The bond between a parent and their child (or even between a person and their surrogate parental figure) is one of the most complex relationships there is. Hollywood certainly understands this, based on how many amazing parent-child duos have graced both the big and small screen for decades. The following are some of the world’s favorites.
Don Vito And Michael Corleone (The Godfather)
The entire Godfather saga is a tale of one man’s rise to power as the leader of a ruthless mafia family, but the first of Francis Ford Coppola’s Best Picture Oscar winners based on Mario Puzo’s novel is, essentially, a father-son story. Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) never wanted his youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino), to take his place in the family business, but Michael’s decision to avenge his father’s attempted murder himself is what places him on this dark path.
Gilmore Girls was one of the first series to introduce the idea of a parent and their child also being each other’s best friends. In fact, single mother Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) and her daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel), whom Lorelai had when she was a teenager, consider themselves best friends first and a mother and daughter second.
American Film Institute named Southern attorney Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) from To Kill a Mockingbird cinema’s all-time greatest hero for his refreshing empathy and undaunted sense of justice. What makes him a movie dad one would be proud to have is the way he passes his ideals onto his impressionable children, especially his daughter, Jean Louise, better known as “Scout” (Mary Badham), who bravely comes to her father’s aid in his most challenging moments.
classic TV sitcom, Sanford & Son, in which the cantankerous Fred Sanford (Red Foxx) and his more conscientious son, Lamont (Demond Wilson), run a junk-dealing business together.
Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, when Darth Vader (née Anakin Skywalker), played by David Prowse and voiced by James Earl Jones, reveals to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) that he is his father. Luckily, at the end of Return of the Jedi, the Sith Lord comes to his son’s rescue against Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), turning back to the light side of the Force before it is too late.
Stranger Things is the relationships between the characters, none of which are as strong and heartwarming as that of Jim Hopper (David Harbour) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). The Hawkins Police Chief, who previously lost a daughter to cancer, secretly takes in the psychic child as his own at the beginning of Season 2 and becomes her legal guardian by its end.
best Disney animated films of all time. The secret is the complicated, but ultimately charming, relationship between the classic, eponymous animated character (voiced by Bill Farmer) and his teen son, Max (Jason Marsden), who he takes on a road trip that changes their lives forever.
Betty White), Blanche (Rue McLanahan), and Dorothy’s quick-witted mother, Sophia (Estelle Getty). Getty’s Emmy-winning performance was so convincing, lending wonderfully to her and Dorothy’s back-and-forth relationship, you would never guess the actor was actually one year younger than Arthur.
best Indiana Jones movie (most would agree that honor belongs to Raiders of the Lost Ark), 1989’s Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is easily the installment with the most heart. The key is seeing Harrison Ford’s eponymous archaeologist team up with his estranged father, Dr. Henry Jones, Sr. (Sir Sean Connery), in a race against the Nazis to locate the Holy Grail.
child star who walked away from Hollywood after this role) from Aliens, as they are not biologically related or even bonded by law. However, through the survivor’s fierce bid to protect the orphaned child from the Xenomorphs, she effectively becomes that little girl’s mother by the end of that 1986 sci-fi movie classic.
space movie, Christopher Nolan’s 2014 sci-fi odyssey is an even more powerful father-daughter story. Forced to leave Earth to search for a more habitable alternative home, Joseph “Coop” Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) becomes estranged from his daughter, Murphy, or “Murph” for short (played at different ages by Mackenzie Foy, Jessica Chastain, and finally Ellen Burstyn), not only by miles but also by decades after traveling through a time-dilating black hole.
post-apocalyptic thriller about a man (played by Viggo Mortensen) and child (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee) searching for sanctuary in a dystopian wasteland. However, by keeping the core duo nameless, the story of a father struggling to do what is best for his son despite insurmountable obstacles becomes a tale that any parent can identify with.
TV show often compared to Gilmore Girls for its plot involving a single mother (played by Brianne Howey) and her young adult daughter (played by Antonia Gentry) she had in her teens. However, creator Sarah Lampert’s dramedy takes things in a much darker direction with distressing circumstances that tend to put the titular duo at odds with one another.
platonic pairing of Marlin (Albert Brooks) and Dory (Ellen DeGeneres). However, in the grand scheme of things, the Pixar movie favorite is really about the clownfish’s search for his eponymous son (voiced by Alexander Gould) and the youngster’s determination to reunite with his father.
acclaimed Disney+ original TV show, other than an adventure following a tough galactic bounty hunter. The moment the series and the character of Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) truly won over audiences was when the show exposed his soft spot as he defied his orders and became a surrogate father to an adorable, infantile Jedi eventually called Grogu (but initially referred to by fans as “Baby Yoda”).
classic baseball movie, a mystifying ghost story, and a profound, heartwarming fantasy, but that is the tip of the iceberg. In its purest, most essential form, the 1989 favorite is the story of a farmer named Ray (Kevin Costner) given the astonishing opportunity to reunite with his late father, John (Dwier Brown), for a game of catch.
time travel movies ever made is 1999’s Frequency, starring Jim Caviezel as John Sullivan, a modern-day homicide detective inexplicably given the chance to speak to his long-dead father, Frank (played by Dennis Quaid), from 30 years in the past over HAM radio. However, when they accidentally alter the past in grim ways, they must work together to prevent a series of murders before they happen.
alien invasion movie and disaster thriller with a nearly unmatched sense of charm and heart. Much of that can be credited to the relationship between MIT grad David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum) and his relationship with his father, Julius (a hilarious, scene-stealing Judd Hirsch).
parent and child acting alongside each other is Martin and Charlie Sheen in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street. Carl Fox (Martin) and his son, Bud (Charlie), are divided by their employment status (Carl being blue collar and Bud being white collar) and an ethical disagreement that nearly severs their relationship forever, but ultimately remain united by their mutual love and admiration.
body swap movie.
great, A24 movie starring Academy Award nominee Paul Mescal as a man trying to do right by his young daughter, Sophie (Frankie Corio), amid his struggles with depression and anxiety.
Max And Page Conners (Heartbreakers)
Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt star in Heartbreakers as a mother-daughter con artist duo. They specialize in cheating wealthy men out of their money by having Max (Weaver) marry the target, having Page (Hewitt) seduce them into being adulterous, and collecting the loot in the divorce settlement.
“Big” And “Little Edith” Bouvier Beale (Grey Gardens)
The acclaimed 1975 documentary Grey Gardens introduced the world to Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, “Little Edith,” who are the cousins of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore gave acclaimed performances as the reclusive eccentrics in a dramatized adaptation of the doc made for HBO in 2009.