Dad - the by Gary David Goldberg - Movie Review Example

Movie Analysis ‘Dad’ is a movie of 117 minutes directed by Gary David Goldberg finds its root in the novel by William Wharton and was released in theyear 1989. The lead role was played by the acclaimed actor Jack Lemmon. In the movie he played the role of an old codger of seventy eight years of age. The movie was essentially not a fiction but it was more like an autobiography because the movie more or less revolved around Jake Tremont, the central character of the story, his environmental factors and his emotions. The movie can be called a psychological journey towards the path of self disclosure. For DAD we can say that the sender that is the director has been able to successfully transmit the message of family ties to the receiver that is the audience through an effective channel that is the movie. Along with the sensitive issue which has been handled by the movie very efficiently, the movie has also shown perfect physical appearance of actors through make-up and the artifacts which have been used were also of high quality. Thus the movie has achieved both technically as well as aesthetically. Dad was an old man who had retired from his blue collar job and his wife Bette (played by Olympia Dukakis) was constantly regulating and complementing his life. It is true that work is worship but work cannot go to such an extent that we start avoiding our near and dear ones especially our parents because it is for this bonding of love that we work hard so that we can make them happy. In the movie we see that John Tremont, son of Jake Tremont is a workaholic and his only goal in life is work more and more. Suddenly when his father fell sick John returns to his family and realizes that he was missing one of the best things of life that is family ties and in the process he rediscovers his emotional self which is very different from the cognitive self and the material self and he says after returning, “This place hasnt changed a bit”. The movie works as an intensifying instrument for family ties. As John returns a feeling of remorse is triggered in him and he decides to let go off the past and start anew. Jake is a man of high self-esteem and is not ready to take assistance from anybody but his pathetic physical condition pushes him towards a situation of acceptance. He is as if engulfed by a fallacy of helplessness. The movie was basically hinting on the symbiotic relationship of a family life and the trigger words of it which the director wants to portray is “identify your feelings” towards your close ties. During the period of Jake’s illness the family experiences a kind of togetherness which it has never experienced before. Through inter-personal communication, non-verbal communications and silence they clearly show how much they cared for each other. Every one of us has designated social roles and these assigned social roles help us to perceive others as well as ourselves. As the movie unfolds we see that during Jake’s terminal illness all the family members try to make him happy and in the process develop a typical attachment style through humor. Integrating well is an essential factor of a happy family and money cannot be substituting for the warmth and affection which one expects from ones family. Therefore it should be very clear in our minds that responding to the calls of our family should always be our priority otherwise it may be too late. Proxemics, which is the physical closeness of individuals also, plays an important role in generating attachment towards one another family members because when we see somebody on a regular basis we are bound to develop certain weak feelings in comparison to the one who is out of our sight. In the movie the son John on his return to be with his ailing father is found reframing the relationship quotient between them in a very subtle yet powerful manner. He actually loves his parents more than he can express and on his return he tries to explore a new side of himself by trying to identify his feelings and then tries to express his feelings clearly towards his parents especially towards his father whose life was gradually terminating. Having a clear self concept and a rapid thought process is pre-requisites for initiating any type interaction, even in case of a family the same theory are applicable. In the movie DAD initially John lacked a clear idea about himself; he did not own his feelings and he was having an inner struggle of Facilitative VS.  Debilitative emotions and so he was not able to go into smooth communication with his parents. Once he achieved the comfort zone of communication with his parents he became much easier in approach. This situation can be explained in a manner which says that many times in the “I-IT Communication, I-YOU Communication, I-THOU Communication” communication model there may arise certain difficulties like listening and hearing obstacles which may occur due to lack of effort and sometimes insensitive listening may also occur as a result the message gets blurred to the receiver and he or she is not able to act accordingly. In this movie the communication between John and Jake had got blurred. Jake was not able to decipher that his son loves him so much, he also could not realize that he had a strong environment of support, which we can understand from the following conversation between John and Jake: “Jake Tremont: It isnt cancer is it? John Tremont: No, its not”. As a result he was determined never to accept any help from anybody but towards the end of the movie the situation is tender the father as well as the son realizes their mistake and becomes more accommodating towards each other, their emotions transcend beyond just mutual love and expectation. It is more of mature understanding and we get a proof of it when Jake tells his son, “The world has changed, Johnny. You wouldnt believe how much the world has changed “An effective communication climate also involves a lot of experimenting, differentiating and circumscribing as we have seen in the movie that John uses various forms of communication experiments to reach out to his father. It also incorporates the elements of repeating, paraphrasing and active listening or else the message will not achieve the desired clarity and for the movie in the beginning all these were lacking. The movie’s main message is communicated through various types of Nonverbal Communication which may include Kinesics, Paralanguage, Haptics and Chronemics this is because John more than through words expressed his feelings through his varied actions and actions communicating a particular message are certainly a non-verbal communication. His non-verbal actions at different times brought in different responses like silence response, question response, paraphrase response, empathizes response, support response, analytical response; evaluate response, advance response or tangential response but John was not deterred even once. Sometimes the responses he got were contradicting to his efforts but he continued his effort towards relational development with his father. DAD efficiently shows how a person is able to tackle all behavioral difficulties like non-assertive behavior just for his or her family as John did. In the beginning his only love of life was work but in the later stage we find that he easily gives up his love just for the sake of his family and in the due course finds endless happiness. In reference to the actors of the movie that is mainly Jack Lemmon and Ted Danson as Jake a lot has to be said. Both the characters have done a marvelous job and have done absolute justice to their roles. If Jack Lemmon is considered we will be surprised to see the strength he expresses as a character, the amount of pathos he adds to the movie as an old father touches our heart very intricately, similarly when Ted Danson as a son repents and wants to make good the mistakes which he has once done appeals all of us and we are bound to undertake a social comparison of the movie. In order to maintain a healthy family tie it is absolutely necessary that we closely monitor our intrapersonal communication and are in a position of proper interpretation of a situation. In the movie when John Tremor returns to his family he feels that his life’s purpose has been fulfilled because he was able to give happiness to his old father during his difficult times. Sometimes the movie move towards stagnation but overall it is a learning experience for parents as well as children. The movie has incorporated substantial amount of humor to keep the audience active and the movie can be called a balanced one with regards to elements of seriousness as well as elements of comedy and judging from both linear view as well as transactional view we can comment that the movie is a successful attempt. The journey through the movie DAD is an exhilarating experience altogether. The movie teaches us that our parents should occupy a very important position in our lives and we should never neglect them because they are the core of our family life. Family is an essential constituent of our life. During all odds it will be our family who will be acting as minimal encouragers and therefore even we have certain responsibilities towards our family which we should carry out dedicatedly. The movie helps us to go beyond our self-serving bias and be more benevolent towards our family. At the same time it gives us a scope of reflected appraisal that is we try to appraise ourselves after having a thorough reflection of our own selves during the course of the movie.  Work cited Goldberg, Gary David (director), Lemmon, Jack, Danson, Ted (perfs) Wharton William (writer), Dad, Amblin Entertainment Read More