Sam Mendes is one of the few directors out there today who loves to examine the idea of family.  In each of his movies he loves to give us one or another version of a different family who is at a different stage in their relationship whether they’re just starting out, facing their first real crisis or at the end of the whole thing.   Mr. Mendes was (and still is) a theatre director before he became a great young film director after giving us his debut film, American Beauty (1999), which he won a best directing Oscar for.

American Beauty (1999)

Lester Burnham is going through a mid-life crisis and decides to try and turn it all around and change his life dramatically after losing his job.  I love this movie for so many reasons.  I love it because Kevin Spacey delivers a performance that wasn’t equalled that year; I love it because Alan Ball wrote such awesome characters and a plot that I could barely predict; I love it because Mr. Mendes gave me a movie that will remind me how scary it is to marry someone and live in the suburbs next to a man who used to be in the military.  As dysfunctional and unassumingly crazy this family is you can’t help but fall in love with each of the characters and root for Lester to somehow make this work out.  I actually did a full review of this movie last year and you can find it here.

Road to Perdition (2002)

Michael Sullivan is a hitman for the mob in Chicago and after his son, Michael Sullivan Jr., witnesses a murder they must go on the run.  I’m a huge fan of mob movies and ever since seeing films like The Godfather where we were introduced to the idea that the biggest problem with the mob is the difficulty of finding that balance between business and family.  This movie doesn’t so much deal with the mob as much as it deals with a father reconnecting with his son who he barely knew.  Michael Sullivan was always the father who provided but was never truly there for his son in any other way.  It is so evident in a scene where he asks his son what he actually liked in school and also when you see him teaching his son how to drive it is so touching and great to see a story like this with the Chicago 30s mobster background.

Jarhead (2005)

Anthony Swofford has joined the marines and is sent to Saudi Arabia as a scout sniper under Staff Sgt. Sykes’ command.  Here comes the first (and only) movie that doesn’t have a literal family.  However, as you would imagine, there is a family-like relationship created between all the soldiers and their Staff Sergeant, as he represents their father during their training and they are all brothers in a huge family.  Alan Troy is Anthony’s partner as a soldier, but the progression of the movie is for Anthony becoming a part of this huge family that is the unit and to be accepted by Troy.  When Anthony actually gains this acceptance it is so special that you can’t help but love it.  Most of the movie places all of these soldiers in the middle of desert, only a few miles away from the actual action and we hang out with these soldiers as they try to bide time until they are finally sent over the border to do some ass-kicking.  So even though we are put in this state of pause wondering whether these soldiers will ever get to go into action or will they just be sitting on their asses wondering who their girlfriends and wives are screwing back home while they’re on the other side of the world.

Revolutionary Road (2008)

Frank and April Wheeler are newly-weds in the in the mid 50s moving into their new suburban home.  We take the journey along with Frank and April as they deconstruct their relationship to find out exactly why things happened how they did and what the essentials of them being together is and what they really want.  As like with American Beauty Mr. Mendes does his darndest to make me want to cry and he got it.  I love the emotion and how Mendes portrays the family that maybe didn’t want to be together.  He has tackled families that are always together for all the right reasons and then something changes, but here he tackles a relationship that quite possibly was forced.  So we see Frank and April both trying to live their life while not thinking about what they regret not having done, like go to France or acting or whatever else comes up.  There is a reason this made my top ten of last year and it’s because I love it.

Away We Go (2009)

Burt and Verona are about to have a baby and Burt’s parents have decided to leave on their big trip off to Europe and therefore giving Burt and Verona no more real reason to stay where they are.  In their desperate need to be near some family and friends they decide to do more or less a tour of numerous towns across America and Canada to see where they think they would like to live and raise their child.  The trip takes them across numerous settings and it feels slightly like a sketch comedy since you basically have these fun in love couple moving from set piece to set piece, but it works as a great plot device to let us explore the relationship between Burt and Verona and learn all of their little intricacies which is what we end up loving them for.  The biggest thing that helps dig into the relationship is the carrying characters we meet along this trip and where each of these characters are in the their lives and relationships and how Burt and Verona respond to them.  I love it, go and watch it now.

Upcoming Work

Preacher

This is a comic book that I’ve read and love.  After a preacher, Jesse Custer, in Texas has been possessed by Genesis, the offspring of a demon and an angel and he now has the voice of God therefore anything he demands you do you must do.  Jesse is now having doubts in his God and is on a mission to find him and give him a piece of his mind.  So Jesse, along with his ex-girlfriend (Tulip) and new best friend (Cassidy), heads off into the horizon looking for God.  This is a property that I’m still not sure will make a good movie but I love the comic so much that I’m willing to give it a chance.  It does have a sense of family between our three main characters (i.e. probably what Mendes will pay the most attention to) and even a lot back story in the blood family of those characters which is great.  However, reading this comic, which had a total of 75 issues I doubt they can cover the entire story in less than a trilogy and that is with some heavy editing in mind.  In the end I have to admit that I’m not completely turned off by the idea but I’m definitely not too excited by the idea either.

So what are your thoughts on Sam Mendes and his work?