There's no greater human tragedy than the failure to communicate. Gilbert Cates' I Never Sang for My Father (1970) conveys this in a heart-wrenching father-son drama. Robert Anderson's plays often address parental disconnect, and Father manages to feel painfully real.Gene Garrison (Gene Hackman) is a successful writer who can't connect with his father Tom (Melvyn Douglas). A former Mayor and businessman, Tom finds Gene's intellectual pursuits distasteful, stirring resentment in a son who can't please him. After Tom's wife Margaret (Dorothy Stickney) dies, Gene considers caring for Tom, despite estranged sister Alice's (Estelle Parsons) protests. Father and son's tentative understanding explodes when Gene proposes to girlfriend Peggy (Elizabeth Hubbard).
I Never Sang for My Father avoids the melodrama of Anderson's Tea and Sympathy, which paints Tom Lee's father as a cartoon bully. Tom Garrison is terrified of emotion and sensitivity: he mocks Gene's writing and goes to the Rotary Club for drinks when his wife's on her deathbed. His anti-Semitism (disowning Margaret for marrying a Jew) is more easily detestable. Nonetheless, it's hard to hate Tom; he and Gene simply aren't on the same wavelength. A scrapper who overcame an absent father and hardscrabble background, he can't understand why Gene isn't more like him.
Gene sums up his own dilemma handily: "I hate him, and I hate hating him." He's spent his whole life acting to please Tom, only to find affection isn't good enough. Despite his success he can't escape Tom's shadow; with his wife dead, he can't create his own family and he's too afraid to confront the old man directly. Alice accuses Tom of emasculating Gene which seems unfair, but Gene's inability to reconcile filial loyalty and independence costs both men dearly. When Gene belatedly asserts himself, it only causes heartache.
Cates provides no-frills direction, emphasizing Anderson's text and the cast over cinematic fireworks. One exception is an eerie scene where Gene canvassing an old age home, the soundtrack phasing out for eerie music as Gene pictures his father among the assembled invalids. While jarring in an otherwise unstylized film, the scene's remarkably powerful, resonating with father and son's fears. What's scarier to a child, adult or no, than seeing your parents reduced to helplessness? What's worse for a parent than becoming a burden?
Gene Hackman gets a knockout early role. Hackman's unusually sensitive, unctuous and wimpy until his emotion finally boils over. Hard to believe he did The French Connection a year later. The film's an equal showcase for Melvyn Douglas (Hud), who plays Tom as deeply wounded, hiding his scars behind stubborn jocularity. Among other roles, Dorothy Stickney is affecting with minimal screentime, but Estelle Parsons is too broadly brusque and Elizabeth Hubbard one-dimensional.
I Never Sang for My Father hits a familiar theme: every father wants their son to be them; every son wants to please their father. True or not, it's an easy conflict, but Anderson avoids an easy answer. This isn't the story of an ogre tormenting an ungrateful son, but two men who can't accept their differences... yet can't separate themselves, either.
