I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER @ 55

Gene, a teacher, meets his aging parents at the airport and drives them back home. It's not a long car ride but by the time they're in the driveway we've got a bumpy prologue that lets us know that this film is going to be an examination of a continued control by the father over everyone else. Scenes are like testimonies to this manipulation and there's almost no letup. Old Tom is at the wheel and there's only one way he'll let go. It's a quietly searing experience.

Gilbert Cates autopsy of family life makes it hard for its audience by keeping things middle class. The stereotyping does suggest that the alternative is a physically violent working class tribe but the vintage of this exercise place it more in the realm of Edward Albee, as the notion of Tom effectively freezing his son in place as Gene intends to embark on a second marriage at a long distance. 

The dialogue is taken almost unchanged from its theatrical source and it shows with long speeches and lengthy single set scenes. Rather than feeling stagey, though, Cates's approach is to let the text speak for itself through some robust performances. The cinema comes from a near television style motion. Again, this has more to do with pushing the ideas in the interactions forward rather than a lack of creativity. Cates made a career out of this arms length domestic drama and felt that a flurry of cinematic interventions would be distracting.

This has the effect on the viewer o' today of having to adjust to what can feel staid and staged. The adjustment is swift, though when the cast is this good. Melvyn Douglas still had a decade left on screen and judges his irascible old man front perfectly, allowing for the deflated humanity visible beneath, asleep in front of the TV or almost physically  struggling to remember the name of the person he's addressing. Against this power, Gene Hackman's struggle is to prevent his own fury from manifesting in an act of patricide. Hackman proved a talent for great intensity (starting  from his next film The French Connection) but here he centres the stress around his mouth, as his eyes sharpen to razors. Dorothy Stickney in her last role makes what she can of the saintly mother. Estelle Parsons gets out of her goofy TV comedy personae as the ostracised daughter to provide an intense punch of her own.

When I heard the news of Gene Hackman's recent death and then the details of what was the supposed sequence of the events, I wanted to avoid the usual suspect titles like French Connection or The Conversation. This painful and poignant piece suited the memory better for me. The scenes where Gene is inspecting old folks' homes as a possible solution to his situation are discomforting. You can read the details for yourself but the end of life resonance this has with the younger Hackman playing witness to his father's dementia is heartrending. Life and art imitate each other.

Viewing notes: I watched this a hire through Prime (also available through a few online shops) as an HD remaster. I don't know of its availability on physical media.