Movies 'Bout Fathers

With the advent of Father's Day, I thought I'd compile a list of my favorite movies about fatherhood:

1. Life Is Beautiful- Won Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1998, this movie stars Italian funny man Roberto Benigni, who, when finding out about winning the award, went apeshit and ran around kissng and hugging everybody within 10 feet of him. It's about a father and son who are imprisoned in a concentration camp. The father goes to great lengths to protect his son from the horrors of the camp. It provides comic relief but the ending left me all misty, like Dick Vermeil in a post game news conference.
2. Star Wars Trilogy - Don't let the special effects, pyrotechnics and silly character names fool you, this is a movie about redemption between father and son. Darth, the shitty guy that he was, seeks out Luke so that they can overthrow the emperor and rule the galaxy together. After finding out that the Jedi Formerly Known As Anakin is really his old man, Luke, with his new Jedi skills, goes out destroy him for the shitty guy that he is and reclaim the spirit of Anakin.
"I am your father Luke..."
3. The Godfather Trilogy - Such a complex tale this trilogy weaves. Basically, it's the trials of the Corleone family from turn of the century Little Italy in New York to modern day gangstas. Focusing mainly on Michael, who in the beginning is the reluctant heir to Vito Corleone's "family", transforms into a megalomaniacal Don expanding his father's empire. It's not without consequences, as it breaks up his family and single-handedly doubles the murder rate. In the end, he seeks to legitimize himself, business and family by aligning with the Vatican. Guys sleeping with fishes, horse's heads, fratricide, kissing cousins; a classic.
4. Boyz N' The Hood - Probably should be number 2 on this list because of the positive message it sends about the importance of the presence of a responsible father in a child's life. It's about a group of boys growing up in the L.A. gangsta culture. Trey (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is faced with the pressures of growing up in such an environment, voilence, sex, drugs, misogyny. It's his father (Morpheus) who keeps him grounded by singing songs by the 5 Chairsteps (oooh child, things are gonna get easier, oooh child, things will get brighter...). An underrated movie.
5. The Omen - What a quandary Ambassador Thorn (Gregory Thorn) must have been when he discovers that he's the stepfather of the Antichrist. Everything was all hunky dory until Little Dee turns five. Nannies are hanging themselves, mom is falling off second floor banisters, the little son of a rottweiler throwing tantrums at the sight of church (sounds like the All-Star and X-Games, hmmm). In the end, Ambassador Thorn has had enough and decides to off Damien in the House of God. Unfortunately, cops intervene and it spawns two really bad sequels and one prequel. This movie, along with the Exorcist, gives inspiration to a whole music genre, devil worshipping heavy metal bands.
6. Meet The Parents - The movie that gives a bad name to male nurses everywhere. Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) meets psycho, future father-in-law, Jack Byrnes (Robert DeNiro).
"I will take you down Greg...all the way to Chinatown."
7. Ransom - The son of airline executive, Tom Mullen (Mel Gibson), is kidnapped. What follows is what any parent with a boat load of cash does whose son is kidnapped. He offers a huge reward for the heads of the perpetrators after the authorities botch the victim for ransom swap. In the end, Mel kicks Lt. Dan's ass and gets his son back.
"GIVE ME BACK MY SON!!!"
8. The Great Santini - Stars Robert Duvall as Bull Meechum as a gung ho, hard-drinking Marine fighter pilot who has trouble expressing his feelings towards his family, especially his oldest son, Tom. The basketball scene with Bull and Ben is brutal as Bull can't deal with Ben's coming of age. After Bull's death in a plane crash, Mrs. Meechum remarries and becomes the future mother-in-law of Greg Focker.
9. He Got Game - Kind of like Star Wars, except played out on the blacktops of New York. Convicted on manslaughter for the death of his wife, Joe Shuttlesworth is offered a pardon by the prison warden if he can get his stud high school b-ball player Jesus (Ray Allen, then of the Milwuakee Bucks) to attend the warden's alma mater. The problem is, Jesus hates dad for the death of mom. In the end, father and son have a light saber duel...uhhh...one-on-one basketball game which is essentially for dad's freedom. A Spike Lee joint.
10. Son Of Godzilla - Let's face it, in the 50 year history of Godzilla, before they came out with a bastardized version in 2000 starring Ferris Bueller, we all thought Godzilla was a dude and not an androgynous CG freak. No! Give me Godzilla in the rubber suit any day! In this movie, we find out that baby godzillas bear a striking resemblence to Gary Coleman (what'chu talkin' 'bout Rodan?). Godzilla battles nuclear storm mutated mantises and a rhinestone-encrusted spider as baby gets into one mess after another.
Back in the day, I used to wonder what happened to Mrs. Godzilla. Perhaps, Mr. Godzilla, in a fit of rage, accidentally smokes Mrs. G with his atomic breath. Upon discovering the fate of his mom, baby godzilla rebels against dad and disowns him. After a successful career as an actor starring as Blue Eyes White Dragon in the Yu-Gi-Oh movie series, he disappears into obscurity, works odd jobs as a security guard and pitchman for shady loan companies. Baby godzilla is last seen in an unsuccessful campaign as governor of Monster Island.

Honorable mentions: Finding Nemo, Kramer Vs. Kramer, To Kill A Mockingbird, A Bronx Tale (these movies probably belonged in the top ten, but I just picked the first ten that came to mind)