The Great Santini (1979) Movie Review

As he approaches manhood, Ben Meechum struggles to win the approval of his demanding alpha male father, an aggressively competitive, but frustrated Marine pilot.

A Poweful Film

This film is one of the finest ever made, in my humble opinion, and the greatest display of Robert Duval’s acting abilities. This film is powerful and moving. An “era” piece, it’s message resounds regardless.

The cinematography is beautifully done. The acting is top notch. The scenes between Metchum and his son are the most riveting, of course but the scenes between the son and mother are also quite touching and tender, and contrast wonderfully with the other scenes. And while this is a gripping drama, with very well acted round characters, there is humor too, and handled brilliantly.

Truly every movie library should have this film in it’s collection.

Duvall And O’Keefe Shine Among A Wonderful Cast

“The Great Santini” is a critically acclaimed film featuring the Oscar-nominated performances of Robert Duvall and Michael O’Keefe, who portray Bull Meechum and his son, Ben. Bull is a Marine pilot. He calls himself “The Great Santini” and lives by his own code, which is based upon the Marine principles of duty and discipline, but is enhanced to create a larger than life caricature of a gung-ho man who kicks asses and takes names.

Bull, his wife, and the four kids move to Buford, South Carolina for his newest posting. Much of the film is a coming of age story about Ben, who interacts with the locals and deals with his father’s expectations. As Ben is approaching manhood, his father perceives a decline in his own virility. The resulting conflicts will make you laugh, make you cry, and break your heart. The acting in this film is wonderful.

Kudos are deserved by director Lewis John Carlino (who also wrote the screenplay), because the finished film is beautifully paced, lingering when the drama demands. You can tell a great hand was at the rudder.

Robert Duvall is Awesome

Although there are a number of excellent performances in this movie, by Blythe Danner, Michael O’Keefe and Stan Shaw and the rest of the cast, Robert Duvall stands out in his performance as the “warrior without a war”. Depending on who you believe, this is an autobiographical tale from Pat Conroy about a military father who seemed to refuse to get too close to a family that he might lose at any time, given the nature of his “job”, a Marine fighter pilot. There are a couple of subplots that revolve around his son and their love/hate relationship. This is a story that many people can relate to, particularly the military “brats”, the military wives and anyone who finds themselves in a family with the father as the villain. But the bottom line is the performance by Robert Duvall. A “larger than life” characterization of a character that you can both love and hate. This film was originally titled “The Ace” and I found it ginally] on cable, Cinemax, I think. Thank goodness for cable, if for no other reason than for giving me the first opportunity to see this film.

Best Film of 1970s

I was very shocked when I saw that “The Great Santini” had an overall rating of only 7.2. Clearly, it’s one of the best films of its day and it is possibly Robert Duvall’s best performance.

Duvall plays ‘Bull’ Meechum–a career officer whose life is the service. He is a Marine pilot first and last. As for his long-suffering family, they clearly don’t fit in with his life. Much of the time he’s off being deployed somewhere–which is tough on the family. But when he’s home–it’s much worse!! He treats his family like they are soldiers, but they never signed up for this sort of thing.

This is a wonderful character study–very realistic, tough and memorable. Exceptionally well acted, directed and well worth seeing. While it’s not always pleasant, it is always compelling.

Well-Focused Drama

The Great Santini is another good movie that builds up on themes of hardships within the Marines and family life under a patriarchal rule. The last theme I can relate to so this makes the movie all the better. It’s a great, emotional-provoking drama. There are many amusing moments, mostly in the beginning where Meechum was pulling pranks in the Spanish restaurant. But there were also many sad moments and some were quite unexpected.

This movie is about a high school teen named Ben Meechum who lives with his dictator of a father, his gentle mother, and his three siblings. Ben is always on the move because of his father’s military career. His father is a talented fighter pilot, but very demanding. Ben wants to get out, but with his father’s authoritarian rule, it may be nigh impossible.

Robert Duvall gave a very strong performance as the father, Bull Meechum. Duvall usually play laid-back characters, but that is certainly not the case here. Blythe Danner also gave a strong performance as the gentle mother who desperately tries to love Bull despite his shortcomings. I also liked Michael O’Keefe’s performance as Ben, the son who doesn’t want to be involved in the military.

Overall, The Great Santini is a great movie and a seemingly hidden film as I have never heard of it until I saw this movie on sale. But it explores relationships and hardships within a military family as well as themes focusing on heroism and self-sacrifice. I really liked the relationship Ben struck up with the son of their new maid. I thought it added humanity to the story. Another great military movie to watch.

Conclusion

The Great Santini Movie is indead a great movie!! this movie has got a rating of 7.2 over 10 and boy that is high!! so why not just give it a try