Martin Sheen & Emilio Estevez: Father and Son find The Way Back to Cleveland

 It’s no secret that Martin Scorsese is my favorite director. And, for two decades, Goodfellas was my favorite film. Until The Departed came out and seduced me into frequent repeat watch, signaling something new and something brilliant with each viewing. One of the best performances in the ensemble powerhouse was by Martin Sheen, as the protective and experienced Queenan, who, alongside Mark Wahlberg’s Dignam, guides the tragic hero William (Leonardo DiCaprio) into the undercover cop territory, working to bring down the questionable Costello (Jack Nicholson).

Like all Scorsese films, The Departed demonstrates the heart of darkness. And, more than any other film, it visually articulated the brutal and duplicitous nature of mankind. Violence — both physical and psychological — prevails, with each protagonist carrying the good and evil within him. Costello, who, in an early scene — as he trains his protege and future corrupt cop Colin (Matt Damon) — finally comes out of the dark shadow, into the light, and asks still youthful and innocent Colin, “When I was your age they would say we can become cops, or criminals… What I’m saying to you is this: when you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?”

Colin grows up to be William’s nemesis and one night William, terrified from what he’s discovered, shows up at Queenan’s house. He comes in through the back way and sits down on a bench in a dark corridor in the house of the very man who roped him into the underground. Behind William hangs a print of The Last Supper. And, as the camera moves between the isolated William and the fatherly Queenan, the elder tells the young cop, “My wife’s asleep. She left supper out. Come and have something to eat.” If anyone else had delivered these lines, they wouldn’t have resonated. But Martin Sheen made us believe that he was trustworthy. And, just minutes later in The Departed, in his very last scene of the story, he proves it. He is trapped. He is the fallen angel. Literally and symbolically.

Martin Sheen’s final scene in that Freudian film gives me chills every single time. Because, sometimes, we feel trapped with nowhere to go, knowing that the trade-off to being ourselves can, sometimes, lead to complete and total isolation. Sheen gets this and we are horrified because that could be us on that roof.

This is Sheen’s power: he convinces us to trust him, to follow him — as president, as soldier, as a union worker on an airline. And he’s passed his craft unto his kids. If you are a film lover then you have seen the talented Sheen Family at work. Whether in the tragically riveting Apocalypse Now and Platoon, or the generation-defining Breakfast Club, Martin Sheen and his sons Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen demonstrate convincing actability that covers all the major genres: comedy, drama, western, romance, action. Versatile in television as well as the big screen, in acting as well as writing, directing and producing, these men know how to captivate the audience and retain our attention to the very end.

In several movies, we have been lucky to see both generations simultaneously: Wall Street, Cadence, The War at Home and In the Custody of Strangers. Both Sheens even did a double homage to two of their iconic war films in the parody Hot Shots Part Deux and then later showed off their comedic chops when the elder Sheen guest-starred on Two and a Half Men.

More currently, Emilio Estevez wrote, directed, produced and starred in a personal film called The Way. He cast his father in the lead role and together they are traveling the country in a bus, promoting the movie city by city, living out a cinematic pilgrimage to attract people to see a story about a man who goes on his own pilgrimage. Including Cleveland in their tour, the father and son held a Q&A session after the Cleveland Tower City screening. Their energy, their disposition and their generosity permeated throughout the theater like a breath of fresh air.

The premise of The Way centers around Sheen’s Tom, a widowed ophthalmologist who, on a golf course, gets a call from Europe declaring that his only son just died. Tom flies to Europe to identify the body and, in a surprising turn of events, decides to finish his son’s 500 mile France to Spain journey, called, “El camino de Santiago.” And, at all significant stops, he takes out the box carrying his sons ashes and spreads them along the way.

On his journey, Tom meets up with various characters and eventually finds himself part of a quartet. “As in The Wizard of Oz, everyone is looking for something that they already possess,” revealed Estevez after the screening.

The Way is a beautiful film. It’s far more European than American, in tone, in scenery and in message. It’s calming, it’s comforting and it’s kind. It’s just like Emilio and Martin.

Gleefully, I asked them the one question I ask all successful people in film: What advice would you give to young people trying to make it?

“Tell your story,” Estevez replied. “And don’t be Tarantino.”

“I’d like to add a story,” chimed in Sheen. “Emilio made a movie called Maximum Overdrive. It was awful. But he really wanted to work with Stephen King… I told him, ‘Maybe you should paint his house.’”

Another person in the audience got up and thanked them both for making a movie that “wasn’t vulgar and where no one got blown up.” Martin Sheen thanked the man and openly stated that Hollywood makes a lot of bad movies and that audiences deserve better.

The most emotional moment of the evening came when a woman got up from her seat and revealed that twenty years ago her daughter was raped and murdered and that by watching The Way something within her changed, adding, “Your movie is so magnificent!” Afterwards, Sheen came up to the woman, gave her a hug and offered comforting words.

Father and son also discussed their N.E. Ohio connection. Emilio mentioned, “I want to come to Ohio to make a film,” and his dad revealed the family’s ties to the area: Martin was born in Dayton and his wife was born in Cleveland, “on Euclid Avenue.”

Sheen also opened up about the craft, stating, “All artists have their own storage of personal pain” and that they are “sacred and should be guarded as such.”

Finally, when asked about working together and how they managed to pull off such a beautiful film that resonated without being overtly sentimental, Sheen wisely advised, “The worst enemy of an artist is sentiment… That is for the audience to decide.”

After the robust Q&A session, the crowd swarmed to potentially meet with either Martin or Emilio and, while the publicists did their job to protect the stars from all the commotion, the two men handled it like pros, with grace and patience, signing autographs, taking pictures and being fully engaged in the moment.

That is their gift: connecting with their audience both on-screen and off, making us feel understood and respected. And, while the hundreds of characters the Sheen family have convincingly portrayed over the past six decades has reflected a wide spectrum of emotions, including the violence that permeates a man’s soul, this evening in Downtown Cleveland, they showed all of us that we do have a choice in what course we take.

Sheen concluded the evening by openly sharing this about his religious path: “I wanted to know myself as a free man.”

Don’t we all?

Reprinted with permission and gratitude from CoolCleveland.com.