced to confess to planting two bombs in 1975 where five people were killed, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Convinced his son is innocent, Giuseppe travels to London with hopes to defend his son, only to be rounded up and thrown into prison as well.
The movie’s most poignant scenes are in prison where father and son are locked in the same cell. Their relationship grows from largely unsentimental to a state of underlying tenderness, especially when the senior Conlon falls deathly ill, and eventually passes on. The movie fleshes out the typical father-son relationship back in that period, with Guiseppe a strict father and Gerry a rebellious youth, both not understanding each other until this ill-fated incident that forces them to reveal their feelings to each other.
The message that shines through this evoking, politically charged film is that no matter how obnoxious, defiant and gullible Gerry is, and even with the confession and “evidence” against him, Guiseppe is unfailing in his belief that his son is innocent, and is willing to lay down his life for him. It’s that kind of kinship and devotion that makes In the Name of the Father such a gripping watch.
It’s an unconventional family drama that’s not set in the familiar confines of an urban setting but out in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Captain Fantastic touches on the distance a father is willing to make to ensure his children grow up to be useful adults, but is challenged to rethink his beliefs.
Ben Cash (Viggo Mortensen) and wife Leslie were largely jaded with the capitalism of American life and uprooted his family to the wilderness. Out in the wild, he instills in his kids the necessary survival skills, trains them to be self-reliant, educates them on critical thinking and puts them through physical routines. As a result, the children grow up without relying on technology and have a deep appreciation for nature.
Unfortunately, Leslie’s bipolar disorder presents itself and leads her to commit suicide. This disruption in the family’s life forces the Cash children to rethink their lifestyle. They start to question if they should integrate into society to engage in normal activities like going to college. They blame their father for not being able to detect their mum’s condition because they were too far removed from the real world. This causes Ben to cast doubts on his parenting ability, even though his reason for an alternative life stems from his love for his children and his desire to see them blossom into honourable grown-ups.
Just when the family seems to break apart, Ben’s love for his children allows him to see past his steadfast beliefs and eventually making the right decisions, reaching a compromise that pleases his children and allowing him to uphold his views.
It’s a story that may relate to parents who have to uproot their lives to adapt to changes in their families. Pushing Hands tells the journey of how a father learns through a series of events that he has to make some personal changes in order to get along with his new family.
In this Ang Lee directed film, Master Chu (Sihung Lung), a retired Chinese Tai-Chi master finds himself having to emigrate from his native Beijing to the big, scary and unknown world of the Big Apple to live with his son Alex (Bozhao Wang), American daughter-in-law Martha (Deb Snyder) and grandson Jeremy (Haan Lee). He soon finds himself a fish out of water in the western world, especially when his traditional Eastern values of placing families first clashes with the western culture of putting importance on the individual instead. This causes friction in the family, with Chu not getting along with his son and family, causing Alex to be stuck in a difficult position between his father and wife. To alleviate the situation, Master Chu moves out from home and experiences a chain of somewhat comical events that help him realise that he needs to make a few changes to come to terms with his new life.
In the end, Master Chu digs deep within himself to place his love for his family above his feeling of displacement in this new alien environment and finds peace and acceptance with his family and his new life in America.
