Word: fatherlessness
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...dangerous, pet-worthy creatures and its cunning use of special effects to make the fauna realistic. Add a dollop of Hollywood eco-mania, portraying the park owner as a predatory capitalist who would kill Willy for the insurance money. And wrap this around the summer's favorite icon: the fatherless boy who teaches everyone else -- surrogate parents, adult friends and a nearby cetacean -- how to be human. The movie hits every emotional button with a firm fist. It makes the phrase feel-good sound like a command from the industry's P.C. Patrol...
Danny, the fatherless boy in Arnold Schwarzenegger's new Last Action Hero, is living the dream of any lonely young movie fan. He has been blasted magically through the screen to co-star in a new action film with Jack Slater, his favorite hero and budding father figure. But there are differences between reel life and real life. The boy writes a certain word on a piece of paper and asks the man to say it out loud. Jack declines the challenge, and Danny knows why. "You can't," the lad crows. "You can't possibly say it! Because this...
...Gibson in The Man Without a Face: "I'm a reclusive griever whose disfigured face and mysterious past have isolated me from human feeling. But I'll tutor a fatherless 12-year-old boy so he gets into a prep school. I will learn much in return...
Willy in Free Willy: "I'm an orca whale, moody over being separated from my family. But I will teach, and learn from, a fatherless 12-year...
...industry also looked, as it always has, to former successes and past masters. The all-time Top Three hits -- E.T., Star Wars and Home Alone -- had similar story lines: a boy, fatherless or momentarily so, goes on a quest, defends his turf and befriends an older man. It is no surprise that the sires of these films have been the New Hollywood's surest swamis: Spielberg, George Lucas and John Hughes. Home Alone alone stoked the current PG trend. "You could say it helped expose the sheer size of this market," Hughes says modestly. It cost $18 million and grossed...