Fathers on Film: Hollywood’s Good Dads

In the midst of the fatherhood crisis, models of good men can still be found—if you know where to look

Chris Gardner (Will Smith) and Christopher Gardner (Jaden Smith) in “The Pursuit of Happyness.” MovieStillsDB

Search online for “young men in trouble,” and you’ll find dozens of articles, many of them quite recent, about a generation of males in crisis. Many young men are floundering nowadays, uncertain of who they are or their purpose in life or what it means to be a man in a culture that has lost its moorings.

As a part of this culture, Hollywood shares responsibility for helping create this storm of chaos and confusion. Yet even Tinseltown has produced plenty of movies that offer viewers positive lessons on the meaning of manhood.

Just for starters, there’s the disillusioned idealist Rick in “Casablanca,” the righteous Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the honorable Maximus in “Gladiator,” the gallant Capt. Jack Aubrey in “Master and Commander,” the irascible Hub and Garth McCann in “Secondhand Lions,” several characters in “The Lord of the Ring” series, various superheroes, and practically any John Wayne western. These and many other films give us masculine models of honor, courage, and virtue, examples of how we ourselves might become good men.

And good men make good dads.

Gone Missing

Throughout human history, the family has served as the basic foundation stone of any civilization. That stone is fractured today, riven by multiple fissures: divorce, a diminishment of religious faith, a widespread psychology stressing the self, and family-destroying Marxist ideologies that have seeped into our schools, corporations, and culture. For the past 50 years, even the policies of our government have injured the ideal of intact families, having replaced real fathers with welfare sugar daddies.

Consequently, more than 18 million children in our country are now growing up without a father in the house, making the United States the world’s leader in fatherlessness. This parenting calamity will inevitably become a vicious cycle and worsen as yet another generation of boys without dads comes of age, lacking the skills of fatherhood, which many of us learn by observation.

Fatherlessness damages these boys and our society at large in other ways. They’re far more likely than their two-parent peers to drop out of school, wrestle with issues of emotional and mental health, and commit crimes.

These young males need mentors—teachers, pastors, coaches, and other relatives—to help them develop into fatherhood material. And here again, Hollywood can offer a hand.

2 of the Best

Some films directly and openly embrace the theme of fatherhood.

In “The Pursuit of Happyness,” for example, Chris Gardner (Will Smith) acts as both mom and dad for his son, Christopher (Jaden Smith), when his wife leaves him and the father and son become homeless. Chris scrapes by as a salesman and trains as a stockbroker, all the while caring for his child. His motivation?

“I met my father for the first time when I was 28 years old,“ he said. ”I made up my mind that when I had children, my children were going to know who their father was.”

“The Pursuit of Happyness” depicts a dad whose words and deeds are shaping the man his son will become.

The 1965 film “Shenandoah” gives us Charlie Anderson (James Stewart), a farmer, widower, and father of six sons and a daughter in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War. He opposes the war and refuses to give his sons permission to join Confederate forces, but eventually, the entire family becomes enmeshed in the fighting. Two of his boys and a daughter-in-law are killed, and his youngest son, a teenager, suffers a crippling leg wound during combat.

Anderson lives by a personal code of conduct. He places the welfare of his family above the state; he honors the wishes of his deceased wife, Martha, when raising the children; he turns a granite face to enemies of his household, but tenders a soft heart toward his daughter and sons. This father’s children are his monument to his beloved Martha.

Background Dads

Much more common are those movies in which positive views of fatherhood are secondary to a film’s plot. If we pay attention, however, these films can bestow vivid, positive portrayals of a man and his place in the family.

In telling the story of George Bailey, the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” delivers the message that each one of us is important and has a part to play in the world. Yet if we watch closely, George Bailey (James Stewart) is an excellent model of fatherhood. He clearly loves and respects his wife, Mary, and adores his children, as is underscored by his group hug with them near the end of the movie.

George Bailey (James Stewart) and Zuzu (Karolyn Grimes) in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” MovieStillsDB

Responding to a mysterious voice and a vision in “Field of Dreams,” Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) plows under a part of his corn field and remakes it into a full-scale baseball diamond. Soon, the spirits of old-time baseball players appear to play the game. Life’s mysteries and the importance of dreams are the movie’s main thrust, and we can become wrapped up in the magic of this tale, but tucked away in this plot is a father–son love story.

Kinsella wishes he could make amends with his deceased dad, an ardent baseball fan, but it isn’t until the movie ends that we truly understand the voice’s command: “If you build it, he will come.” His father appears with the other players, and in a man-line typical of fathers and sons, Ray asks, “Hey, Dad? You want to have a catch?” They toss the ball and so heal their wounds.

And from Ray’s love for his wife and daughter, we know that, whether he realizes it or not, he learned from his father how to be a father.

Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) in "Field of Dreams.” (MovieStillsDB

Paternal Wisdom

Sometimes, too, movies will deliver a specific message to young male viewers. In “Rocky Balboa,” for instance, which is a movie as much about fathers and sons as it is about boxing, Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) delivers this mini-sermon to his troubled adult son:

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”

That’s great advice for anyone looking to bounce back from failure or mistakes. It’s this sort of advice, best given by a dad, that all sons need.

If You Show It, He Will Learn

On their journey to manhood, our sons are best served by good fathers. Absent those, a grandfather or uncle, a coach or a teacher, or some other mentor can offer guidance and a healthy influence.

But whatever your family’s circumstances, movies can reinforce positive images of fatherhood. From “The Lion King” and “Finding Nemo” for the younger set to the movies mentioned above and others like them, boys and young men may discover messages, including those delivered subliminally, imparting the qualities of love, loyalty, justice, and discipline that make for good fathers.