Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786300271715 Format: Color, NTSC ISBN: 6300271714 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Release Date: April 27, 1994 Running Time: 116 minutes Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: October 26, 1979 Sales Rank: 6594
Amazon.com: Robert Duvall gives one of his most memorable performances in the title role of this 1979 drama about a hardcore Marine lieutenant named Bull Meechum (Duvall), a fighter ace who calls himself "The Great Santini" and compensates for peacetime inactivity by waging war on his intimidated children. His wife (Blythe Danner) lovingly tolerates his behavior, but his 18-year-old son (Michael O'Keefe) is working up the courage to defy the domineering patriarch, whose need for competition borders on maniacal. When push comes to shove (and shove they certainly do), the son earns his father's begrudging respect, and as it turns out, just in time. Military brats may recognize their own experience in this comedic drama, but anyone can relate to the Meechum family's patriarchal dysfunction. Writer-director Lewis John Carlino (adapting the novel by Pat Conroy) does a fine job of balancing humor with the kind of stressful anxiety that can either strengthen a family or tear it apart. Both Duvall and O'Keefe were deservedly nominated for Academy Awards. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - The agonies and ecstasies of family life, father v.s. son, etc.
Two films were released in 1979, "Apocalypse Now" and "The Great Santini," wherein Robert Duvall played essentially the same character -- a gung-ho, half-crazed Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps. ... Read More
Rating: - "NOBODY TELLS YOU ANYTHING...DAD!" GREAT FILM NEEDS DVD UPGRADE!
'The Great Santini' is one of those great movies that has fallen between the cracks. It is an engrossing film about a renegade "cracker jack" pilot who is clueless on how to show any gentle emotion to ... Read More
Rating: - The Great Santini
This is a great movie, but like any movie...the book is better. Great acting.
Rating: - BEWARE! THIS DVD ISN'T WIDESCREEN!
Dear Film Company Jackasses,
Surely you know we already hate you for your greed - Why do you add insult to injury by taking fine films like "The Great Santini" and cutting them to Full Screen? ... Read More
Rating: - Great Movie!!!
I hadnt seen this movie in years but watched it again last night and remembered just what a great movie it is. Its some of Robert Duvalls best work and thats saying a lot as Im a big Duvall fan. Glad to have ... Read More
- The agonies and ecstasies of family life, father v.s. son, etc.
- BEWARE! THIS DVD ISN'T WIDESCREEN!