Affliction (1997)

Director:

Paul Schrader

Writers (WGA):

Russell Banks (novel)
Paul Schrader (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 January 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Wade Whitehouse is frightened to death of following in his father's footsteps.

Plot:

A deeply troubled small town cop investigates a suspicious hunting death while events occur that cause him to mentally disintergrate.

Plot Keywords:

Hunting | Small Town | Sheriff | Dysfunctional Family | Self Dentistry

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 7 wins & 13 nominations

Cast

Nick Nolte	...	Wade Whitehouse
Brigid Tierney	...	Jill Whitehouse
Holmes Osborne	...	Gordon LaRiviere
Jim True-Frost	...	Jack Hewitt (as Jim True)
Tim Post	...	Chick Ward
Christopher Heyerdahl	...	Frankie Lacoy (as Chris Heyerdahl)
Marian Seldes	...	Alma Pittman
Janine Theriault	...	Hettie Rogers
Mary Beth Hurt	...	Lillian Whitehouse Horner
Paul Stewart	...	Mr. Horner
Sissy Spacek	...	Margie Fogg
Wayne Robson	...	Nick Wickham
Sean McCann	...	Evan Twombley
Sheena Larkin	...	Lugene Brooks
Penny Mancuso	...	Woman Driver

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Netherlands:12 (re-rating) | Netherlands:16 | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Chile:18 | France:U | Germany:12 | Peru:18 | Portugal:M/16 (video premiere) | Singapore:PG | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #35428) | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Beloeil, Québec, Canada

Company:

JVC Entertainment Networks

Trivia:

When the family reunites for Sally Whitehouse's funeral, Rolfe (Willem Dafoe) is asked by his sister if he's a serious Christian, which he denies. Dafoe played Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) nine years before.

Goofs:

Continuity: When on the deer hunt, in a shot from above Jack is shown putting the index finger of his left hand to his mouth to signal his wealthy customer to be silent, but in the next shot it's his right index finger.

Quotes:

Rolfe Whitehouse: [First lines] This is the story of my older brother's strange criminal behaviour and disappearance. We who loved him no longer speak of Wade. It's as if he never existed.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 56th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Proud To Be Loud

Bleak, shocking, and brutal portrayals of men behaving badly.

A portrait of a violent destructive father, almost giant-like, whose behavior is threatening and whose words crash against and down upon his sons, dashing them to smithereens, mentally and physically. The father has successfully destroyed his sons, in a long process which began when they were young boys, who stood and watched their father in a hot temper strike blows upon their mother. The sons are unable to touch him, to feel any emotions towards him, but fear and loathing. The father instills fear in the viewer of the film. He is scary. There is nothing to redeem this father. The son who escapes tells this story as the narrator. The scalding and searing hatred and loathing that each holds to some degree for the other is viewed against stark black and white photographs of a New England winter. Seething unrelieving pain is the film's central character. The father and son anesthetize pain in alcoholism, which the narrator-son manages to just escape. Torture, brutal and mental, is shared in this sad family and memories of it loom large and don't go away. The mother's world is silent, and viewing this film, the viewer is just rendered silent: there are no words to describe the lives of the father and his two sons. Wasted, brutalized, and lost are not enough. How many families are there living as the Whitehouses do in our world? Calculating this pain and sadness is the film's bottom line. Metaphors for these realities bounce about and jar the viewer: the son's rotten tooth, the pleasure the father expresses in giving pain to his two sons, the vocabulary of brutality that destroys the human spirit.