While there are exceptions, most kids grow up seeing their fathers as their heroes. Whether it’s guidance, protection, or life advice, there’s something special that a good father provides that a child can’t get from anywhere else. For as many examples as there are of good fathers in real life, there’s also been many great examples that have been put on display in movies. While they may be fictional, these examples we’ve seen on screen have created a blueprint for what a good dad is to the point where many kids wish these characters were their real fathers. In the spirit of Father’s Day, it’s time to break down the list of Konscious Kurt’s 10 Favorite Movie Dads.
10. Sonny Coufax: Big Daddy
Starring Adam Sandler, 1999’s Big Daddy centers around slacker Sonny Coufax and his girlfriend Vanessa threatening to break up with him if he doesn’t show that he could be more responsible. A 5-year-old boy named Julian then randomly gets dropped off at his apartment the next day, with a letter from his dying mom saying that he’s the son of Sonny’s roommate Kevin. After Kevin denies knowing who the mother is and Sonny then starts to think about what Vanessa said, he decides to keep Julian as his own son. Despite having a hard time adjusting to being a dad and Vanessa even dumping him for an older man, Sonny builds a strong bong with Julian with his unorthodox way of parenting. Although Sonny ends up not getting custody of Julian as it’s later found out that Kevin is legally his dad, the bond between them throughout the movie makes it hard to see them as anything other than father and son.
9. Daniel Ruiz: Crash
In a movie filled with racial tension and prejudice, one of the few likable characters in 2005’s Crash was locksmith Daniel Ruiz. Played by Michael Pena, Daniel calms down his scared young daughter by wrapping a small trinket around her shoulders that he convinces her is an invisible cloak that will protect her from any bullets as she constantly hears gunshots from their neighborhood. When Daniel is later confronted outside his home at gun point by an angry shop owner who blames him for his shop being broken into, Daniel’s daughter steps in the way to protect him before the shop owner’s gun goes off. While Daniel initially screams in devastation as he believes that his daughter’s been shot, she reveals that the cloak he wrapped around her protected them as he tearfully hugs her in relief. As Crash went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture, this scene as well as the relationship between Daniel and his daughter are viewed as the most feel-good parts of it.
8. Chris Gardner: The Pursuit of Happyness
Based on a true story, 2006’s The Pursuit of Happyness revolves around struggling salesman Chris Gardner. After his wife leaves him due to his constant financial problems, Chris is left to raise their son Chris Jr. on his own. In order to lift themselves out of their financial struggles, Chris takes a six-month unpaid internship as a stockbroker. Through the money problems, evictions, and even having to sleep in a BART station bathroom, the hardships bring Chris and Chris Jr. closer together. Starring Will Smith and his son Jaden, their relationship throughout the movie is what stands out most as Smith’s performance even earned him an Oscar nod for Best Actor.
7. Keller Dover: Prisoners
2013’s Prisoners sees Hugh Jackmam play the lead role of Keller Dover, a man who goes into an uncontrollable rage after his daughter and her friend go missing. Not wanting to wait on the police after they release a potential suspect, Keller takes matters into his own hands by targeting the suspect himself. After assaulting the suspect, Keller kidnaps and tortures him until he tells him where his daughter and her friend are. Keller shows throughout his search that there’s nothing he won’t do to find his daughter, even if he ends up dead in the process. While a very dark movie and not really one with a happy ending, Jackman’s performance as Keller in Prisoners is a prime example of what any good father would do if one of their children went missing.
6. Furious Styles: Boyz N The Hood
Hitting theaters in the Summer of 1991, Boyz N The Hood revolves around teenagers Tre, Doughboy, and Ricky as they navigate life growing up in South Central LA. While all of them have their own struggles growing up in that rough environment, the biggest difference between them is that Tre has the guidance of his father Furious. Played by Laurence Fishburne, Furious is always the voice of reason to keep Tre from ending up like everyone else in the neighborhood. The strongest example of this is the scene where Furious talks Tre out of taking his gun to go kill the same people who killed Ricky, as he knows doing that will only lead to Tre eventually being killed too. That scene specifically represents better than any how important it is for sons to have their fathers in their lives, especially in areas like South Central.
5. Joseph “Coop” Cooper: Interstellar
A sci-fi masterpiece directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConnaughey, 2014’s Interstellar revolves around former NASA pilot Joseph Cooper being convinced to lead a mission to find life on other planets with life on Earth being on the decline. The downside is that going on the mission means that he has to leave his young daughter Murph behind, though he promises her he’ll return eventually. As the mission progresses and 23 Earth years end up passing by, a grown-up Murph (now a scientist) feels betrayed when she’s informed that her dad’s mission was never meant to return like he said it would. When Cooper is later sucked into a black hole where time is a physical dimension, he encodes data about the black hole into the ticking of his wristwatch on Murph’s bookshelf after he sees himself from decades ago in her room, knowing that she’ll return there in the future. She then uses the data from discovering the wristwatch to save humanity from a dying Earth and after later being picked up in the future, Cooper and his daughter Murph are finally reunited with Murph being older than him.
4. Carl Lee Hailey: A Time to Kill
Featuring a memorable performance by Samuel L. Jackson, 1996’s A Time to Kill begins with the disturbing scene of two white men raping and attempting to hang a 9-year-old black girl. When the little girl’s father Carl Lee Hailey is told that the two men who raped her will likely not get convicted, he takes the law into his own hands. Carl then takes an automatic rifle and kills both men as their being held at the county courthouse. This results in Carl being arrested and facing the death penalty for his crime. While the chances of him being acquitted are very slim, his reason for why he did it combined with the defense of a passionate lawyer somehow convince the jury that what he did was what any good father would’ve done.
3. Bryan Mills: Taken
In 2009’s Taken, Ex-CIA officer Bryan Mills reluctantly allows his teenage daughter Kim to go on a trip to Paris with her friend Amanda. While having a conversation on the phone with her dad after leaving for the trip, Kim sees several men come into the apartment she’s staying in and they abduct Amanda. As the situation escalates, Bryan warns Kim that the men are also going to take her before they eventually do. He then warns the men on the phone that he won’t do anything to them if they let Kim go but vows to kill them if they don’t. After they simply say “good luck” before hanging up the phone, Bryan finds out that the men who took Kim are part of an Albanian sex trafficking ring. As the movie progresses, he uses his “particular set of skills” to go through anyone in his path until he makes good on his promise of fining his daughter.
2. Daniel Hilliard: Mrs. Doubtfire
Starring the late Robin Williams, 1993’s Mrs. Doubtfire centers around out-of-work actor Daniel Hilliard and his relationship with his three children. When Daniel’s wife Miranda comes home to find the house wrecked from a house party that he threw, an argument between them leads to her saying that she wants a divorce. After a judge only grants him visitation rights with his kids once a week and Miranda tells him she’s going to hire a housekeeper, Daniel has his brother dress him up like an old woman so he can interview for the job. Going under the disguise of Mrs. Doubtfire, he quickly wins over Miranda and gets hired for the job. While unorthodox, being Mrs. Doubtfire allows Daniel to be closer to his kids and also makes him a better parent than he was before the divorce.
1. John Quincy Archibald: John Q.
The 2002 film John Q. sees Denzel Washington play the role of struggling factory worker John Quincy Archibald. When his young son Michael suddenly collapses during a baseball game, John and his wife Denise rush him to the hospital. Once there, they find out that Michael needs a heart transplant or else he’s going to die (with a $75,000 deposit needed just to get him on the organ transplant list). Although the financially strapped couple try to exhaust every avenue they can to get the money, it’s still not enough as the hospital plans to release Michael from the hospital. Desperate, John uses a gun to take the Cardiologist, several patients, and staff members hostage in the ER until the hospital agrees to put Michael on the organ transplant list. As his motives for his actions win over spectators and even the hostages themselves, John’s efforts combined with a chance heart matching from a recent car accident victim result in Michael’s life being saved.
Honorable Mentions:
• Lorenzo Anello: A Bronx Tale
• Marlin: Finding Nemo
• Cameron Poe: Con Air
• Goofy: A Goofy Movie
• Charlie Baileygates: My, Myself, & Irene
Konscious Kurt's Movie Reviews 