Disappointment for a huge fan!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

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.

my father who was and still thinks to this day he is the greatest marine pilot that god ever made .and this movie is so real to me i have not been able to watch it until now .2012 .still effected by his brainwashed convincing ways his rite I'm wrong attitude. The world is wrong except him and his fellow Marine buddy's .He hasn't admitted to any wrong doing, from my childhood to adult hood.never its all about him. Writing this, makes me weep like a child .I'm still in-shock after 48 years. I don't know how I've been able to stay alive . ask me please. my father who was and still thinks to this day he is the greatest marine pilot that god ever made .and this movie is so real to me i have not been able to watched it until now .2012 .still effected by his brainwashed convincing ways his rite I'm wrong attitude. The world is wrong except him and his fellow Marine buddy's .He hasn't admitted to any wrong doing, from my childhood to adult hood.never its all about him. Writing this, makes me weep like a child .I'm still in-shock after 48 years. I don't know how I've been able to stay alive . ask me please.

Imagine a man who considers winning to be absolutely everything. He is like the coach of a sports team, yet he encompasses a far greater reach of authority. And yet, he wants even more authority and always seems to be getting it, because of his natural air of authority and others' natural air of backing down in the fright of his presence. He is a coach, a military man, a patriot, abusive, and to make things even more shocking: a father who just doesn't really know how to be one except his own way. And you have a picture of the type of character that Academy Award-winning actor Robert Duvall plays in this film. He got another nomination for the Academy Award in this film, although he unfortunately did not win it."The Great Santini" is a dramatic film near to perfection and one of the finest great movies of the 70s. Majority of the screen time is devoted to the relationship between Robert Duvall and his screen son, portrayed by Michael O'Keefe, also in an Oscar-nominated performance. The whole point of this is that O'Keefe is the oldest out of four children who have spent their whole life being raised, bullied, and commanded by Duvall. He runs their lives like a boot camp. There is no mercy, no generosity, and all you get for a good job, is a slap on the back. Duvall is trying to raise them in the best way he knows. He wants them to succeed in life, but the only method he knows that is effective is to be rough. And O'Keefe's character has decided he's had enough of being treated like a soldier in war.Every aspect in "The Great Santini" is developed and executed perfectly to a magnificent entertaining level. The varsity basketball game depicted in the film is just like watching a real high school ball game. It's not full of tough, imaginative lines. Nothing remarkable happens during it, and yet it is a powerful sequence and highly entertaining, almost as if you were sitting with the cheering and jeering friends and family members of the characters. There are also powerful messages about racism and violence in the film, performed through a friendship between the characters portrayed by Michael O'Keefe, Stan Shaw, and David Keith. It is an excellent subplot that is the next-to-most-important aspect of the story and it involves pretty much all of the characters in some way, shape, or form. It's not just an in-the-background tragedy."The Great Santini" plays out as a magnificent story, mostly revolving around the character played by Robert Duvall. As we see him, he goes on an off with his temper and general-like behavior, and we come to like and dislike him over the course of the film, respecting him as if he were a real person before us. While he's really nothing more than a fictional character being portrayed by a magnificent and talented actor, he is in his own way, one of the greatest heroes of film history. And he just wants everybody to see things his way.Recommended.

If you are ever pining for a film that espouses wholesome family values but most of what you find is syrup-y, The Great Santini is the film for you.The theme of this movie is that love is a force of almost limitless, even frightening power, and life is all about the search for qualities to temper this force so that we can do it (love) with more ease, regularity and goodness. That we may get good at it, learn to live in it and speak it.The characters all have a lust for life, act unself-consciously and unapologetically. This is a portrait of a truly loving family.