It’s Father’s Day weekend, so this week’s AVQ&A prompt is simple. Editor-in-chief Danette Chavez wants to know: What’s the most dad movie ever?
As always, we invite you to contribute your own responses in the comments—and send in some prompts of your own! If you have a pop culture question you’d like us and fellow readers to answer, please email it to [email protected].
Ford V. Ferrari (2019)
I was raised on dad movies. Blockbuster nights in my house consisted of the family gathering around to watch Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World because that’s what my dad wanted to watch. In the last decade, though, there is only one movie that my dad mentions, even though he can never remember the name. It’s Ford V Ferrari, James Mangold’s handsomely made and rousing staging of the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Matt Damon plays Carroll Shelby, the retired racecar driver-turned-Ford designer, who works with the cantankerously British Ken Miles (Christian Bale), to build an American car that can best Ferrari in Italy. Aside from being a historical drama based on the true story of legendary car guys, Ford V Ferrari drives the fatherly theme of middle-aged grease monkeys proving themselves still capable in the face of pretentious Europeans with grit and control. The movie is propulsive, loud, and filled with great one-liners—the perfect cocktail to help dads stay awake and standing at attention inches away from their television set. Ironic bonus points: This car movie makes for a great plane movie, too. [Matt Schimkowitz]
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
IMDb’s “best movie” rankings be damned, the real arena where The Shawshank Redemption proved its dominance was basic cable. This is the film that, thanks to Ted Turner buying up Castle Rock Entertainment, has been a constant threat to fathers at risk of standing up in the living room for half an hour over the past 30 years. My dad isn’t really into Stephen King (my mom is the one who got me into the author), but he is into male ensemble dramas with solid craftsmanship, memorable lines, and close quarters. One of the first films I remember watching with him is Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17…but of course that one’s a little too highbrow and a little too classical to be a true dad movie. Shawshank is a film you can pop in and out of, can nod off to on a Sunday afternoon or catch bursts of when you come in to grab something else to throw on the grill, while still appreciating its easy storytelling and potent, non-threatening masculine emotions. [Jacob Oller]
The Untouchables (1987)
Dad movies are rooted in the familiar, which is why you’ll find so many adaptations among their ranks. But when one of those adaptations also draws from local history, affording a dad a chance to point out everything that’s changed about a city and recite an unforgettable speech about escalating street warfare? That’s the Chicago way—I mean, The Untouchables. Now, Brian De Palma’s crime epic is too gripping and stylishly made to really be relegated to “dad movie” territory, but dads can have great taste too! And when Father’s Day rolls around, what family activity is better than watching Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Andy Garcia battle it out with Robert De Niro for the soul of the Second City? Brunch? [Danette Chavez]
Forrest Gump (1994)
Is Forrest Gump covertly kind of conservative, implying that those good-for-nothing hippies got what they deserved? A bit. Is it also a crowd pleaser whose constant airings on cable in the ’00s really helped me when it came time to take an APUSH exam? Also yes. When I was a kid, it seemed like this movie was on cable at least every day, and I probably watched at least part of it once every month or two because it was a movie that both my dad and I could always agree on. It felt like one of the first grown-up movies I was allowed to watch, and over time, I was allowed to see more and more of it. (Some of the gorier Vietnam War scenes were prohibited at first.) But while it felt like a rite of passage to me, it’s also pure, unadulterated Boomer nostalgia. Forrest Gump feels like the kind of story from your dad’s youth that you don’t mind hearing over and over again. [Drew Gillis]
Rocky (1976)
Who doesn’t love an underdog story? All of the blood, sweat, and tears Sylvester Stallone poured into his 1976 breakout performance is catnip for gym dads. Rocky follows a small-time boxer (Stallone) who gets a shot at the big leagues, but must train like hell if he’s to survive in the ring against a pro. The movie is more or less one long training montage, following Rocky as he beats racks of beef and runs up those famous museum stairs in Philadelphia to some of the most inspiring sports movie music ever scored. It’s a film about defying the odds and training every day like you’re preparing for the big match. While much of the story is Rocky vs. the world, he needs a team to get him to the ring, including his trainer Mickey, his cornerman Paulie, and of course, a love interest to fight for, Adrian. Rocky’s underdog story mirrored Stallone’s own scramble to make this passion project, and the hard-won crowdpleaser paid off with two Oscars and many more nominations, including a few for writer and star Stallone. Fifty years later, Rocky remains a top contender for all-time dad movie. [Monica Castillo]
Lincoln (2012)
I’m actually kind of shocked that I don’t remember talking about Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln with my dad; admittedly, he was in the early stages of a slow death from cancer when the movie came out in 2012, but Spielberg’s wonderfully detailed adaptation of Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team Of Rivals really couldn’t have been more up my Civil War-obsessed old man’s alley. That very much includes all the national daddishness Daniel Day-Lewis brought to the title role, most especially in my favorite scene of the whole film: Honest Abe “delighting” his White House staff by launching into one of his beloved folksy anecdotes, only for Secretary Of War Edwin Stanton (played with perfectly set peevishness by Bruce McGill) to instantly blow his stack at this latest cornpone interruption and storm out of the room, loudly ranting the whole time. It’s not just historically accurate—former political rival Stanton both admired Lincoln and found him deeply irritating—but also exactly the sort of anecdote my dad would have loved to regale me with over the dinner table. [William Hughes]
Caddyshack (1980)
I feel like we’ve nailed down most of the defining qualities of a dad movie here: period setting; ordinary and extraordinary men triumphing over the odds; enough emotional cover for dad to shed an uncharacteristic tear or two. But whither the goofy dads? The go-for-the-bad-pun dads? The dads who never stop quoting a comedy that came out in their 20s? For them, I can think of only one movie, built around the fatherly activities of golfing, farting, and saying things you really wished they hadn’t. Since 1980, Caddyshack has been a boon to the vocabularies of dads everywhere, its episodic structure making it a weekend-afternoon remote stopper on par with The Shawshank Redemption. Multiple generations have now been subjected to spontaneous recitations of the “Cinderella story” monologue and gone through youth sports programs being told to “be the ball” every practice, knowing when they hear the hooky strains of “I’m Alright” drifting down a hallway, it’s only a matter of time before they’re summoned to the living room to be shown that errant Baby Ruth causing a ruckus in the Bushwood swimming pool all over again. [Erik Adams]
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