Rating: 
Summary: Bad Quality DVD
Review: Once again Warner Brothers Takes a good film and doesn't bother trying to find a good master copy in order to do a decent transfer. What is it with them? It's bad enough that they have cheap cardboard covers let alone not even bothering trying to at least have decent copies.
This is a good film and deserved better treatment. SHAME ON WARNER BROTHERS AND THEIR CHEAP TREATMENT OF GOOD FILMS!
Rating:
Summary: Bad Quality DVD
Review: Once again Warner Brothers Takes a good film and doesn't bother trying to find a good master copy in order to do a decent transfer. What is it with them? It's bad enough that they have cheap cardboard covers let alone not even bothering trying to at least have decent copies.
This is a good film and deserved better treatment. SHAME ON WARNER BROTHERS AND THEIR CHEAP TREATMENT OF GOOD FILMS!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Film Marred by Lack of Letterbox
Review: Probably Duval's career-defining performance. I purchased this DVD with the great joyful anticipation of someone who wants to share something wonderful (my wife had never seen the film), yet was very disappointed that the DVD was not in letterbox format. Without letterbox I might as well buy VHS tapes. Anyway, this does not detract from the greatness of Duval, Blythe Danner and Michael O'Keefe.
Rating: 
Summary: The Great Santini
Review: Robert Duval delivers a colorful and complex performance as Bull Meacham father & fighter pilot. "The Great Santini" is his name in the skies. Meacham is a Marine through and through. He loves military life and tries to instill that pride in his 3 children who are now getting old enough to think for themselves. Meacham is a bit of a showman, he is loud, brash, fiercely competitive and loves to call everyone "sportsfan." He has been a great leader all his life in the skies, with his men and with his family. But as he approaches the end of his career he is starting to face for the first time that soon this will no longer be the case. His greatest strengths are now becoming his shortcomings. The leash he has kept on his children is now growning too tight to fit and the older ones are growing anxious to get out from under his rule. His competitiveness turns ugly in a basketball game where he taunts his son. Scenes like this one are painful to watch and it first seems as if Santini is petty and lacking a decent heart. But looking closer we see a loving and good man whose nature does not allow any chinks to show in his armor but is facing his age and an approaching world where he can no longer control the things he used to control... including himself. Blythe Danner plays his lovely wife with tremendous grace, and southern charm. She alone truly understands him and does her best to uphold what he stands for and interpret his eccentricities to the children. Michael O'Keefe as the son Ben Meecham does a fantastic tightroping job balancing conflicting feelings of loving and hating his father and ultimately coming to terms with him. Their scenes together vary from being emotionally explosive to tender. There is a fine scene where Meacham wakes his son up in a haze on his 18th to pass on a special gift and tell him what it was like for him the day he was born . O'Keefe listens like a teen son, both being touched by the story and the gift without really knowing how to react to a father's need to share it at 4am. There are other great performances in the supporting cast as well. The daughter who humorously and unmercifully torments her father at breakfast about her inferior status as a female "Meacham." Theresa Merritt the new black maid who gets into a joyfully spontaneous shoulder punching contest with Bull. The maids son, with the strange name of Toomer (sounds like Tumor) who carries on a emotionally beneficial friendship with the son and a dramatic subplot dealing with a low brow racist that brings still more emotion and humanity into an already wonderful film. I was at first a little disappointed with the DVD in that it was not widescreen. But having watched the film I realize this is a film about people and not sprawling cinematography. It is in standard format but I never noticed any panning and scanning. The intensity of the film is in the center frame. And while I would have appreciated a better quality wide format print I would not hold off on buying this disc because of this. ... A new version of this DVD may be a long time in coming. The Great Santini is a very funny touching and entertaining film with great characters and performances that should be enjoyed. It is a good and worthwhile addition to a video library.
Rating:
Summary: Duvall is Great
Review: Robert Duvall makes this movie great. What an emotional story!
A lot of intelligence to this film, and it is well worth your while. :)
Rating:
Summary: Very Complex Family Drama
Review: Robert Duvall pretty much confirms his status as a great actor in this movie. The Great Santini is definitely one of the highlights of Duvall's career, as his character is one of the most complex and energetic ever put on film. Just the simple extremes of emotion, the various characteristics that Duvall effectively portrayed make this an immensely powerful movie. The Great Santini is the nom de guerre of Lt. Col. Bull Meechum, an elite Marine fighter pilot. A World War II veteran, Meechum feels out of place in the peacetime armed forces. A man of limitless energy, Meechum quickly takes out his frustration on his son and his family. Passed over for promotion because of yet another rowdy Marine exposition, Meechum is assigned to a squadron based in South Carolina. In the beginning, the Meechum's appear to be a very loving family, held together by the saintly mother, played with domestic grace by Blythe Danner. Meechum is a very strict, but an ultimately loving and dedicated father. However, as we soon learn, the reality is much more complex than that. It soon becomes clear that Meechum's dedication to family order and obedience is more disturbing than loving. He wants his family to be a mirror of a Marine unit, where he is the unquestioned leader. Meechum also puts a high level of pressure on his oldest son, played masterfully by Michael O'Keefe. His son is going to succeed on every level, no matter the consequences. Meechum also has an alcohol problem, which often prompts him to fly into violent rages against his other children and his wife. A very interesting side story is that of the young Meechum and a black neighbor whom he befriends. This friendship is unheard of in pre civil rights South Carolina, but the Meechum's are relatively civilized folks. The eventual outcome is disturbing on many levels, and gives the movie a very sour tinge. The movie eventually reaches a crisis point, where the elder Meechum males confront each other in a violent way. This movie does not give the viewer many easy answers, nor does it declare any real moral authority. The story makes the viewer determine many themes for him or herself. If I had one real complaint about this movie, it would be that the ending and the action leading up to it was too brief to really finish such a complex tale. I was a little disappointed at the simplicity of the ending. But, all in all, this is a very mature and very interesting movie.
Rating:
Summary: Very Complex Family Drama
Review: Robert Duvall pretty much confirms his status as a great actor in this movie. The Great Santini is definitely one of the highlights of Duvall's career, as his character is one of the most complex and energetic ever put on film. Just the simple extremes of emotion, the various characteristics that Duvall effectively portrayed make this an immensely powerful movie. The Great Santini is the nom de guerre of Lt. Col. Bull Meechum, an elite Marine fighter pilot. A World War II veteran, Meechum feels out of place in the peacetime armed forces. A man of limitless energy, Meechum quickly takes out his frustration on his son and his family. Passed over for promotion because of yet another rowdy Marine exposition, Meechum is assigned to a squadron based in South Carolina. In the beginning, the Meechum's appear to be a very loving family, held together by the saintly mother, played with domestic grace by Blythe Danner. Meechum is a very strict, but an ultimately loving and dedicated father. However, as we soon learn, the reality is much more complex than that. It soon becomes clear that Meechum's dedication to family order and obedience is more disturbing than loving. He wants his family to be a mirror of a Marine unit, where he is the unquestioned leader. Meechum also puts a high level of pressure on his oldest son, played masterfully by Michael O'Keefe. His son is going to succeed on every level, no matter the consequences. Meechum also has an alcohol problem, which often prompts him to fly into violent rages against his other children and his wife. A very interesting side story is that of the young Meechum and a black neighbor whom he befriends. This friendship is unheard of in pre civil rights South Carolina, but the Meechum's are relatively civilized folks. The eventual outcome is disturbing on many levels, and gives the movie a very sour tinge. The movie eventually reaches a crisis point, where the elder Meechum males confront each other in a violent way. This movie does not give the viewer many easy answers, nor does it declare any real moral authority. The story makes the viewer determine many themes for him or herself. If I had one real complaint about this movie, it would be that the ending and the action leading up to it was too brief to really finish such a complex tale. I was a little disappointed at the simplicity of the ending. But, all in all, this is a very mature and very interesting movie.
Rating:
Summary: One of Duvall's best performances
Review: Robert Duvall was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor for this film, and deservedly so. The film is only as strong as his performance, and this performance is one of his best. As a lieutenant colonel and troubled father, he makes up for the lack of wartime activities by declaring war on his family in general and son in particular, who has just turned 18 and is beginning to question his father's traditional dominance over the household. The acting is great all around and the film has that much sought-after quality of seeming like real life. Now, if only we had a widescreen version...
Rating:
Summary: Duvall got the ink, though O'keefe shines
Review: The great Santini has becoem,for many the performance that put R Duvall on the board in big lights. The story[based on another typically great pat Conroy story] tells of a Marine flier post war,now taking clear aim at his children. The competition between he and his older son{okeefe in what should have been a career making performance]is painful to watch,to feel to identify with. The basketball game is one of the most uncomfortable moments I have ever had in a movie theatre. Duvall is superb,though I think his uber overberaing father in too over the top[the end,heroic,is a cop out]. The lovely Blythe Danner is excellent{as always},though it is Duvalls show. This same year Donald Southerland played a very different father in Ordinary people,a far more nuanced interesting role[for which he was not nominated for an academy award.unlike Duvall }Watching these two movies is quite ineteresting,though comparisons are odious.A good,though not great film.
Rating:
Summary: one film that has it all
Review: The Great Santini is a rare example of a film that aims to be every kind of film and succeeds. It is a hilarious comedy. The mushroom soup scene with Bull Meechum (Robert Duvall) can induce uncontrollable laughter. The 'bare our souls' scene between Meechum and his eldest daughter is a classic. The 'Private Toilet' scene is good for a few laughs as well. It is a deep drama. Marion (Blythe Danner) is caught up with Ben's (Michael O'Keefe) coming of age and Bull's aging to come. Mother, Son, and Father adjust to the changes that time brings to any family, and with great difficulty. It is a sentimental film. Ben's early wakening on his birthday shows a different side the character Duval portrays. The friendship between Ben and Tumor show sentimentality as well, as does Ben's final confrontation with Bull. It is a fair action film. The fighter plane scenes take a back seat, but the confrontation between Tumor and Red turns deadly. The action scenes make up a small part of this film, but they are an integral part. It is a penetrating tragedy as well. Ben learns to confront fear and death and comes to understand his father, but quite late. His growth is difficult and untimely. These elements come together to make a fair storyline into a grand film. The diverse elements of this film work together in a way that takes its' audience on a fascinating trip through the lives of a military family. The varying tone makes it all seem more real- the mood of the film changes from scene to scene, just as our moods change from day to day. Most importantly, Robert Duvall gives a fine performance. His character is by far the most important. The peculiarity of this man who goofs around with fellow Marines like he is at home and runs his private home like a barracks sets up all the comedy and much of the drama and sentimentality. The tragedy and action revolve around this as well. The combination of these elements into a single film was masterful. The acting and cinematography of this film matched the brilliance of its' production and choreography. There is hardly a finer film that you could watch.
| 
