While “Imitation of Life” and “Home From the Hill” differ, these two family melodramas have many common features worthy of close examination. A valuable perspective from which to base such an examination is that of the offspring in each of the films.
“Imitation of Life” introduces us to two young girls who despite growing up in the same household have very different upbringings. Central to the film are issues of race and class and while these issues do play large parts in the girls’ lives, what most closely binds these characters is their respective struggle with the mother/daughter relationship in the context of their uniquely blended family.
Both Susie and Sarah Jane are being reared by single mothers. In Susie’s case, her father died. Sarah Jane never knew her father. Each girl has a close relationship with her mother, the dynamics of which are primarily defined by the mother’s career. Complicating matters is that all four women come to live together under one roof.
In Susie’s case, her mother, Lora, an aspiring actress, must work outside the house to earn a living. Sarah Jane’s mother, Annie, works inside the house as Lora’s housekeeper. The families have blended to resemble the nuclear family to an extent, with Lora fulfilling the role of father and Annie serving as mother to the girls. This parenting arrangement works fine until about the time the girls reach puberty.
Coinciding with puberty is the advancement of Lora’s career. By this time, her schedule dictates she work long hours and well into the night, as she is a stage actress. Lora becomes the absent (physically and emotionally) parent, leaving Annie to care for the children. The result is that Susie feels emotionally abandoned by her mother and Sarah Jane feels physically smothered by hers.
Both Susie and Sarah Jane act out their frustrations and direct their insecurities towards their mothers (both of them). Susie, who has been sent to boarding school, makes attempts to become her mother by emulating her behavior and eventually by dating (in her delusional mind) her mother’s longtime male friend, Steve Archer. Her only outlet for emotional release is in the comforting presence of Annie, who is always available for girl talk.
Sarah Jane on the other hand, is much more independent. Because she feels smothered by Annie, she keeps her struggles about race, boys and social advancement from her. She too has an emotional release (more of an explosion) that is acted out on her non-biological ‘parent’, her Mammy act.
While the acting out behavior is to be expected with teenagers, the point made in “Imitation of Life” is that society does not allow for the management of these behaviors except in the security of a traditional nuclear family. The overarching flaw with this societal thought and practice is brought into focus in Home From the Hill, where the filmmaker peels away the layers of a conventional family to expose dysfunction.
“Home From the Hill” offers two male offspring to consider. Rafe, the elder of the two boys, is the biologically illegitimate son of Wade, the wealthiest and most powerful man of his Texas town and Theron is the biologically legitimate son of Wade and his wife, Hannah. Outward appearances lend one to believe that the Hunnicutt family is intact and happy. However, that Theron has not yet proven himself manly enough to inherit his father’s legacy becomes problematic for all involved.
For all intents and purposes, Rafe is Wade’s ideologically legitimate son. As Wade’s right hand, Rafe is all but a member of the family. He is privy to all aspects of Wade’s life and even rescues Wade from loose women and stray bullets, thus preserving Wade’s larger than life persona as well as his image as an ideal father. The father/son relationship is clearly evident from the beginning of the film but jeopardized when Wade asks Rafe to assume responsibility for Theron’s right of passage into manhood.
Until this point, Theron has been all but invisible to his father and his mother has had sole responsibility for his upbringing. Theron is Wade’s ideologically illegitimate son and now must earn his legitimacy by learning to hunt both wild game and women. The ensuing drama reveals a dysfunctional family helmed by a womanizing alcoholic who unable to appreciate any of his wife’s attributes, has caused her to project all her caretaking instincts onto their son, rendering him of little value to his father, who then is left with energies that find their place in the relationship with his biologically illegitimate son.
In the end, the biologically illegitimate son is legitimized by growing up and into a socially acceptable life and the biologically legitimate son claims his inheritance by illegitimately assuming some of his father’s reputation.
The balance achieved at the end of each of these films serves to satisfy the need of an audience to have matters resolved by the conclusion of a film, but also serves to point the audience towards the filmmaker’s message. In the case of each of these films, the filmmakers want us to take notice of the changing family and the fragility of the old guard. As we look back at these films of forty years ago, we are able to place them in the context of the changing world in which they existed but question whether the films influenced change or served merely as social commentary.
References
“Three-Way Mirror: Imitation of Life” by Lucy Fischer
“A Case of Mistaken Legitimacy: Class and Generational Difference in Three Family Melodramas” by Richard De Cordova
“Toward an Analysis of the Sirkian System” by Paul Willemen
“Imitation of Life” (1959)
“Home From the Hill”(1959)