Home from the Hill

A melodrama about a family in Texas. Wade is the most powerful man in town. He has land, everyone respects him, and everyone knows about his affairs. His wife Hannah stopped speaking to him years ago and counted their son as hers. Theron is seventeen and grew up beside his mother; his father decides to make a man of him. The second line is Rafe. A quiet young man who works on the ranch, and the town knows who he is: Wade's son born outside the marriage. The real subject is the father's dominion over his sons and how it cripples the two boys differently. Theron loses his own character while trying to become the man his father wants; Rafe, never given the name, can never fully exist. Robert Mitchum plays Wade, Eleanor Parker plays Hannah and George Peppard plays Rafe. Vincente Minnelli directed. The use of colour and widescreen composition carries the emotional map; the distances inside the house are given by the framing. A strong example for anyone who likes American melodrama of the 1950s and 1960s. It runs close to two and a half hours at a heavy pace; the film keeps the feeling high and does not hide it.