5 great movies about mothers
Conflicted mother, wayward daughter: Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce. | Warner Bros.
There’s a reason the relationship between mother and child has been explored incessantly since artists were painting the Madonna: it’s one of the most profound ties we have.
In honour of Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 8, Matthew Hays — a journalism, film studies and communication studies professor and part-time faculty member at Concordia — compiled the films that best encapsulate this complex bond.
Anyone with a mother knows the power of Mom. Not only did she give birth to us, but she'd do just about anything to protect us from harm. And that mother-child relationship has inspired some very powerful and intricate films.
Here, in no particular order, are five especially noteworthy movies that remind us why Mama looms so large in our lives.
1. Mildred Pierce
Michael Curtiz, 1945
This was a comeback film for Joan Crawford, who would win an Oscar for her stunning portrayal of a conflicted mother trying to protect her wayward daughter.
The film reflected the contradictions women faced at the end of the Second World War, when they were expected to be more independent while still existing in a man's world. Todd Haynes turned the story into a miniseries with Kate Winslet in 2011.
The Bad Seed was the first film to find horror in the context of the family. | Courtesy of Warner Bros.
2. The Bad Seed
Mervyn LeRoy, 1956
While Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) is often credited with taking horror away from monsters and placing it within the family, it was, in fact, The Bad Seed that first planted the suggestion.
Patty McCormack stole the show as the perfect little eight-year-old girl who turns out to be a serial killer (she became the youngest person ever to be nominated for an Oscar). But equally crucial to the film's eerie success is the performance of Nancy Kelly as her anguished mom, who’s more than a bit freaked out upon learning of her daughter's horrific crimes.
Reclusive socialites Little Edie (pictured) and her mother Big Edie star in Grey Gardens. | Courtesy of Criterion
3. Grey Gardens
Albert Maysles, David Maysles, 1975
When the Maysles brothers set out to make a documentary about the relatives of Jackie Onassis, they were surprised to find that her aunt and cousin (Big Edie and Little Edie) were living in squalor in a dilapidated mansion in the Hamptons.
They chose to focus their cameras on the mother and daughter, who spend much of the film bickering about their past and how they ended up in such a state. The documentary has become a controversial landmark, with fans heralding it as an ode to triumph over adversity and critics suggesting it is sheer exploitation, blazing the trail for reality TV. It has since inspired a sequel, a dramatic remake, a musical and a Rufus Wainwright ballad.
Maternal instinct: Sigourney Weaver and Carrie Henn in Aliens. | Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
4. Aliens
James Cameron, 1986
The sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 horror masterpiece finds our heroine, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), waking up after a half-century of sleep, only to be sent back to the alien-infested planet by the military. The cat in the first film is replaced by a plucky young girl (Carrie Henn), and when Ripley's maternal instincts kick in, there's hell to pay.
As plot twists would have it, those aliens have mothers of their own, and The New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael called the film’s final showdown the "battle of the big mamas."
Polarized feelings: Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment. | Paramount Pictures
5. Terms of Endearment
James L. Brooks, 1983
James L. Brooks breathed new life into the melodrama and created a powerful mother-daughter bond in the form of Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. The polarized feelings run deep in this love-hate relationship.
MacLaine won an Oscar, as did the film, which the Academy decided was the best picture of the year.
About the author
Matthew Hays has written about cinema for The Globe and Mail, The New York Times, The Guardian, Cineaste and The Daily Beast. He is the author of The View From Here: Conversations with Gay and Lesbian Filmmakers (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2007).
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