STACK Aug #154

FEATURE DVD&BD

FROM HERE to PATERNITY

Movie dads are as diverse as the films that showcase their parenting skills, or lack thereof.With Father's Day fast approaching, JB Hi-Fi have selected a range of titles celebrating film fatherhood in all its infinite variety, and we've picked eight notable screen patriarchs – from the devoted and the daft, to the downright dangerous.

DANIEL HILLARD This devoted dad is better known by his female alias: Euphegenia Doubtfire. After losing custody of his three children in a divorce, this unemployed actor transforms himself into the eponymous Scottish housekeeper in order to spend more time with them. He becomes a better father as an old lady, even if it involves getting hit on by a bus driver and setting his fake boobs on fire. BRYAN MILLS Paternal instincts can lead a man to desperate measures. Just ask this retired CIA operative with 'a very particular set of skills' how he plans to deal with his daughter's abductors: "I will find you... and I will kill you." His methods may be brutal but there's no denying that Bryan's a devoted dad, however the jury's still out on whether or not he's a good role model. LESTER BURNHAM "I am 42 years old; in less than a year I will be dead. Of course I don't know that yet, and in a way, I am dead already." Having a mid-life crisis and a creepy crush your teenaged daughter's best friend doesn't exactly make you an ideal father. But Lester's still got a bit more going for him than the dad next door – a homophobic disciplinarian who's living a lie. That's two bad fathers for the price of one. BEN CASH This polymath paterfamilias has some peculiar ideas about parenting, dragging his brood of six off the grid and drilling them in athletic, intellectual and survival skills. In some ways he's a very cool dad, until a forced return to civilisation ultimately reveals his failings as a father – his kids can skin a rabbit, quote Karl Marx and the American Constitution, but they have no idea what Star Trek is!

WADE VOGEL This stoic, Midwestern farmer's love for his 16- year old daughter is as big as the man himself. And that's huge, given he's played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. When Maggie becomes infected with a 'Necroambulist' – as in zombie – virus, her anguished old man does what he can to see she spends her final days at home, rather than submit to quarantine and a painful and protracted demise. PROFESSOR HENRY JONES The senior Jones believes he was a wonderful father, but 'Junior' begs to differ: "I was less important to you than people that have been dead for several hundred years in other countries." The pair did patch things up, though, when they were thrown together to beat the Nazis to the Holy Grail. We should also point out that casting Sean Connery as Indy's dad was a stroke of pure genius. DON VITO CORLEONE This mafia patriarch is perhaps the ultimate father in film, who would do anything for his family – even if it involves a horse's head under the covers. Such is his loyalty, we almost feel some sympathy for this murderous mobster. And the bitter truth is that his son, Michael, winds up becoming his dad, despite a fierce determination not to. MATT KING With his wife on life support following a boating accident, this Hawaiian land baron and self- described back-up parent only wants the best for his two girls. "I don't want my daughters growing up entitled and spoiled. And I agree with my father – you give your children enough money to do something but not enough to do nothing." Sage advice indeed.

Words Scott Hocking

Check out more movie dads in the Fathers in Film promotion at

until 10th September 2017

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21/7/17 1:53 pm