Not even bad in a good way

Excellent, a Must See

Am I Missing Something?

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

For a kid from the posh suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio Paul Newman has a remarkable affinity for playing blue collar men. This is a guy who knows the value of hard work and it's his greatest disappointment in life is that he hasn't passed on that value to his children, Katherine Borowitz and Robby Benson.It's Benson who Newman worries the most about. He wants to be a writer, but that just doesn't happen over night. One has to get out into the world and acquire a little life experience to learn what one wants to write about. The only one that didn't apply to was Emily Dickinson. Benson cites Hemingway as getting rejected 300 times before getting some money for his thoughts. But there certainly was a man who had himself a lot of life experience and earned a few dollars to pay his own way.I could understand Newman very well since I came from a family of uncles just like Newman on my mother's side. I could understand Benson less so since all he wants is surf and sex. He tries working at some dead end jobs, his scenes with Morgan Freeman at a cardboard box factory and trying to repossess Ossie Davis's car are his best in the film. In fact Newman's tragedy is that health issues cause him to stop working and he won't acknowledge them. But it's Newman and Benson that's the heart of Harry&Son. Father and son Keach come to a kind of understanding toward the end. The film is not the best from either Newman or Benson, but nothing to be ashamed of here.

Films directed by popular actors are often (though by no means always) the pits. Alas, "Harry & Son" is no exception. Paul Newman directed six movies, of which this is the fifth. Actors tend to concentrate on their own performances (number one), on the playing of other members of the cast (number two), on the script itself (a distant three), but on the camera-work and visual aspects, not at all! This approach often makes for dull and self-centered viewing -- great for their rabid fans, but dull for everyone else. "Harry & Son" consists of little more than a dreary succession of close-ups. The story is slack and uninteresting. The pace is dead slow. Technical qualities are minor. Music, photography and art direction are totally undistinguished.Admittedly, director Newman does occasionally try hard to speed things up, but he's defeated by the hammy, camera-hogging antics of the rest of the cast. The hazily developed and totally uninteresting story- line doesn't help either. Mind you, things do look promising on two ore three occasions, but Newman manages to muff these up too. Generally, the pace is slow and boring. Some say this is realistic, but I thought the characters and situations were straight out of fantasy land. For instance, at one stage, the hero, who claims to be a writer, receives a check from a magazine for an unsolicited contribution. Come off it! Who's kidding who? I've worked on dozens of magazines in my time and I can assure you that unsolicited contributions are not read by anyone. They go straight into the garbage bin, unless signed by a well-known name or presented personally to the editor. Anyway, the film just meanders on and on and on, with no conclusion in sight, until Newman presumably ran out of money.

This little film from director Newman could have benefited from another director's helmsman-ship. When the story focuses on Howie it really takes off and is beautiful (although Benson reverts to some 'Ode to Billy Joe' facial expressions that limit his range), but when Harry becomes the main centerpiece ... it drags. I found the lusting for Harry by the waitress character, the Sally character, and the Woodward character awfully dumb and pretentious. I did enjoy the Fort Lauderdale setting (I grew up there) and some of the scenes between the father and son are 'real', but could have benefited from more conflict like 'Hud' offered. This film does a good job of recalling the early '80s era, and Barkin (whom I've met and talked about her films with) really is genuine as the young, expectant mother. Woodward is somewhat wasted, as is Brimley until his last scene in which his character comes clean to Howie and is honest about 'janitorial supplies.' One last thing, am I the only one who notices that the last scene WAS NOT FILMED IN Florida? That's a rocky California coastline filling in for a flat Florida coastline! Duh?!

The reason I have such fond memories of this movie is because I remember how I felt (and still do - but it's not the same as the first time) the first time I saw it on video, in maybe 1993, and the feelings it provoked in me.I graduated from high school in 1984, the year the film was made, and my mother had passed away earlier in 1979, leaving me to grow up after 13 years of age with my father and younger sister. My older brother was soon to go into the Air Force, and my older sister was already away to college. While there were many differences between Paul Newman's character and my own father, the fundamental relationship he had with Robby Benson was right on the mark with me and my father. My father died when I was 26, in 1993. I think that Robby Benson's character was a few years younger when his dad in the movie died, but it was close enough to hit home with me. I, like the Benson character, was a little aimless after high school, and my father did seem to have more patience with me at times, he could give me some harsh input at other times. And my father went for 10 years without dating anyone after my mother passed away, but towards the end of his life he did find a woman that he had a lot of fun with, and we all did things together at times as well. My father was also about the same age as Newman's character when he died, and I was present right after he had his final heart attack and died at home.Now that I have explained some similarities with my life and the movie, I'll get back to why I liked the movie so much. It wasn't because of the coincidental similarities between my life and the movie, but because my life is real, and many people have many of these same basic father-son dynamics, and the writers(half Newman), actors (big part Newman), and director (Newman again)somehow pulled off an amazing dose of reality with this film that is common to all of us. Newman just commits himself so honestly. He has that seriousness in his character that at times is how many capable, grounded, but real fathers are; sometimes mixes it up with a humor that is just as honest and bold, maybe even irreverent, and then other times when they're with their sons and they have a 'comradery'. And then other times when fathers are just plain irritated, and the son knows he's on his father's bad side at the moment, and he should be worried, but he also knows that his father is a softy down deep. However a son would never challenge him and expect that soft side, and the son also instinctively knows that his father isn't perfect but he is much wiser than the him, and he certainly knows the father really does love him and has the son's best interests at heart.To summarize, first of all the performances in this movie are of a Team who were in touch with the bareness and essence of our life, of our American society and family reality. And then secondly, they somehow manage to give it back to us for us all to see on the screen, and allow us to see ourselves in a new and deeper way. I understand myself and my relationship with my father, and his relationship with me, a little better because of this movie. And that is the goal of any art, and should be the goal of people intending to make good movies. Because this movie taught me so much, I have to say that it I value it is a great movie, it (the whole Team) delivered what might be expected from the title and beyond; it was heart breaking and heart warming, it was meaningful, and I had fun watching it!. Thanks to the whole Team, but a very special thanks to Paul Newman! Pat Wilson