ben not so bad

I felt guilty rooting for Ben, but Mike did nothing but bully and insult his three sons for the whole of the film, while putting Joe on a pedestal, and its implied that he was borderline abusive with them, overworking them and beating them, leading them to act the way they do. You lose sympathy for Ben at the end when he outright targets Joe, but before that point he was the only character I actually found compelling.

I outright cheered for Ben when he finally told his father off, with this guilty pleasure of seeing Mike now begging Joe after bullying him for the whole film, including being told to "sit down." And, of course, Mike's response to Joe's "did you ever ask" speech is completely irrelevant and has virtually nothing to do with anything Ben said ("there wasn't enough of me in ya!").

That the film seems to take his side despite Mike showing himself to be corrupt, hypocritical, and miserly doesn't help much. He had a point being upset about societal prejudice directed at his wife (which could also be considered hypocritical considering how he seemed intent on treating her like a subservient housekeeper whose advice he almost always ignores), but otherwise, its pretty hard to argue that he was anything but crotchety, angry old man who played favorites and mistreated three of his kids. Honestly? Its just hard to sympathize with a guy having a heart attack when he's in the midst of beating his own kids with a bullwhip. Just sayin.

Spencer Tracy perplexes me in the same way John Wayne does, in that even people who call their acting overrated usually preface their argument by saying that his characters are at least "compelling" and "likeable," but I've rarely found his portrayals to be anything but snide, pompous, and arrogant. Maybe his roles Boys Town or Captains Courageous, but other than that I've rarely felt compelled to root for his characters, much less find them very "compelling" (Sea of Grass, Woman of the Year, Inherit the Wind, Mannequin, Tortilla Flat, State of the Union, Inherit the Wind, Guess Whose Coming to Dinner, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World) usually because they're so much like the one he plays here - self righteous, hypocritical, and patronizing. So I don't just find his acting overrated and dated, I find his entire style irritating. Like John Wayne, his characters belong to another time and place that just isn't applicable to how people see the world anymore.