To Dear Papa, With Love...

I watched some parts of 'Road to Perdition' again recently, and I couldn't help but be moved by the last scene of the film. To understand how much those lines convey, one has to watch the movie. However, I want to share them nonetheless, also as a tribute to my own father, with whom my relationship has evolved, and is still evolving, over my short (and in some ways, long) lifetime thus far. Here they are:

"I saw then that my father's only fear was that his son would follow the same road. And that was the last time I ever held a gun. People always thought I grew up on a farm. And I guess, in a way, I did. But I lived a lifetime before that, in those six weeks on the road in the winter of 1931. When people ask me if Michael Sullivan was a good man, or if there was just no good in him at all, I always give the same answer. I just tell them... he was my father."

Do go and see the film if you get a chance. I recommend watching it on DVD, but if you can't, then here's the youtube link to the first part. It was acclaimed cinematographer Conrad Hall's last movie, and he received a posthumous Oscar for his work. I assure you that the award doesn't honour the film, it is the other way around, in this case.