Christopher P. Anderson wrote in Father: the Figure and the Force: “The father-child bond has always been a secret hidden by the Norman Rockwell image of the benevolent patriarch at the head of the dining table. We must commit ourselves to Solve the cube of the rubric that represents every human being’s relationship to their father. That’s the magic: Not that we can ever bring this Norman Rockwell painting to life, but that we finally come to terms with our true feelings for our fathers, we can really make this generation – and maybe even the next – a generation of truly liberated men and women. ”
Movies
In honor of Father’s Day, we have selected a number of films available on DVD that will help us process our feelings for our fathers. Call this a feast of father-child bond. The films are arranged alphabetically.
- Bee Season is a compelling family drama about the destructive power of a father’s spiritual pride and the healing that comes from discovering the power of selfless love.
- Big Fish is a heartfelt drama of insane and often outrageous sequences that revolves around a son who wants to learn the real facts about his father’s life after hearing an endless flurry of phantasmagoric stories about his experiences.
- Boyz N the Hood is a compelling story about an African American father in a violent neighborhood in central southern Los Angeles who teaches his son respect, responsibility, sex, and restraint in violent encounters.
- Dad studies changes in the relationship between a high-profile investment banker and his elderly father; it reveals the difficulty some men have in expressing emotions and intimacy.
- Daddy Nostalgia is a French film that, after years of separation, revolves around the soft edges of a father-daughter reunion.
- Dan In Real Life is a smart and cheeky film about a man who is surprised by love and then opens up to his children in new ways.
- Evelyn is a beautiful homage to fatherhood; Set in Ireland in 1953, it is about a man who wants nothing more than to be present in his children’s lives.
- Grace Is Gone is a tender and touching film about a father who, in the midst of his grief, learns to feed his daughters.
- He Got Game focuses on the fate of a stunning African American high school basketball star and his reconciliation with his estranged father, who taught him everything he knew about the game.
- Nothing in Common focuses on the efforts of a father and son to build meaningful relationships after years of indifference to one another.
- Martian Child is a comedy masterpiece that touches the heart with its portrait of the survival tactics of an abandoned orphan and the loving care of a widowed science fiction writer who adopts him.
- The focus of The Pursuit of Happyness is a pressurized African American single parent and his five-year-old son who fight for survival in San Francisco in 1981 and fulfill the American dream.
- The Snapper is an Irish family drama that features an unforgettable portrait of a loving father who is his daughter’s knight in shining armor.
- Sunflower is a Chinese film that engrossingly explores a rocky and tumultuous father-son relationship spanning three decades.
- The War is a compelling and inspiring drama about a father’s efforts to teach his children the ideals he believes give life meaning and purpose.