DADDY AND THEM

US, 2001, 101 minutes, Colour.
Billy Bob Thornton, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Kelly Preston, Andy Griffith, John Prine, Jim Varney, Brenda Blethyn, Ben Affleck, Jamie Lee Curtis.
Directed by Billy Bob Thornton.

Daddy and Them was produced in the late 1990s but was not released until 2001 and then only in a limited way. Billy Bob Thornton had made a great impact with his Sling Blade, which he wrote and directed, performed in and won an Oscar for best screenplay. After Daddy and Them he directed All the Pretty Horses from Cormac Mc Carthy’s novel – and has not directed since, concentrating on his acting career which has been very successful and prolific (ranging from Bandits to The Alamo to The Man Who Wasn’t There).

This film is set in Arkansas and Tennessee, a picture of a dysfunctional southern family. The characters are exaggerated – in order to make the point about the types of characters that they are and their interactions. This makes for some satiric humour.

Billy Bob Thornton and Laura Dern play a cantankerous couple with Diane Ladd (Laura Dern’s actual mother – Rambling Rose, Wild at Heart, Inland Empire) as an interfering mother. Kelly Preston is her glamorous sister. They all travel to Little Rock when Billy Bob’s uncle is arrested for attempted murder. We then meet the Montgomery family with patriarch, Andy Griffith, not quite in the grip of things and visiting English psychologist Brenda Blethyn, the wife of the accused. There is a very amusing interlude with northern lawyers who squabble and then break up – played by Jamie Lee Curtis and Ben Affleck.

The film is certainly eccentric, has a blend of reality and dreams, shows dysfunctional people – and the interactions in the extended family. However, it ends with a note of hope.

1.A portrait of a family, ordinary, extraordinary? Squabbles and fights? The ethos?

2.The work of Billy Bob Thornton, as writer, as director, as actor? His perspective on the south, on characters, on the family?

3.The Arkansas and Tennessee settings, the ordinary working life of ordinary people, homes, church? The contrast with the city, courts? The open road? The blend of the ordinary, realism – and the interludes of dreams?

4.The heightened nature of the writing, the characterisation, the satire and pathos?

5.Ruby and Claude, the initial arguing, Ruby and her being cantankerous, criticising Claude, his relationship with her sister Rose when she was young, her own relationships with musclebound men? The suspicious nature of Ruby, wanting fights? Language, ignorance – but Claude and his quotations? Rose and the past? His own attitude, his straightforwardness? Ruby’s mother, continually making mischief, remembering the past? The mother and rose arriving? The drive to Little Rock? The discussions in the car, Claude and his exasperation, getting out and walking?

6.The situation in Little Rock, Hazel and his assault, it turning out to be attempted murder? The later insertions of the story, his victim, the reasons?

7.The gathering, the title, Daddy and his patriarchal position, his wife and her failing memory? The various brothers? The introductions to Julia? The comments on the English? The meals, the discussions? The father and his mixing up Ruby and Rose? The decision to visit the prison? Their all coming? The shooting practice sequences? O.T’s wife and her silently wandering off to pick flowers?

8.Hazel, the attack, the lawyers, in the court, the charges? The family’s support?

9.Julia, British, love for Hazel, the background to their marriage, the complaints about not being invited? The visits and the discussions?

10.The humorous interlude with Lawrence and Elaine Bowen, her dominance, his trying to explain things? The disputes, the advice – and the family witnessing the break-up? The comic turns by Jamie Lee Curtis and Ben Affleck?

11.Claude and Ruby in Little Rock, the ups and downs, in the room, Rose present, the mother, her interventions? The tantrums?

12.The brothers, the drinking, the outings, the cars, the crashes, the ambulance? The effect?

13.The decision for everybody to go home – what had been achieved, in strengthening family bonds, in support, in truth being told?

14.The years passing, Claude and Ruby and their talking, lying on the bed looking out the window, the kids? An upbeat ending?