Despite the prominence of family relationships in cinema, fatherhood remains a surprisingly underexplored area of academic film study.
There are a few exceptions. Charting the emergence of the paternal protector as a key masculine archetype is Katie Barnett’s Fathers on Film: Paternity and Masculinity in 1990s Hollywood. And crucially, Gershon Reiter’s Fathers and Sons in Cinema considers the lasting impact of absent fathers on cinematic characters.
This Father’s Day will be my first without my dad who passed away earlier this year. We bonded over many films together, which I now find myself rewatching in order to feel that closeness once more. Here’s a list of films featuring onscreen fathers that meant something to us and will hopefully strike a chord with you too.
A Bronx Tale (1993)
When we first watched De Niro’s directorial debut in the late 1990s on VHS video, I remember it having a greater impact on my dad than me – my first impression was a kind of Goodfellas lite.
As a father myself, I now recognise the complexity of his interest in A Bronx Tale, a film about a law-abiding patriarch (De Niro) trying to retain influence over his nine-year-old son (Lillo Brancato) as he is beguiled by local mobster and surrogate father figure Sonny (Chazz Palminteri).
There was one particular scene my dad, a working man, liked: “It don’t take much strength to pull a trigger, but try and get up every morning day after day and work for a living … then we’ll see who’s the real tough guy. The working man is the tough guy – your father’s the tough guy!”
Honkytonk Man (1982)
My dad enjoyed most of what Clint Eastwood made both in front of the camera and behind it. In Honkytonk Man, he does both.
It’s a gentler role for Eastwood, set during the Great Depression, about a dying country singer, Red Stovall, trying to make his way to Nashville to perform his songs at the Grand Ole Opry before his health gives out.
Dad always had a fondness for country music and indeed this film, particularly as Red is accompanied by his nephew Whit, performed by Eastwood’s real-life son (and now musician), Kyle Eastwood. This brings a moving authenticity to the screen in this affecting, coming-of-age road movie about the driving force of kinship and the bond of music between two generations.
Paper Moon (1973)
Eastwood’s film may well have been inspired by Peter Bogdanovich’s Depression-era comedy road movie, which we always loved. Paper Moon tells the picaresque tale of Moses (Ryan O’Neal) and eight-year-old Addie (his own daughter Tatum O’Neal), a pair of grifters masquerading as father and daughter conning their way across Bible-belt Kansas.
What starts out as a transactional relationship over $200 soon blossoms into a closeness between the two. The wonderful chemistry between the two leads galvanises the film, evident even in the trailer, which includes delightful corpsing outtakes. This was Tatum O’Neal’s film debut and her astonishing performance earned her an Oscar at ten, a record she has held for 52 years as the youngest winner.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954)
Dad introduced me to many musicals, particularly the films of Stanley Donen – On the Town (1949) and Singin’ in the Rain (1952) being important ones. But it is Seven Brides for Seven Brothers that remains a favourite from my childhood.
I now, of course, appreciate the technical camerawork and inventive choreography (of dancing and fighting) that goes into this ballet of brightness. It’s mixed with comedy and delicate moments of fatherliness – particularly between eldest brother Adam (Howard Keel) and youngest brother Gideon (Russ Tambyln).
Adam of course is a brother rather than a father, but the scenes in which Gideon speaks to his older brother as a father figure is enough to justify the place of this wonderful classic on this list.
Shane (1953)
Like many men of his generation, my dad loved westerns, and I cannot watch one without thinking of him. One of the last films we enjoyed together was Winchester 73 (1950) and one of his favourites was Rio Bravo (1959). He also had a penchant for Shane, a timeless cinematic classic from George Steven that has been parodied and remade several times – including Clint Eastwood’s Pale Rider.
The simple plot sees the eponymous Shane (Alan Ladd) riding into the homesteading lives of a couple and their young son Joey, helping them to confront ruthless outlaws trying to steal their property. It’s a timeless tale of good v evil.
Shane becomes an eternal surrogate father figure to Joey, who looks up to him with adoration and is utterly brokenhearted when this guardian angel eventually rides out of his life forever. The echo of Shane’s name being called into the mountains in the iconic closing scene remains haunting.
A Perfect World (1993)
Another Eastwood road movie that my dad and I enjoyed, which puts him back in the director’s chair and in the role of Texas ranger Red in pursuit of convict Butch (Kevin Costner) in a 1960s setting.
In A Perfect World, Red is in hot pursuit as Butch and eight-year-old hostage Philip form a quasi father-son relationship, building confidence, trust and a paternal need that has been absent in each of the two characters’ lives. It’s one of Costner’s best performances.
Pinocchio (1940)
I should finish with a childhood film, and there are many I could name here: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and The Jungle Book (1967) instantly come to mind. But Pinocchio was the first VHS cassette my dad bought me as a child, which I watched on repeat daily and still have today.
Like the toymaker Geppetto, my father was a skilled carpenter, and I still have the wooden toys he made for me as a boy. Beyond the Disney sheen, this film is fundamentally a story of the unconditional love between a boy and his father. They may be separated by the uncertainty and trickery of life, but they are united in their longing to return to one another in the warmth and comfort of home.
