The 30th Anniversary of Father Hood (1993)

Father Hood (1993) is not among Patrick Swayze's best known movies. It certainly is not among his most successful, nor is it a favourite with critics. For myself, it is notable as one of the feature films in which my dearest friend Vanessa Marquez has a part. It was thirty years ago today, on August 27 1993, that Father Hood was released. in Los Angeles.

In Father Hood Patrick Swayze plays petty crook Jack Charles. His daughter had been in foster care, but was ultimately sent to the fictional Bigelow Hall in Los Angeles, a corrupt and downright abusive state-run home. When his daughter Kelly (Sabrina Lloyd) escapes from Bigelow, she goes straight to her father and tells him that his son Eddie (Brian Bonsall) is being sent there. It is when it becomes apparent to Jack that Bigelow is indeed corrupt and abusive that he rescues his son and a pregnant teen named Delores (Vanessa Marquez). After returning Delores to her family, Jack and his children begin a trek across country.

Father Hood originated with a series of articles written on child care homes for New York magazine by Nick Pileggi. Mr. Pileggi based the idea for the movie on a real-life incident in which a father abducted his children from an abusive child care home. South African director Darrell Roodt signed on to the production along with producers Gillian Gorfil and Anant Singh, with whom he had worked in South Africa. Gillian Gorfil and Darrell Roodt were developing another film at the time, but put that movie on hold in anticipation of making their first American film.

According to Anant Singh in his autobiography In Black and White: A Memoir, the producers and director Darrell Roodt had initially been promised that Richard Gere would star. Ultimately, the script would turn out entirely different from what it had originally been and the producers actually had little control over the project. Ultimately, Patrick Swayze was cast as the film's lead. Mr. Swayze was arguably still at the height of his career, with such hits as Ghost (1990) and Point Break (1991) to his credit. The film would go through a number of titles before it was released, among them Desperado, Jack of Hearts, and Honour Among Thieves. Ultimately it was titled Father Hood.

Principal photography on Father Hood began on November 16 1992 in Helotes, Texas, a small town outside of San Antonio. Father Hood would literally be shot across the country, at such locations as Hoover Dam, New Orleans, some Louisiana bayous, the Valley of Fire state park in Nevada.

According to Patrick Swayze in the biography he wrote with his wife Lisa Niemi, he was drinking more than he ever had while working on Father Hood. One morning the crew even had difficulty waking him up. It was while he was making the movie that Mr. Swayze realized he had a problem. After shooting ended on Father Hood, he checked himself into a treatment centre in Tucson, Arizona.

Vanessa Marquez in Father Hood (1993)

While according to Patrick Swayze, he was drunk much of the time that he was making Father Hood,  Vanessa Marquez said he was one of the nicest people with whom she ever worked. Vanessa simply adored him. Vanessa's part in Father Hood is a small one, and she only appears for a few minutes in the movie. Still, she gives a fairly good performance for the time that she is on screen. Curiously, Father Hood is one of two times that Vanessa played a pregnant character, the other being the 1991 TV movie Locked Up: A Mother's Rage. Given Vanessa was never pregnant, she did a remarkably good job of playing characters who were.

Patrick Swayze's co-star in Father Hood was Halle Berry, who was fresh off such films as The Last Boy Scout (1991) and Boomerang (1992). She played journalist Kathleen Mercer, who helps Jack bring down Bigelow Hall. The role was significant for Miss Berry in that it was one of the first in which her race did not play a role in the film. Halle Berry did have some objections to the way that Hollywood Pictures promoted the film leading up  to its release. Quite simply, Hollywood Pictures hinted at a romance between Jack and Kathleen in the film, when in actuality their relationship in the movie is strictly platonic.

Father Hood was released to overwhelmingly negative reviews. Michael Wilmington of The Los Angeles Times wrote of the film, "Father Hood works on pure travelogue level." One of the few positive reviews came from Roger Ebert, who gave Father Hood a thumbs up and opened his review with "Father Hood is a genial, simple minded chase picture in which a smalltime thief learns to love his children. I didn't believe a single second of it, although I enjoyed a few of them." Audiences didn't seem to take to Father Hood either. It only made $3.4 million at the box office, a remarkable failure given Patrick Swayze was at that time a guaranteed box office draw.

Of course, for me it is understandable why neither critics nor audiences took to Father Hood. In many ways the film has a split personality. It cannot make up its mind whether its a chase movie, an action movie, or a family comedy. The plot is rather slim and tends to be formulaic. The dialogue is often not very convincing. The viewer doesn't get an idea of the characters' inner lives.

Even so, Father Hood does have a few things to recommend it. Particularly given the material they had to work with, much of the cast gives fairly good performances. Diane Ladd is great as Jack's mother Rita, a small time grifter who has seen better days. Halle Berry does a fairly good job in portraying Kathleen Mercer, a remarkable feat given there was little to her character. And, of course, as I mentioned above, Vanessa Marquez gives a solid performance given the brief amount of time she is on screen. Besides the performances, another reason Father Hood may not be a total waste of time is Mark Vicente's cinematography. Michael Wilmington is right to a degree in his review in The Los Angeles Times--Father Hood does work to a degree as a travelogue. There are wonderful shorts of the Hoover Dam, the Louisiana bayous, and the open road.

Father Hood certainly is not a good movie, although I question whether it is quite as bad as some critics think it is. If one is going to watch it at all, they should probably go in not expecting much and with a willingness to suspend disbelief. At any rate, there are some good performances in the film and there is some beautiful scenery as well.