DADS (2020)
A heartfelt portrait of fatherhood, with strong content concerns.
Should You Watch It?
DADS is a warm, well-made documentary about fathers who are involved in every area of home life. It brings together famous fathers and regular fathers from around the world, showing how parenthood can reshape a person’s priorities and teach selflessness.
The film’s best moments show fathers caring for children through ordinary work, serious sickness, limited income, and the sacrifices of parenting. It celebrates fatherhood as a source of joy, happiness, purpose, and love. It also carries a pro-life sentiment and includes a father praying with his children.
The content keeps this from being a family recommendation. Foul language and the film’s treatment of two same-sex couples create concerns for Christian viewers. Adults who can navigate those elements may find the documentary worthwhile; families with children or young teens should choose something else.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESDADS travels around the world to explore how fatherhood has changed and what it means to be a dedicated father today. Famous fathers discuss how becoming parents transformed their lives, while other fathers share the daily work of caring for children at home.
The documentary follows fathers who cook, clean, provide, pray, and make difficult sacrifices. It also shows a father caring for a seriously sick child while managing frequent medical appointments and limited income.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means DADS is a strong documentary with real emotional and entertainment value. It will make viewers laugh and cry, especially through its heartfelt stories about new life, sacrifice, sickness, and the love involved in raising children.
The documentary is well-made and gives its subject warmth and purpose. Its portrait of dedicated fathers is consistently moving. The ending drags a little, but that weakness does not erase the film’s considerable strengths.
The Worldview
DADS presents a moral, redemptive worldview centered on sacrifice and love. It emphasizes that fatherhood requires loving and providing for someone other than yourself, and it portrays dedicated parenting as a source of joy, happiness, purpose, and love. The film also expresses a pro-life sentiment and includes prayer with children.
The documentary’s worldview is marred by romantic, politically correct, pro-homosexual elements involving two same-sex couples: one couple has adopted three foster children, and another has a child through a surrogate mother. Those elements depart from a biblical understanding of marriage and family, even as the film’s central emphasis on selfless love and parental responsibility reflects truths Scripture affirms.
At its heart, DADS argues that love asks people to sacrifice for another person. Scripture likewise teaches, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong moral worldview with light redemptive elements about the sacrifice of being a father, loving someone other than yourself, a pro-life attitude, and prayer is mentioned, marred by some Romantic, politically correct, pro-homosexual elements about a same-sex couple that adopted three children and another same-sex couple that has a child by a surrogate mother
Foul Language
15 profanities, four obscenities
Violence
No violence
Sex
No depicted sex but the stories of two same-sex couples are discussed
Nudity
No nudity
Alcohol Use
No alcohol use
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
A woman is shown in labor.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film presents fatherhood as loving and providing for someone other than yourself. Where do you see selfless love in your own family, and how can you practice it?
Philippians 2:3–4 · 1 Corinthians 13:4–7Several fathers make sacrifices to care for their children. What does faithful responsibility look like when parenting becomes difficult?
Ephesians 6:4 · Colossians 3:21One father prays with his children. How can prayer shape the way a family faces sickness, work, and uncertainty?
Philippians 4:6–7 · James 5:13The documentary connects new life with purpose and love. What does Scripture teach about the value of human life?
Psalm 139:13–16 · Genesis 1:27The Final Word
DADS offers adults a moving portrait of sacrifice, responsibility, and the joy of fatherhood. Its foul language and treatment of same-sex couples require discernment, so it is not a choice for children or young teens. For discerning adults, our answer is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For other family viewing, see.
