Review of I Never Sang for My Father

While I admire the writing and the outstanding performances, it's not a film that I can say that I enjoy. I watched it the first time years ago and greatly admired it. However, after I watched it a second time recently, I decided that I would never watch it again because it's simply too depressing. The story is all Tom Garrison, and Melvyn Douglas's performance was Oscar worthy. But Tom Garrison is not a person that you can like, and you feel conflicted at the end when a old man is slowly dying, but has left such a trail of destruction with his two children that you know he will die alone. Gene Hackman gives an excellent performance as Gene, the son who was the subject of his father's tyranny for so many years. The performance of Estelle Parsons as Tom's daughter Alice, who he rejected for marrying a Jewish man, is outstanding.