Just in time for Father's Day, we'll take a look at some notorious dads on film. Big Dads, bad dads, REALLY big dads, causing all kinds of damage from emotional to physical to spiritual.
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF
Directed by: Richard Brooks - 1 hour, 48 minutes - 1958 - USA - Color - HDTV source - 1.85:1
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, Madeleine Sherwood
Brick and Maggie are a married couple home to visit Brick’s family, who are gathered to await results for patriarch Big Daddy’s cancer test. Brick is a former football star who’s become a sport announcer, and who has taken to drinking since the death of his teammate and best friend Skipper. Brick has broken his ankle attempting some late-night drunken high hurdling the night before, and hobbles from couch to bar as Maggie tries to find out what’s bothering him. The rest of the family waits on the test results, with sibling Brother Man and his wife Sister Woman eager to show off their five awful children, hoping to show their worthiness to inherit the family millions over Brick and Maggie, who are childless. And everyone except Brick fawns over Big Daddy, a gruff and proud bull of a man who barely tolerates his family’s nonsense.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is based on the 1955 play by Tennessee Williams, adapted for the screen by director Brooks and James Poe. Williams was unhappy with the adaptation, which removed the play’s direct references to homosexuality in order to pass the Hays Code, the industry’s self-imposed rules governing Hollywood films at the time. The picture went on to receive Academy Award nominations in nearly every major category, including Best Picture, Actor, Actress, and Director, though it failed to win any.
Trailer
IMDB page
Bosley Crowther review (New York Times, 1958)
CHINATOWN
Directed by: Roman Polanski - 2 hours, 10 minutes - 1974 - USA - Color - Blu-ray - 2.35:1
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, Diane Ladd, Burt Young
Jake Gittes runs a private detective agency in Los Angeles in the late 30s, mostly investigating cheating spouses and the like. When one of his jobs ends with the death of the man he’s investigating, resulting in bad press for Jake and his agency, he sets out to find out who set him up and what really happened. His search quickly leads him to bigger mysteries involving city politics, control of L.A.’s water supply, and land speculation. In the middle of all this is Evelyn Mulwray, the widow of the deceased who initially tries to steer Jake away from looking further, and whose secrets he’s trying to uncover.
Chinatown was the pet project of Robert Evans, the producer who had helped save Paramount Studios with a string of unexpected hits, including Rosemary’s Baby, Love Story, and The Godfather. The script was written by Robert Towne specifically for Jack Nicholson, and Polish director Polanski was brought in at Evans’s request to give the picture a European outsider’s perspective on an American story, and for the dark and cynical approach typical of Polanski’s films. This was especially noticeable in the bleakness of his early 70s films following the murder of his pregnant wife Sharon Tate by the Manson family in 1969. Chinatown is an appropriately brutal view of L.A., a sunlit neo-noir that somehow manages to merge a history of Southern California’s water supply with existential despair to make one of the greatest films of all time.
Trailer
IMDB page
Roger Ebert reviews (4/4 stars) - [Original Review] [Great Movies review]
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST
Directed by: Martin Scorsese - 2 hours, 44 minutes - 1988 - USA - Color - Blu-ray - 1.85:1
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Victor Argo, John Lurie, Leo Burmeister, Harry Dean Stanton, Andre Gregory, David Bowie, Juliette Caton
Jesus is a carpenter helping to build crucifixes for the occupying Roman army. He is plagued by headaches and visions of God, and resists what he sees. He is consumed with guilt about Mary Magdalene, a woman he had earlier refused to marry, who now works as a prostitute. His friend Judas urges him to fight, to become a leader of the Jewish resistance against Roman rule. But after a series of visions in the desert, Jesus has a more radical vision of what he is meant to do. He begins to preach and act out a series of miracles, often confused by what he’s doing and not entirely in control. He is still plagued with doubt and the struggles between the human and divine with him. When he is captured and condemned by the Romans, while dying on the cross he sees a vision of another life.
At the time of its release, The Last Temptation of Christ was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding it, as various right-wing and religious groups sought to not only protest, but to destroy the physical film itself. Boycotts were organized, screenings were done in secret, and misinformation was rampant, as most protesters (of course) refused to actually watch the film. This for a film directed by a Roman Catholic, based on the novel by a Greek Orthodox author adapted by a writer who was raised Calvinist, all of whom wanted to explore questions of their own faith. The end result is a film that avoids the larger-than-life old Hollywood portrayals of Jesus, in favor of a story where even the miracles are almost mundane, a more naturalistic approach that’s more focused on the human than the divine.
Trailer
IMDB page
Roger Ebert reviews (4/4 stars): [Original Review] [Great Movies Review]
David Ehrenstein essay - The Last Temptation of Christ: Passion Project