If you listen to my podcast The Film Vault (and you probably do) then you know that I hate not knowing about movies that are mentioned on the program. Perhaps the most painful example of this came a few weeks ago when Bryan and I did “Worst Movie Dads” and The Great Santini was in the Listener Top 5. If my utter silence was not enough of a clue as to how disgusted I was with myself, this post shall serve as conclusive evidence. I hurriedly (and during the actual taping mind you) added it to my fuckflix (first cuss in a post) queue and anxiously awaited it’s arrival. Well it came, I saw and wow, was it a good one!

Other than seeing it’s title in my numerous IMDB searches of Robert Duvall, I knew nothing about this Great Santini. Damn shame too as it has everything you’d want from a late 70’s classic. Strong, yet cliched characters (ever wonder where Bubba Gump came from?) and big picture story lines. The memorable acting earned Santini two Oscar nominations with Duvall as the drunk and stringent military father and  Micahel O’Keefe, (the caddy in Caddyshack a year later and still acting today by the way) as the sensitive and ingratiating eldest son.

Much of my early childhood was spent at movie houses with my dad and I owe a lot of my passion and knowledge of film to him for exposing me to it from the get. He’d read about movies in Time Magazine, then take me to one that suited his interests. While this was not a practical practice, I’m grateful for the exposure, but I can only assume that dad saw this one by himself and didn’t drag his then 6 year old son to the theater out of fear. Had he done so, I might’ve called him the Great Santini to this day.

Long story short, thank you to the listeners for bringing this movie to my attention (I was so excited that I actually reopened my fuckflix ((2nd time)) envelope to show her a particular scene that I loved) and I will thank you again next time we record.

Should Watch, 4 of 5

Anderson 06/2012

Rating Legend

Must Watch = 5 0f 5

Should Watch = 4 of 5

Could Watch = 3 of 5

Should Not Watch = 2 of 5

Do Not Watch = 1 of 5

 

Posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 at 9:31 pm and is filed under Reviews.
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