Hijos de papá

Does anyone know the name of the song played during the dance on the wedding party? It is a sort of skate disco song, but I cannot find it on the sountrack of the movie and it has suck a cool rhythm. If there´s any idea about how to identify that piece, I would highly appreciate it, since Shazam app is not very helpful either. I know almost for sure it cannot be a spanish melody, I´d love to think it was, but I guess from the modern view it´s portraying on that particular scene, it may be showing proably some american beat and sounds. It would be just extremely fun to find the whole song on youtube.

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.

. 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.

This movie starts out with a very energetic and pulsating early 80s song, performed by three or four punk rockers. The name of the song is the title of the movie: HIJOS DE PAPÁ (Pappa's Children or Dad's Children). It wasn't a bad song, at all, for 1980. Even by today's standards it's a pretty good rock tune. This hip, very modern opening is very deliberately placed immediately before a flashback to early 1940s Madrid. The contrast of this abrupt shift is even more dramatic by switching to black and white. This black and white portion is a relatively sizable part of the entire film.

You will find some parallelisms in HIJOS DE PAPÁ. There are two "Pappas". One is the literal father in this story (Fabián) and the other is the "national father", Generalíssimo Francisco Franco, whom Fabián symbolizes. As the story begins, we see Fabián as a young man in his early 20s, still living at home with his parents. His mother, a very spirited and emotional woman, is very strict and rigid in her son's upbringing (kind of in the same manner that Franco led Spain for four decades). We see her chiding Fabián for not being dressed, and ready to go observe Holy Week with her (which corresponds with the Easter holiday).

Later on, when the story fast forwards to 1978, we see a completely different situation between Fabián and his own son. Fabián is sitting in his arm chair reading a book. Once again it is Holy Week. His good-looking, skinny, twenty-ish son (who is sporting a conspicuous perm) bursts in and exclaims:

"Hey Old Man!!"

"Do you know what time it is?", Fabián sternly asks. He does not even bother to raise his eyes from his book, as he asks this.

"Forget about that!", his son says flippantly.

"3:30 A.M.!!", the father says. By now he has abruptly taken off his glasses, put his book aside, and given his son his full attention.

After a few argumentative exchanges, Fabián says:

"You're out this late during Holy Week?!?"

"A sissy holiday!!", his son calmly answers.

The conversation ends with the son telling his Dad that he's not about to revamp his whole life because of Holy Week. He then leaves the room, almost scornfully telling Fabián:

"Chau (Chow)!!" (Just as in Italian, this means good-bye)

Another great part, from the 1940s portion of the film, shows Fabián falling in love with a showgirl (Alicia) and the romance that ensues. One day they are walking through Madrid's beautiful Parque de Retiro. Caught up in the emotions of their love for each other, they begin french kissing as they walk. Along comes a middle-aged to older woman, with a pack of school children. When she sees the young couple frenching, she is shocked; she quickly herds the children off, like a flock of scared little sheep. She immediately calls Fabián's mother and tells her what a "sinvergüenza" (a shameful display) that whole spectacle was. Fabián comes home, very cheerful and expecting that nothing is awry. He goes to kiss his mother, as he always does, and she snaps:

"Not at me!!"

Fabián then gets raked over the coals, BIG TIME, by Mom. He is upset enough that he does not go to see his showgirl/girlfriend perform that night (he made it to most of her performances). We see Alicia looking rather puzzled (and sad) that Fabián's normal seat is empty.

Still another interesting scene from the 40s, is when General Franco addresses a huge crowd of cheering Spaniards. We see Fabián's mother in the crowd. She is nearly crying from her love and loyalty toward her leader. This film was made in 1980, just five years after Franco had died (and Spain had passed from a military dictatorship to a democracy). There was a lot of malaise and grumbling, among the Spaniards of the early 80s, about how bad things were (or how tough things were), since they were no longer led by an IRON FIST (and were free to make their own mistakes). I could not believe the reaction of the audience, when Franco appeared on screen! Incredibly, quite a few of them jumped to their feet, gleefully shouted and applauded loudly (I saw this movie in a theater in Sevilla, Spain, when I was an exchange student there)!

The acting is really wonderful in this film (and there are tons of laughs)! One extremely talented and hilarious actor from this movie (you could say, very "loosely", that he's a "Spanish Rodney Dangerfield") is Antonio Garisa. He died 9 years after making this film. Even if you do not understand Spanish, this film promises to be HIGHLY ENTERTAINING. It also has the flavor of being not just a Spanish film, but a very EUROPEAN film. I won't spoil that particular surprise for you. Hopefully it is not totally impossible to find a copy of this great movie.

The gist of HIJOS DE PAPÁ can be summed up in a poster, that I saw outside the theater where it played. There was a drawing of Generalíssimo Franco, with a quote from him, FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE:

"¡Ya estáis sólos!...........¿Y qué?!?" (OK; you're alone now!........And so what?!?)

Another way to translate that would be:

"OK, you're on your own now!! And what do you have to show for it?!?"

This marvelous film was based on a novel by Fernando Vizcaíno Casas