Affliction is a sad, painful movie about “boys and men for thousands of years: boys who were beaten by their fathers, whose capacity for love and trust was crippled almost at birth, men whose best hope for connection with other human beings lay in detachment, as if life were over. It’s how we keep from destroying in turn our own children and terrorizing the women who have the misfortune to love us; how we absent ourselves from the tradition of male violence; how we decline the seduction of revenge.”
The beatings, actually, are optional. I don’t remember my dad ever laying a hand on me but my parents were still able to send me into the world afflicted with crippling anxiety, depression and fear of failure.
Not much happens in the world, in my opinion, that can’t be explained by good or bad parents.
Rating: 
Affliction
A deeply troubled small-town cop investigates a suspicious hunting death while other events jeopardize his sanity.Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Coburn
IMDb rating: 6.9 (19716 votes)