BrianKoller's Full Review: I Never Sang for My Father
Hollywood typically depicts the elderly, when they are depicted at all, as being genial sages or charming eccentrics. But there is another side to aging, and that is the spiritual and mental decline that often accompanies the physical deterioration. The ugly truth is that an elderly person can sometimes become difficult, even senile.
Tom Garrison (Melyvn Douglas) was in his prime a 'great man', a company president and a leading citizen of a small town in New York. But in his retirement years, he has become tiresome, selfish and demanding. He wants to keep his grown son Gene (Gene Hackman) in town and in tow. Gene wants to move to California, where his fiancee Peggy (Elizabeth Hubbard) has established a practice as a gynecologist.
Tom is wed to kindly Margaret (Dorothy Stickney), who has become frail due to heart disease. Gene and his mother are on good terms, but Gene is resentful towards his father, who patronizes and lectures him as if he were still a child. Tom has already broken with Gene's headstrong sister Alice (Estelle Parsons), disapproving of her marriage. Gene has to decide whether his loyalties are with himself and his lover, or with his problematic parents.
It is a rare film that is willing to tackle such depressing themes. Not surprisingly, I Never Sang for My Father was a commercial failure, as was the play on which it was based. Robert W. Anderson faithfully adapted his own play, including all the bitter, irreconcilable arguments between father and son.
Unlike the sitcom "All in the Family", these arguments are painfully realistic, devoid of clever putdowns and comic ignorance. At one point, Gene visits a nursing home, with the guilty objective of admitting dear old dad. But he is devastated by the empty gaze of the docile, somnolent residents.
To its credit, the Academy Awards recognized the film despite its lackluster box office. It received three nominations, including Melvyn Douglas for Best Actor, Gene Hackman for Best Supporting Actor, and Robert Anderson for Best Adapted Screenplay. It was Hackman's second nomination (the first was for Bonnie and Clyde). He would win Best Actor the following year, for The French Connection (1971).
Hackman was a curious candidate for Best Supporting Actor. Not because of his performance, which is excellent, but because he dominates most of the scenes. Although the rising star was second billed to screen legend Douglas, he was for all practical purposes the film's lead actor. A few years later, a young Al Pacino would also be nominated for Best Supporting Actor (for The Godfather) in deference to an older, more famous actor (Marlon Brando) who had in fact a smaller role.
Gilbert Cates served as both director and producer for I Never Sang for My Father. Country singer Roy Clark sings a maudlin Barry Mann-Cynthia Weil composition, which jarringly imposes upon an early, introspective scene. (70/100)
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