Father’s Day was first celebrated in 1910 in Spokane
Washington, two years after the first celebration of Mother’s Day. Like its
predecessor, the event eventually went on to be observed by all fifty US states
and is now considered a fully-fledged holiday that is promoted through national
media. Ironically, the holiday’s greatest resistance has historically come from
the very men it is meant to celebrate, who often dismissed the holiday as
commercialism or sentimentality. This week, I’ll be honoring the fathers in our
readership with three films that highlight the importance of fatherhood without
resorting to gimmicks or clichés.
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| Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim...can't help lovin' that dad of mine |
Finding
Nemo: This 2003 Disney/Pixar film put the ‘family’ back into
‘family entertainment’. The story follows the parallel journeys of father and
son clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Nemo (Alexander Gould) as they
struggle to find their independence while finding their way back to each other.
The film begins with anxiety-ridden Marlin raising only child Nemo after the
death of his wife, Coral (Elizabeth Perekins). Following the brutal death of Coral
and their eggs, Marlin vows to protect his son at any cost; even if it means
coddling Nemo to the point that their relationship verges on codependence.
After Nemo is captured by scuba divers during a school field trip (his first
real experience away from his father’s care) Marlin dives into action, and with
the help of memory impaired blue tang, Dory (Ellen Degeneres), journeys across
the Tasman Sea to Sydney to find his missing son. Father and son quickly learn
about the dangers of life beyond their sheltered anemone home as Nemo is held
captive in a dentist office aquarium and Marlin encounters fish-addicted
sharks, deadly jellyfish, and a gluttonous whale. Through their trials they also
learn, however, about all of the joys and thrills that they’ve been missing out
on and all of the courage and resilience that they never realized they
possessed. Over the course of both their journeys, Marlin and Nemo ultimately learn
to see things from each other’s perspective as Nemo experiences firsthand the
dangers that his father tried to warn him about, and Marlin finally learns that
there is a time to hold a child’s hand and a time to finally let go. With its
dazzling visuals that transport viewers to the vibrant world lying beneath the
ocean surface, this film is a must see for fans of the art of animation as well
as Disney and Pixar devotees. Through a sense of humor that appeals equally to
adults and children and universal lessons that will resonate long after the
cinema lights fade, Finding Nemo
truly is entertainment of the highest order for the whole family.
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| Who needs movies with a one-man-show in the family? |
Man
of a Thousand Faces: Hollywood biographies, while prestige
projects that often go on to become Oscar contenders, all too often fall into
the trap of relaying recycled themes and familiar story arcs while trying to
highlight the life of a unique individual. One biography that breaks this mold,
however, is the 1957 biography Man of a
Thousand Faces. Although the film does chronicle the early life, struggles,
and eventual success of its protagonist, famed silent horror star Lon Chaney
(James Cagney), the film emphasizes themes beyond the usual struggle, success,
and redemption themes by focusing upon Chaney’s troubled home life and his greatest
role of all as a dedicated father. The film begins with the recently married
Chaney working in vaudeville alongside his actress wife, Cleva (Dorothy
Malone), as the pair struggle to make names for themselves on the stage. The
film then shifts its focus from his professional life to his complicated
personal one when Cleva announces that she is pregnant and insists upon meeting
Lon’s family before their baby is born. The painful reason behind his keeping
his family hidden is revealed when Cleva meets Mr. and Mrs. Chaney (Nolan Leary
and Celia Lovsky), both of whom are deaf and mute. Horrified by her in-laws
disability and terrified that her child may be born with the same handicap,
Cleva becomes furious with Lon for hiding his family’s secret and threatens to
have an abortion. He eventually persuades her to have the baby, who is born
perfectly healthy, but she proves ill-suited to motherhood and leaves the
majority of the parenting duties to him. When their son, Creighton (played by
four actors at varying ages), is still a toddler she insists upon returning to
the stage, even though it means working as a second-rate singer in a sleazy
nightclub, and leaves the boy backstage at Lon’s performances while she works
nights and sleeps most of the day. The couple reach their breaking point when
Lon learns of Cleva’s affair with a wealthy patron and Cleva suspects that
Lon’s platonic friendship with sympathetic showgirl Hazel (Jane Greer) is
something more. In an attempt to bring his wife home and save his failing
marriage Lon asks Cleva’s boss to fire her. When she learns that her
employment, and dream of fame, has been terminated she is unable to withstand
the blow and wanders onstage during one of Lon’s performances where she attempts
suicide by swallowing a bottle of acid. The incident ultimately ends their
marriage as she disappears after recovering and the state deems that Lon is unfit
to raise Creighton due to the fact that he is a single father working in the often
unpredictable entertainment industry. The film then shifts its focus to Lon’s
film career as he struggles to gain better roles not to achieve fame or
fortune, but to gain the job and financial security necessary to win back
custody of his son. After finally regaining custody of Creighton, Lon faces yet
more adversity as Creighton adjusts to living with his father and Cleva reappears
and tries to reclaim the boy. Father and son eventually overcome
misunderstanding and estrangement, with Creighton going on to adopt the stage
name ‘Lon Chaney Jr.’ and taking his place in his father’s business. Throughout
the many ups and downs of his varied career and complicated personal life one
constant remains; Lon’s love for his son. Whether arguing with Cleva for their
son’s right to life, scrambling to revive their obviously failing marriage to
provide a complete home, or working grueling hours in thankless roles to ensure
that he regains custody, Lon consistently puts Creighton and his needs first.
While an intriguing biopic, Man of a
Thousand Faces best serves as a testament to parental sacrifice and the
enduring bond between fathers and their children.
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| A little bit of pixie dust and a lot of love can go a long way |
Finding
Neverland: This 2004 film also provides an unusual twist
on the biopic. Finding Neverland
chronicles J.M. Barrie’s process creating his masterpiece Peter Pan and his relationship with the family who inspired him to
write it. The story begins with Barrie (Johnny Depp) meeting his widowed
neighbor, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Kate Winslet), following the successful debut
of his latest show. The film then follows the evolution of the pair’s
relationship as they become deeply close friends and Barrie takes on the role
of surrogate father to Sylvia’s four young sons (Freddie Highmore, Nick Roud,
Joe Prospero, and Luke Spill). Despite protests from his suspicious wife (Radha
Mitchell) and Sylvia’s skeptical mother (Julie Christie), Barrie continues to
spend the majority of his time with the family, and begins to write a story
based upon a fantasy version of their lives that will become Peter Pan. When Sylvia finally succumbs
to lung cancer at the film’s close she makes a provision in her will naming
Barrie and her mother as the boys’ co-guardians, a role that Barrie gratefully
accepts and promises to fulfill to the best of his ability. Like Man
of a Thousand Faces, Finding Neverland takes the standard biopic tropes and
moves beyond them to tell a truly original story that conveys both the transformative
power of imagination and the importance of family. Although Barrie is not the
boys’ father, over time he develops a bond with each of them that is nothing
short of paternal as he shows genuine interest in their lives and teaches them
about the importance of holding onto childhood and living life to the fullest,
even in the face of loss. The film’s unconventional story sheds light on the
ways in which parental figures can play just as crucial a role in children’s
lives as their actual parents and shows that parental figures and role models
can be found in the unlikeliest of places.
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