Michael Landon, the Father I Knew

Michael Landon, junior did a good job, as his life with a very famous father seems to have brought him maturity. Meaning that he is able to love his father, whose warts abound as much as any of us. Most times, we find it more than a little hard to love our parents when we discover that they are as human as we are!

I think "his" account (personal viewpoint) of his dad is told as honestly as he was able to tell it. I hope he follows this movie up with a sequel. It would be nice to know how all of the Landon children survived the death of their dad. I imagine that the writing and the directing of this life experience was more than a little helpful to the author.

If there is one thing that stands out in the movie, it is the work ethic his father had. The movie show us how Michael junior learned how to work hard instead of sponging off of his wealthy parents. There are a few things like the example of "hard work" in the movie that make it more than just merely beneficial to watch.

This film is about the life and times of Michael Landon, fifties teenage b-movie actor and star of successful and long-running TV series like "Bonanza", "Little House on the Prairie" and "Highway to Heaven". It focuses on the private life of Landon, reaching from his early "Bonanza" days in the sixties to his sad cancer death in 1991.

Directed by his son, Michael Landon jr., it is rather an autobiography about a tragic father and son relationship. As Landon left his family very early for another younger woman, it's the only thing that this movie is really about. What could have become an interesting portrait of a TV actor is just a boring and cheesy kitchen sink drama and a bit of an autotherapy of the director. You won't learn much about Landon or his works, but more about his hair styles during all those decades. And that's not enough for an interesting movie.

I was quite impressed with John Schneider's performance of the late-great star. His portrayal was honest and well acted. This role shows the entire world that John has gone beyond the slick talking Bo Duke and is capable of so much more.

A homage from a son to a deceased father. It is always regretable to knock a tribute movie but due to a bad script the acting is flat and on occasions well over the top. (No children welcome their father in such a manner unless he has been away for a couple of hundred years.) Incidents like Landon Sr. bending a cheeky guy's finger for swearing in front of his children appear contrived and incidental to the story. As a whole the movie sprawls over too long a time period. I feel Landon Jr. should have focussed more tightly on key incidents and looked deeper into his own emotions, maybe then, the viewer could have more sympathy with his (Landon Jr's), predicament. The editing lacks sharpness and slows a boring movie down to a snail's pace. Even for daytime TV this movie has very little to engage the interest.

Some of the critics said it was like a revenge movie. The son was just saying how he felt. People still want to see Landon as little Joe, pa Ingalls and the angel on highway to heaven, and he definitely wasn't a angel. To me the son wrote a truthful story of a man who did have problems.