SW picks dad’s day flicks
By Tatat Bunnag
Did you know
In 2003, the American Film Institute ranked Indiana Jones as the second greatest film hero of all time.
Father’s Day will be here again on December 5. As we all know, it’s the perfect time of year to show your dad some extra love, respect and affection.
The best gift you can give your dad on Father’s Day is to spend some quality time together, and one of the best ways to do that is to relax on the couch at home and watch a great movie together.
With that in mind, Student Weekly decided to compile a short list of some great movies to watch with your dad. Get ready to prepare father’s favourite beverage, grab a big bucket of popcorn and enjoy one or more of these fantastic Father’s Day flicks.
Big Fish (2003)
Film director Tim Burton is well known for making enjoyably weird films, and his 2003 effort Big Fish is no exception.
The film focuses on the strained relationship between a father and son. The father loves to tell fictional stories about his past, which everybody finds difficult to believe. The son feels that he can’t trust his father and eventually stops talking to him for years. When he later finds out that his dad is dying, he decides to return home in an effort to learn who his father really is.
Big Fish has a good mix of reality and imaginative fantasy. If you love fantasy movies with a touching story, this is the perfect pick for you.
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Kramer vs. Kramer is a powerful family drama that will make many viewers weep. The film is about a married couple getting a divorce, and the impact that it has on everybody involved, especially their young son.
When Joanna Kramer (Meryl Streep) leaves her workaholic husband Ted (Dustin Hoffman), Ted has to face up to life as a single parent struggling to look after his son. When Joanna returns and seeks to gain custody of their son, Ted fights to keep him.
Kramer vs. Kramer is a powerful story about family, heartbreak and the power of love.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones franchise is one of the world’s most famous and best-loved film series. Many fans believe that The Last Crusade is the best of the bunch.
In The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) brings his dad, Professor Henry Jones (Sean Connery) along on an adventure fighting the Nazis and searching for the Holy Grail.
The movie is full of amusing conflicts between father and son, who despite constantly annoying each other also have a deep feeling affection between them that comes to the fore when Henry’s life is threatened.
With a smart plot, a hilarious script and plenty of action, The Last Crusade is as good as action-adventure movies get.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
Director Wes Anderson is well known for making stylish and highly personal films, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is one of his best. The film merges Anderson’s typically stylised dialogue and quirky characters with a heartfelt story involving the difficult relationship between a father and son.
Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) is a famous oceanographer and explorer who is searching for the jaguar shark, a rare species of shark that he believes killed his assistant on a previous adventure. Steve is accompanied on his voyage by a strange crew of characters including Ned (Owen Wilson), a man who may or may not be Steve’s son.
Despite being full of quirky characters, The Life Aquatic has plenty of emotional weight and a touching father and son relationship that will leave viewers with a warm feeling.
Interstellar (2014)
Director Christopher Nolan is best known for his films Memento, Inception and the Batman trilogy. While Nolan’s films often have complicated plots, his new space melodrama Interstellar has a fairly simple story. The science in the film can be quite confusing, but the emotional story about a father’s love for his kids contrasting with his responsibility of saving humanity is a simple one.
Interstellar is set in the near future, after environmental catastrophe has damaged most of Earth’s food sources. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is a pilot-turned-farmer tasked with leaving behind his young son and daughter for a mission through space and time in effort to find a new home for humans in another galaxy.
Interstellar may be one of the most beautiful-looking science fiction films ever made and shouldn’t be missed by fans of Nolan’s previous movies.
Vocabulary
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flick (n): a movie
strained (adj): not relaxed or friendly
weep (v): to cry because you are sad
workaholic (n): a person who works very hard and finds it difficult to stop working and do other things
custody (n): the legal right or duty to take care of or keep somebody or something
stylised (adj): drawn, written, made, etc. in a way that is not natural or realistic
quirky (adj): slightly strange in an amusing and likeable way
catastrophe (n): a sudden disaster that causes many people to sufferIdiom
come to the fore: to become important and noticeable
