Rating: - Life with Father
I watched "I Never Sang for my Father" for the first time today and it surprized me that I hadn't seen it before. This is an excellent movie that deals with a real issue in many families. The issue is adult father/son relationships and how individuals involved handle their changing roles. The roles don't need to transpose themselves although this sometimes happens as parents reach advanced age. What ideally needs to happen is that love and respect would mature along with father and son. In this way authority would evolve into encouragement and instructions evolve into advice while obedience ... Read More
Rating: - Why is this great movie not out on DVD?!!!
I saw this movie in the Mercury theater in Middleburg Heights, Ohio in 1970 when it was first released. It was the first movie I ever saw that featured Gene Hackman, and I was just blown away. His performance as a somewhat estranged son to Melvyn Douglas's character was riveting. Melvyn Douglas, in an equally powerful performance, played a recently widowed man who is forced to cope with his two grown children, played by Hackman and Estelle Parsons. To make a long story short, it is a story of two men, father and son, who never connected, of parental expectations not fulfilled and a relationship, ... Read More
Rating: - See it for the performances
I had to give it four stars because in truth INSFMF is somewhat haphazardly directed, but the acting is out of this world. Melvin Douglas is watchable in just about anything, but he really gives one astounding performance here, as do the rest of the cast.
The film rather unflinchingly looks at a strained father & son relationship brought to a head by the mother's death and fathers advancing senility. I think the script does a good job of showing how both parents and children are profoundly flawed in their understanding of each other, and provides no easy answers as to what "the right ... Read More
Rating: - A total masterpirce
What a masterpiece and view into the lives of a father and son and their ambivalent and painful relationship. Anyone watching this film will recognize these characters as being so much like relatives, friends or acquaintances. You find yourself applauding "Gene's" sister "Alice" when she opens up to her brother and gives him the advice he so needs but doesn't want to heed because of his deep desire to have a close relationship with his maddening and impossible father. This is a film that you'd love to have others watch so you can have a deep discussion about the problems of having a rigid, elderly father ... Read More
Rating: - Excellent drama
Anyone who grew up in a difficult family, who is still dealing with those issues as an adult, and who is now confronted with the past as they deal with the present reality of aging parents should see this film. Stumbled upon it the other night on AMC.
There is *nothing* dated about the relationships and struggles portrayed. (I speak from experience.) The human element is right on target. The scenes when Hackman shops for a nursing home were particularly powerful, horror music appropriate. Been there recently, and things haven't changed much in 30 years...
- 
- 