I am the author of the original review of Hijos de Papá, on this site, from back in August 2002. Because I am also the only one who reviewed it, you may find it interesting what I have to say, now, since I got to see the film again for the first time in decades. I had tried to buy the DVD for many years, but I learned that it would only play on a DVD player from the same region as Spain. I did not feel like buying one from another region, so I abandoned getting the DVD. In October 2024, however, I saw that the entire movie was available online, and it was free!
My review, for today, will be more of a supplement to what I already wrote. So you'll probably enjoy my thoughts, more, if you cross reference them with my first review.
As Spanish is my second language, it was always a challenge for me to completely understand Hijos de Papá. In the version that I just watched, there were no closed captions available. I would have preferred Spanish subtitles over English subtitles, but I got nothing. So I decided to watch the movie multiple times, and do my very best to listen. However, I eventually discovered the settings icon and was able to slow the dialogue down considerably. I definitely learned a few things.
The main male characters, who appear in both the black and white portion of 1946 and the color portion of 1978 are attorneys. In 1946 they are attending law school. One of these men, Fabian, starts dating a theatre actress, Alicia, when he is 21 years old. I did not realize that his parents were opposed to this relationship because she was an actress. They actually did think he was dating a more "respectable" woman. Perhaps he would not have been met with the parental backlash, that he was, if someone had not told his mother about a public display of affection between the two of them.
I also did not understand that Alicia was one of those traveling actresses, and that the relationship ended after her show closed. Then, in the color portion of the film, when Fabian is supposedly in his 50s, (and now married to someone else) he mentions to a friend from that era, about his regrets that he acted like a "wolf" and did not treat Alicia well. This made my imagination run wild, because it seemed they had a very sweet and loving relationship-----albeit still a budding relationship.
There is a scene where some of the young male characters let the air out of a fleet of cars. I can only imagine that they were probably parked at Madrid's U. S. Embassy. The men then plaster signs on the wall, in view of these cars, stating: "You may have the gas, but we have the air!" I had to do some of my own research, to figure out what was going on. After World War II ended, the U. S. decided to punish Spain, and other allies, who remained neutral toward the Axis powers. So they stopped exporting oil and gas to Spain for a while.
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Fabian's son (sometimes referred to as Fabiancito) was a character whom I enjoyed and admired until I understood the dialogue better. I had originally thought of him as a good-looking young man, charismatic, and a little headstrong. He also had a deep, commanding voice. When I slowed everything down, I saw he was very much a sociopath. He had no remorse for many of his actions; even those which hurt his parents. Even being arrested in his home, after a family dinner, he was very matter of fact, and offered no apparent regrets. His parents, rather than scolding him, showed nothing but love, every step of the way, and he did not appreciate it.
He also appeared to be going nowhere. His father said he quit law school, then he dropped out of school again when he was a Journalism major. At that point he was also not even working. Eventually he gets a job as a DJ in a dance club.
The director of this movie, Rafael Gil, chose primarily older actors to round out the main cast. Many of them, like himself, were well into their 60s and beyond. Very few of them were under age 50. None of this is a problem, but it did bother me when the fathers, of two young sons in the story, were old enough to be their grandfathers (while the screen mothers were right at the age you would expect).
I never found much feedback, regarding how Hijos de Papá did at the box office. However, if it did not do super well, it may be because the director did not include more younger cast members, which might have appealed to the younger generation. That said, it looks like he at least attempted to lure this demographic in by featuring the lively, loud, and avante garde band Charol, to bookend the beginning and the end of the film (and we see them again at a nightclub). Charol was a brand new band, at the time. They had not been together for much more than a year or two, before this movie.
For me, the best part of this film, is not just that it gives you a vivid window into Spain's recent Post-Franco era, but it also shows Spain at a time when it was markedly different from the United States. With the age of the Internet, it seems that so much of Europe is a lot more similar to the U. S., than it was before. Hence, this film definitely harkens back to a bygone era.
