National Catholic Register, Robert Brennan: Fathers often take a beating in popular culture, especially as they are depicted in television and films. If they even exist in the postmodern “family” constructs, they are usually there as comic foils or authoritarians on the receiving end of wisdom being dispensed by their preteen son or daughter. Current portrayals of fathers as layered, complex and three-dimensional men can be found — but viewers must look hard.
Amid my quest to find portrayals of fatherhood in film (I even dove into the television pool), I unearthed several top-10 lists of fathers in movies. I found most of these lists wanting, as they included “fathers” like Don Corleone and Darth Vader.
It became clear that I was not going to find a top-10 list of great fatherhood portrayals without really stretching the envelope of credulity, so I looked a little deeper into film history and came up with two movies — one that was on almost all the other lists and one that is only on my list. Read more here.
