Review of Affliction (1996) by Dustin G — 04 May 2011

This is the kind of hard edged drama that shows a real master is at work. It's a movie that feels real and moves slow and steady but is never boring or feels as though it's dragging.

Nick Nolte plays an abused man whose father's treatment of him is steadily causing him to go nuts, even while he's becoming more and more like his father every day.

The legend James Coburn plays the Dad, also to perfection (he deservedly won an Oscar for the role).

Part of what makes this such a wonderful film is the care that Schrader puts into the little details, like Nolte and his father liking salt off their hand for instance.

I guess you could call Affliction a neo noir, or gothic drama, or even a murder mystery in some respects, but at its heart it's just one hell of a good and effecting middle of nowhere drama focusing on the abused and the abuser.