Product Details

• Actors: Jack Lemmon, Ted Danson, Olympia Dukakis, Kathy Baker, Kevin Spacey
• Directors: Gary David Goldberg
• Writers: Gary David Goldberg, William Wharton
• Producers: Gary David Goldberg, Frank Marshall, Joseph Stern, Kathleen Kennedy, Ric Kidney
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: March 1, 1992
• Run Time: 117 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301650794
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #248,602 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

William Wharton's startling and moving novel about fathers and sons got an above-average film adaptation from TV's Gary David Goldberg, who wrote and directed. While the film couldn't capture the sadness and wonder of Wharton's worlds-within-worlds construct, it did get exactly right the notion of how one closes the distance from a parent or a child. Danson plays an ambitious businessman forced to put work aside to care for his aging parents (Jack Lemmon and Olympia Dukakis) when his mother is hospitalized. Mom, it turns out, is a domineering dictator who has stifled Dad all these years; with her out of the way, Dad suddenly recognizes the possibilities of his own life. Meanwhile, Danson's estranged son, Ethan Hawke, comes home as well, allowing the two of them a rapprochement. Lemmon is particularly good (and almost unrecognizable). --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely One of My Favorite Movies, September 27, 2001

By 

Martha Moore (Johnson City, TN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dad [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"Dad" is definitely one of the most touching movies I have ever seen. I have seen this movie several times, and every time I cry at the end! The son lives far away and is so obsessed with work that he has not been home to see his elderly parents much in recent years. When his mother is unexpectedly taken ill, he comes home and is shocked to see how his father has gone down under the overprotective eye of his domineering mother. John, the son, starts teaching his father to be independent, at the same time rebuilding a good quality relationship with him. It is so touching later in the movie when his dad becomes ill and John dotes over him and refused to give up. This also inspires John to build a relationship with his own son, with whom he has not had much contact. I can relate to this story, as can anyone who has dealt with the illness and/or death of aging parents. I would recommend this movie to anyone, especially anyone who has dealt or is now having to deal with the aging and/or death of a parent. This movie puts a lot of things into perspective about aged parents and with dealing with the illness and death of a parent.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If this one doesn't touch you..., November 29, 2004

By 

nom-de-nick "nom-de-nick" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dad [VHS] (VHS Tape)

You're pure ice. The film, while admittedly not ringing true in spots via dialogue or circumstance, is nonetheless engaging, touching, and emotionally draining. Some of the points it touches on are so dead-on it's scary. Acting-wise, it's Ted Danson's high point. He'll likely never top this performance, but it's enough to leave the world even if he leaves acting tomorrow. Lemmon and Dukakis are tremendous. YOu've read the plot in other reviews; just see it and get ready for an emotional jolt.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great and inspiring movie about elderly parents that is true!, February 3, 2007

By 

Frank Bianchi (brooklyn, ny USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dad (DVD)

I am presently going thru almost the exact same scenario in real life as this movie. I found it by accident early one morning after my mother had a rough night. For many moments, I felt like I was a character in this movie.

Although many reviewers say that these things do not happen the way they are depicted in the movie, I have almost the exact circumstances happening to me and my family right now.
(a) My mother's first hospital told us that she would need full leg amputations and then not survive. This hospital's parent hospital had a renowned specialist that had a procedure that saved my mother's life. Yes, my nephew and I had to find him and convince him to take my mother as a patient with no help from the first hospital (Thanks again Dr. McKinsey!!!).
(b) During the time my mother was in the hospitals (3 weeks), someone in our family was always with her, 24*7. I literally lived there during this time.
(c) I am a VP on Wall Street and took a leave of absence from work, going on 4 months now, to care for my mother and help her regain her health.

This movie made me feel that we are not alone in facing the challenges that make up the primary plot of Dad and that I am not a crack pot for the decisions that I made to help care for my mother.