This memorable film joins several dozen demographically diverse, racially mixed, spectacularly ordinary dads and sons (and many who are both) along with a few celebrities - Edward James Olmos, Shaquille O'Neal, "Home Improvement" kid Zachary Ty Bryan - who are blended so seamlessly that their status is no more consequential than that of their fellow anonymous guyfolk.

What these boys and men reveal, in waxing eloquency about the job of dad and son, is almost staggering in its candor. It seems as if producer-directors Gary Weimberg, Catherine Ryan, and Judith Leonard have slipped these "storytellers" some sort of sensitivity serum. Rarely do males allow themselves to be captured in so raw and sincere a state, making an airtight case for the uncanny strength of the father-son bond.

Broken into "chapters" that catalog the oft-complicated tales chronologically from birth to childhood to adolescence to manhood and finally to old age, The Story of Fathers and Sons does not shrink from the painful, the angry, or the sad.

From a frazzled dad toting his toddler to a first tantrum-filled haircut to troubled men escorting their aging fathers into the sunset, this film spans the paternal universe. DVD format only. 45 minutes. 1999.

See also this related product: The Story of Mothers and Daughters.

ILP

1008