"Nebraska" a must see for us old-timers

It's been a while since I've seen a good movie, but today I settled back in a theatre seat and watched the new Bruce Dern flick, Nebraska.

It's a must-see for old-timers like me. Dern plays an old man in his 80s who thinks he wins a million-dollar sweepstakes and, with the winning ticket in his shirt pocket, heads out on foot from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect his money.

Dern's portrayal as the crusty, old Woody Grant is a thing of beauty, if you can get by the scraggly beard and his unruly hair, or what's left of it.

The movie turns in to that age old scenario about a father-son relationship, which in this case is more of the son trying desperately to understand his father. As the film moves slowly to its ending the son discovers little in that regard, but does discover his love for his old man.

All relationships have their moments and Hollywood time and time again presses on the heart strings and comes up with story lines which display the difficulties which can arise with those one-on-one encounters, especially when they involve father and son.

I can think of three movies which have moved me to the point of tears with scenes that tear right into the gut when it comes to a father-son conflict. See if any of these ring a bell. Affliction with Nick Nolte and the great character actor James Coburn. How about The Rookie was Dennis Quaid and Brian Cox? And maybe my favorite of all, Nothing in Common, with Tom Hanks as the son and Jackie Gleason as the father.

For a movie buff like me, who enjoys getting his heart strings pulled, I can pick out the scenes in the trio of old films I just mentioned and recall each and every tear-jerking scene as if I'd just seen them today, right along with Nebraska.

In The Rookie, there's a scene near the end where Jimmy Morris, after pitching in his first-ever major league game, hands the game ball to his father. It will get your heart pumping. And in Nothing in Common, the scene at the end of the movie where the father praises his son for being there for him as they leave the hospital -- the father in a wheelchair, the son smiling from ear to ear. As for Affliction, brace yourself for a not-so-happy ending.

As for Nebraska, Alexander Payne sees to it no words are said in the final moments of the film. In this case, a picture paints a thousand words.

So, for all my old-time friends out there, the next time it rains go rent all of the above and see if you can hold back the tears.

As for Dern, if he doesn't win an Oscar for Nebraska, I will be surprised. I haven't seen a lot of Dern lately. I mean how many years has it been since he shot John Wayne in the back in Cowboys? 

My goodness, the answer to that question is 1972!

Movie trivia: Affliction was released in 1997, The Rookie in 2002 and Nothing in Common way back in 1986.