I'm working on a paper on fatherloss, particularly looking at adolescent sons losing their fathers. I was wondering if there were any movies out there (besides Field of Dreams) of a son losing a father, preferably at a younger age?
Or books...or short stories...but that is a different topic section.

thanks!

The Brothers Karamazov (There is a film, but William Shatner as Alyosha? Oy vey!)
Big Fish

Let's see, those concern men in their 20s/30s losing a father. Hm.

How Green Was My Valley (happens at the very end of the film, though)
The Lion King

Wow, this is tougher than I thought.

I suppose the recent adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby could be helpful here.

yeah. Lion King came to mind. i doubt i'd even use it in the paper, but somehow having a story acted out of the loss...just seemed it would help me make the paper more than a dry intellectual affair.

tell me more about Nicholas Nickleby

How about Da? Martin Sheen as the son is middle aged though.

Gangs of New York and American Flyers could be helpful.

There's "Frequency," though the son loses his dad at a younger age -- 7 or 8, I'd guess.

I recently read a review of a Dutch movie that sounded quite intriguing, about a son seeking out clues to the identity of his deceased father -- if I remember the name of the film, I'll let you know...

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yeah. Lion King came to mind. i doubt i'd even use it in the paper, but somehow having a story acted out of the loss...just seemed it would help me make the paper more than a dry intellectual affair. tell me more about Nicholas Nickleby

The recent Douglas McGrath adaptation borrowed from the Dickens book (and had to compress a lot in 2+ hours), but the story is about a teenager/young adult who is forced to find help for his family after his father dies of disease. It's not bad, but the book is much more comprehensive and includes a lot of details that were left out of the movie. The movie is a whos-who of British actors and a couple of Americans (Nathan Lane and a surprisingly good Anne Hathaway.)

The first movie that came to mind was Dad with Jack Lemmon, Ted Danson and Ethan Hawke, although the loss is a father/grandfather so the son is older.

Bus 174 doesn't show any actual fathers, but it shows an entire culture of fatherless street kids, and the effect that fatherlessness is having on the whole nation.

-s.

One of my favorite movies when I was an adolescent, and the first film I ever bought on video, was Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes. The title character in that film "loses his father" THREE times -- first, when he is an infant and his father is killed by an ape; second, when his adoptive ape-father is chased out of the tribe by one of his rivals; and third, when he discovers his ape-father in a London lab, goes cavorting with him in public (despite the fact he is now an earl and wears fancy clothes), and then his ape-father is shot out of a tree.

Peter's nostalgic post got me thinking about my preferred movie genre of the 1980s--horror. And what better film conveys the torment of father/son relationships than the genre classic, "The Fly II"?

Answer: There probably are many films that convey that torment with more, umm, nuance, but I can't think of any offhand. Plus, none of those films has the following plot summary, which I found by clicking the "plot summary" link on IMDB. This "summary by Will," as IMDB refers to it, spoke to me--and will no doubt speak to you, too:

"A few years after Seth Brundle, or BrundleFly, met his demise by Veronica's shotgun, she dies after giving birth to its son, Martin. Seth's employer, Bartok (Lee Richardson), adopts Martin, only to have the genes so he can use them to create a super army of genetic flys. A few years later, Martin (Eric Stoltz) is fully grown, even though he is five, and the fly genes start to wake up and make him just like dear, dead dad. With the help of his girlfriend, Beth (Daphne Zuniga), they go to wherever they can find help. But Bartok finds them, brings them back, but before Martin finishes his transformation into MartinFly."

I honestly can't remember a single thing about "The Fly II," although I'm almost positive I saw it on video.

Thinking further, wasn't the "offspring thing" a major theme of '80s and '90s horror? I should know, but I've blocked it out.

In any event, these films probably aren't what you're looking for.

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In any event, these films probably aren't what you're looking for.

But entertaining, none the less. Going down the vein of passing on genes in The Fly, one could get way off track and look at Ang Lee's Hulk. But that is a different type of father loss...

Um....

HAMLET (1948)

HAMLET (1990)

HAMLET (2000)

William Shakespeare's HAMLET (1996)

How's that?

Summary by Will wrote:
: A few years after Seth Brundle, or BrundleFly, met his demise by
: Veronica's shotgun, she dies after giving birth to its son, Martin.

Wow, a few YEARS later? That's some gestation period!

Christian wrote:
: I honestly can't remember a single thing about "The Fly II," although I'm
: almost positive I saw it on video.

Me too. It was huge, huge news here in the late '80s, since it was one of the earlier Hollywood movies to be made in Vancouver (along with Stakeout, The Accused, The Boy Who Could Fly, Shoot to Kill and a few other late-'80s gems).

How about films where violent dad dies violently, and son tries to carve out new life: 'Road to Perdition' and 'Flight of the Innocent.'

'L.I.E.' was recently mentioned on this board elsewhere -- the dad doesn't die in this film, but an adolescent is essentially left fatherless, and looks in some pathetic places for his identity.

PTC: ...then his ape-father is shot out of a tree


I hate when that happens.

Guy Maddin's very first short film with the Winnipeg Film Group was called "The Dead Father"... I think you can find it on the DVD of "Careful" or try www.winnipegfilmgroup.com

The film is semi-autobiographical if I remember correctly, and very strange, as per all of his films.

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PTC:  ...then his ape-father is shot out of a tree I hate when that happens.

That brings up Disney's Tarzan, with two losses of fathers.

Um, Star Wars anyone? There's three lost father-figures in the first film (EpIV), Leia's father, Luke's uncle, and Luke's mentor (Ben), the "dream sequence" in ESB, and of course Yoda AND the saved/lost father in Vader for Jedi.

Also:

28 Days Later

• Braveheart (multiple)
  
• Cold Mountain
  
• Lord of the Rings: TROTK (2 lost father-figures if you include Theoden)
  
• The Godfather films (esp. #2, of course)
  
• Frequency
  
• Daredevil
  
• Spider-man
  
• Batman
  
• Gangs of New York
  , of course.
  
  Having actually lost my father a while ago, I have identified more with music (such as Terry Taylors "One More Time") than with films, for my personal experience. I can't think of a film that's really "gotten me" there, and usually I'm a sucker for such things. I'm sure there's been one; I've just forgotten. I'll try to remember.

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Guy Maddin's very first short film with the Winnipeg Film Group was called \"The Dead Father\"... I think you can find it on the DVD of \"Careful\" or try www.winnipegfilmgroup.com The film is semi-autobiographical if I remember correctly, and very strange, as per all of his films.

Thanks for the tip Kevin! Having seen many of Maddin's films -- IN THE THEATER! -- this year, i'd enjoy looking into that one too. [I run hot and cold with his work overall but think it's interesting nonetheless. And Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary was.... WOW. Everything i ever wanted in a film]

Oh DUH! The Barbarian Invasions.

-s.

Has there ever been a film of The Glass Menagerie?

I remember seeing one in a high school english class.
According to IMDB, there are 4...i'm not sure which was the one I saw. probably the 1973 version.

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Has there ever been a film of The Glass Menagerie?

Yep, I saw it in high school. It stars John Malkovich and Karen Allen and was directed by Paul Newman! I remember actually quite liking it at the time.

Oh, it's coming back to me now ...

Anyway, the father presumably isn't dead but he's definitely missing, and his specter hangs over the events of the play the way his picture hangs over the wall.

[Just got back from Vancouver, where I witnessed a remarkable production of the play at Pacific Theatre (the artistic HQ of our own Ron Reed) that dispenses with the usual "kitchen-sink realism" (as the director put it) and treated the play as what Williams said it was -- "truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion," with Brian Friel-esque, nearly surrealist touches that liberate the text from the myriad plodding treatments it's received.]

Life as a House

What Time Is It There?

Tonight's screening of Monsieur Ibrahim indirectly deals with this topic by putting a gentle spin on who and what a father figure might actually be.

And while we're on the topic, i loved the film. Everyone -- see it if it comes to an art-house near you. It deals with the fine line between Universalism and those who are living the "Kingdom life" outside of a faith and perhaps true knowledge of the character of Christ. This is a topic i enjoy raising from time to time just to get the local evangelicals' goat.

-s.

I just finished watching this - not to give away the plot, but the young boy [spoiler]loses his biological father as well as the man who is a true father to him, in terms of nurturing and loving him.[/spoiler] To me, it qualifies on multiple counts, and I'm surprised that I can't find a thread on the movie.

my take: sentimental, and kinda forumlaic, but lots of nice touches. (Very good cinematography, also soundtrack.) I wish this film had had a bit more depth, particularly for Omar Sharif's character. (Liked his performance a lot, BTW - he did a great deal with a fairly one-dimensional character...)