Review of I Never Sang for My Father

Melvyn Douglas gives a stellar performance as an elderly man whose gruffness and bravado masks a highly sensitive and needy person who wants to be loved and taken care of in his old age. The problem is that the people closest to him, his daughter and son, harbor resentments which block their efforts to be supportive and ultimately creates huge and insurmountable conflict, especially for the son, played by Gene Hackman, who cannot reconcile his own personal needs with that of his father's. This story highlights the generational conflict inherent in families and the lack of any viable options to resolve this conflict. Children grow up, leave home and the parents get old, leading to as reversal of roles that neither are prepared or equipped to deal with. In this movie the son remembers his father as being strong and commanding, and now is needy and clinging, which the son cannot accept. This generates feelings of frustration and resentment in both father and son as both reveal expectations that are unreasonable: the father wants his son to stay with him and the son wants his father to stop his clinging, neither of which is going to happen. This movie is an excellent drama which deals with sensitive themes that are presented in a thoughtful and straightforward manner.