On G List of Movie Reviews
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The Great Santini (1979)
Rate:
7
Viewed:
5/06, 2/17
5/06:
Although Robert Duvall turns in an excellent performance, The Great Santini resembles a series of unconnected TV
episodes.
When I say "unconnected," look no further than the murder of the black boy. The son being apathetic keeps reminding
me of Ordinary People. Strangely, he's a Timothy Hutton look-alike whose personality traits are similar to Conrad
in many ways. As a matter of fact, Timothy Hutton auditioned for the role of Ben Meechum but didn't win the part.
All in all, I have to watch The Great Santini again for further assessment.
2/17:
What a performance by Robert Duvall.
It's a great role for him, leading to an Oscar nomination. Michael O'Keefe was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
I can say he's the original Timothy Hutton, yet Timothy won the Oscar for Ordinary People during the same year.
In fact, he auditioned for the role, but Michael O'Keefe ended up getting it.
There are many memorable scenes, and the most interesting of them is the varsity basketball game when the son
was ordered by his father to put down his opponent. It's hard for me to say whether the Great Santini is an overall bad person,
but he's a perfect example of an abusive military father. I think it's a matter of him needing to be deprogrammed in order to
let go his thinking patterns and try to be a normal person in the societal sense because he has a lot of love to offer for his
family. But what gets in the way is his drinking problem.
Oh, here's a movie trivia that's so Great Santini-like which is taken from IMDb: "On the morning of the Academy Award
nominations in 1981, when the movie got nods for actor and supporting actor, author Pat Conroy received a phone call from
his father who told him, 'You and me got nominated for Academy Awards, your mother didn't get squat.'"
Notice the big South Carolina house in the film? It's the same one used for The Big Chill.
David Keith makes his film debut, playing the red-haired bully, and Blythe Danner, who plays the Great Santini's wife, is
Gwyneth Paltrow's mother.
All in all, Robert Duvall is truly the Great Santini.