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Fifteen Years of Estrangement, Explained

Spielberg · 2017

Capítulo 5 de 10 · 3'25"

A son watches his father cry in the kitchen and shouts him down until the family pushes him out. The parents are splitting up, and nobody will say why. What follows is not a fight. "We never had angry words, but it was an estrangement that I created," and that silence lasts fifteen years.

Parents & kidsMarriage troubleConfessingExplainingC1fastamerican

Key moments

Start here, then watch the full scene
  1. ❝ Monólogo · 5 frases Dad Breaks Down in the Kitchen

    0:09–0:41
    33s
  2. Dad Takes the Blame

    2:01–2:34
    33s
  3. ❝ Monólogo · 9 frases The Estrangement He Created

    2:50–3:24
    34s
  1. ❝ MonólogoThe kitchen outburst5 frasesPracticar ↗
  2. ❝ MonólogoFifteen years of silence9 frasesPracticar ↗

Fifteen Years of Estrangement, explained

What happens

In a kitchen he sees his father break down and cry for the first time. He screams "crybaby" until they push him out. His mother cries at the piano until she cannot see the notes and announces the parents are splitting up. He never says he is angry. The estrangement he says he created lasts fifteen years.

What's really going on

He had never seen his father cry. When his dad "broke down" in the kitchen, he stood there "outraged that my father was not a man" and saw him "crying like a little boy." He "started screaming \"crybaby\" at him as loud as I could" until they pushed him out. He also did not know why his parents were "splitting up," and he "didn't want to know." The father says he would never tell the kids she divorced him. "Instead, I let them think I divorced her," "Protecting her 'cause she's fragile," because "I figured I could be hurt less than she," and "I still loved her." Years later the son says, "We never had angry words, but it was an estrangement that I created, not from my dad." His father "was seeking a relationship." He "went off and got lost in my work," "became a workaholic," and "lost the contact." "It went on for... 15 years."

Key lines & what they mean

“And I just stood there in the kitchen, outraged that my father was not a man.”
In the kitchen he freezes at the first sight of his father in tears, and the anger is that his father looks, to him, like less than a man.
“I look back, I think, "How dare I do that?"”
The speaker looks back on loving Bernie Adler and asks how they could have dared, because it was all about their own unhappiness.
“Instead, I let them think I divorced her.”
He admits he let the kids think he divorced her, instead of telling them that she divorced him.
“And so, I figured I could be hurt less than she.”
He believed the hurt would land less on him than on her.
“We never had angry words, but it was an estrangement that I created, not from my dad.”
He is clear that they never fought. The long cold distance was something he made, not something his father started.
“I became my father. I became a workaholic.”
He means he turned into the father he watched: a workaholic, buried in the job.

Theme

  • Family conflict — He screams at his crying father and spends fifteen years in an estrangement he says he created, with no angry words.
  • Marriage — The parents are splitting up, and the father lets the kids think he divorced her so he can protect her.

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Preguntas frecuentes

La pregunta, luego la frase
How does he describe screaming "crybaby" at his father?

He says he had never seen his dad cry. He stood in the kitchen, "outraged that my father was not a man," because his father was "crying like a little boy." He "started screaming 'crybaby' at him as loud as I could," and he kept shouting "Crybaby, you crybaby, you crybaby," until they pushed him out of the kitchen.

Why does the father say he let the kids think he divorced her?

He says he would never tell the kids that she divorced him. "Instead, I let them think I divorced her." The reason he gives is "Protecting her 'cause she's fragile," and "I figured I could be hurt less than she." He adds, "I still loved her."

Who does he say created the estrangement?

He says, "We never had angry words, but it was an estrangement that I created, not from my dad." His father "was seeking a relationship," while he "went off and got lost in my work" and "lost the contact." "It went on for... 15 years."

Did he ever tell his father he was angry?

No. He says, "I never told my dad I was mad at him." He also says they "never had angry words." The distance was an estrangement he created, while his father was seeking a relationship with him.