Film star Dennis Quaid turns 70

DThis film father clearly believes he loves his son more than anything. But fate shocks him and the boy into realizing that they must first learn to love each other. They manage to do that, and when the father finally takes on a burden that no one else could bear, he also releases the son into the independence of adulthood.

This synopsis applies to two films in which Dennis Quaid plays the father and thus the main role: the science fiction thriller “Frequency” (2000) by Gregory Hoblit and the agricultural drama “At Any Price” (2012) by Ramin Bahrani. Hoblit is a competent entertainment director, while Bahrani is a genius, namely a dizzyingly deep social observer, see “Man Push Cart” (2005) and “99 Homes” (2015). The aesthetic gap between “Frequency” and “At Any Price” could hardly be greater.

Comparing Quaid’s work in these two films therefore conveys a picture of the vast scale on which this man has proven himself since his debut as an unnamed supporting actor in Jonathan Demme’s action comedy “Crazy Mama” – whether as a pragmatic, earthly astronaut with conviction in Philip Kaufman’s ” The Right Stuff” (1983) or the police officer in Jim McBride’s “The Big Easy” who is drowning in the smell of the underworld swamp, or even a figure in contemporary cultural history who so clearly defies imitation like the rock ‘n’ roller Jerry Lee Lewis, Quaid chose McBrides in 1989 Biopic “Great Balls of Fire!” is like something completely unexplored that was just waiting for someone to finally get it.

Quaid plays both father roles antithetically

In “Frequency,” as firefighter Frank Sullivan, he has to sell the audience the completely unrealistic idea of ​​a radio connection between the past and the present, which he passes on to his adult son, played by Jim Caviezel, even though he actually lost his father decades ago. In “At Any Price,” Quaid is a farmer and seller of genetically modified seeds named Henry Whipple, whose younger son, played by Zac Efron (the older one is cast as a globetrotter), has no interest in agribusiness because he would rather be a racing driver.

Dennis Quaid now plays the two father roles almost antithetically: he gives the firefighter, who is beset by fantasy, a pointedly naturalistic presence, from the firefighting to the Elvis serenade for his wife; On the other hand, he portrays the clever crook as a heartily exaggerated caricature, more shark, ferret or wolf than human, who sticks out his lower lip and stares both reproachfully and incredulously when things don’t go his way during a face-off with the almost equal Clancy Brown.