The Great Santini (1979)

United States Marines are an odd bunch. Fiercely loyal to the Corps and their country, violently profane and prone to extreme bouts of mischief. Colonel Wilbur "Bull" Meechum, or "The Great Santini" as he is known to his fellow Marines, is the walking, talking encapsulation of all that is right and wrong with career military men. As a father he wants nothing but the best for his children, yet in his quest to see them succeed he goes so overboard that you are at times left wondering if he even knows the meaning of the word love. As an officer he wants the men under his charge to be the best pilots that the Marine Corps has to offer, yet seemingly goes out of his way to alienate himself from his squad. He is a literally a walking contradiction; a classic case of bipolar disorder.

The opening scene of the movie sets the stage for what is to come. Col. Meechum is set to leave his assignment in Spain to take the lead instructor role at a base back in the States. He and his fellow officers spend the evening celebrating behind closed doors in the banquet room of a nice restaurant. The party escalates into glasses being shattered and general drunkeness as Meechum's commanding officer lay passed out in a heap on a table. Several high ranking Navy officers and their wives happen to be trying to enjoy their meal while the boisterous Jarheads in the next room are ruining their ambience. One Navy Captain has had enough and decides to march into the banquet room and restore order once and for all. After dressing down the Marines he orders them to get as far as possible from the establishment at once. Marines often have little to no respect for their Naval cousins, referring to them as "Squids". Meechum collects himself and prepares his men for their grand exit. The Marines all grab spoons as Meechum slips an open can of cream of mushroom soup (that seemingly appeared out of nowhere) into his jacket before throwing the doors to the main dining hall open. He stumbles out into the dining hall, stealing food and drinks off of the tables of the Navy officers and their spouses. He stops and plants a kiss square on the lips of one particularly prudish looking Navy wife before stumbling over to the stage where a band is playing. His fellow Marines are still gathered at the banquet room door, cheering him on. He bends over at the waist and pretends to vomit as he pours the cream of mushroom soup onto the shoes of one of the startled band members. The customers of the restaurant are aghast as Meechum bellows out "Chow's on me, boys," and the rest of the Marines charge the stage, spoon in hand, and begin eating up the "vomit". And thus the stage is set for a trip into the mind of mad man. Jason and I agreed that while this scene was indicative of typical Marine behavior, it was also seemed to be tamed down a bit because no one got punched in the face and/or date raped, two trademarks of the Marine Corps.

From here we meet the Colonel's family. His wife, Lillian Meechum (played by a youngish looking Blythe Danner) has resigned herself to her lot in life as the wife of a career military man. She is accepting of his bullish behavior and does her best accentuate his positive traits. His oldest son Ben (played by Michael O'Keefe who ended up getting nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role) is a star athlete who wants so badly to please his father, yet doesn't want to end up like him. The Colonel has already decided Ben will be going into the military at one point in his life, preferably after college. His oldest daughter Mary Anne Meechum is a sarcastic nerdish type who is more or less the forgotten child of the family. His youngest son and daughter play little to no role in the movie and as such will play little to no role in this review. Bull treats his children as if they were recruits in the midst of basic training. He runs a tight ship and expects them to toe the line. He also will seemingly go to any lengths to ensure they are taken care of and provided for. He is highly protective of his family and yet he is also the biggest threat to their own safety and well being. The children have moved so many times over the years that they no longer bother making friends. They are essentially each others friends.

To further illustrate the Colonel's slipping grasp on sanity we are shown that while he wants his children to be the best at all they do, he doesn't want them to eclipse him. One scene in particular stands out. Ben is in his senior year of high school and is his basketball team's star player. Bull has never lost a game of one on one to Ben, whom he refers to as "Jocko". With the entire family gathered around and cheering him on, Ben finally manages to defeat his father. Bull decides to change the rules and now demands that Ben beat him by two baskets. When Ben refuses the Colonel becomes incensed, repeatedly bouncing a basketball off of the back of his son's head, taunting him, all the way to the door of Ben's room. Later that evening we see the Colonel outside, shooting jump shot after jump shot in the middle of a torrential rain storm. This competitive fire is shown again during the biggest game of Ben's season. With several college scouts in attendance the Colonel tells Jocko that he needs to have the game of his life tonight. After receiving several cheap shots from an opposing player Bull orders Ben to take him out. Knowing full well that the fight he'll face at home for failing to please his father will be much worse than any discipline he'd face from his coach he purposely passes the ball to the dirty player who then drives in for a layup. As he's in midair Ben submarines him and sends him crashing to the ground, breaking his arm. Ben is ejected from the game and has now lost the respect of his teammates and coach while pleasing his father. Ben sobs in the locker room at his inability to stand up to his father.

This sort of behavior continues on over and over again throughout the movie. Nothing is ever the Colonel's fault. When Ben's friend and the son of his housekeeper "Toomer" is killed by a racist idiot due in no small part to Bull's failure to act despite Ben's pleas, the Colonel ask Ben "Why didn't you tell me?" He is seemingly incapable of accepting his own shortcomings and failures as a human being. Later that night the inevitable happens: He becomes physically violent with his family. After going out and getting drunk after the death of Toomer the Colonel comes home and is yelling at his wife while grabbing her by the shoulders. He eventually pushes her down and is promptly attacked by Ben who he pushes up against the refrigerator while the rest of his family tries to pry him off. Eventually he looks down to see his youngest son, holding on to his leg and punching him and it the impact of his actions FINALLY sinks in. He slowly disengages from Ben and walks out the door. Lillian eventually sends Ben out to find his father which leads to humorous scene where he finally gets a little revenge by enraging his drunken father by repeatedly telling him he loves him. We don't learn definitively if this is the Colonel's turning point or not because shortly thereafter he dies in a plane crash. He was faced with the choice of either ejecting and having his fighter crash into the town or turning around and putting her down into a lake. For once he chooses the well being of others over himself and dies heroically by crashing into the lake, so it can be argued that perhaps, in the end, he did learn his lesson. I am skeptical.

I first watched this movie when I was 6 years old with my grandfather who was a career military man himself. During the various scenes in which Col. Meechum puts his borderline sociopathic behavior on display my grandpa would laugh hysterically, telling me that he was the spitting image of every commanding officer he ever had. I enjoyed the movie because it was a basically about a guy who did mean things to people for no real reason other than to be a jackass. I didn't watch this movie again until my Jr. year in high school when we had to watch it for psychology class. At that point I enjoyed the movie for a different reason. It was a look into the mind of man conflicted over what he was. He found it easier to simply be Colonel Bull Meechum 24 hours a day rather than leave him at work.

This movie is a little bit older than the general time frame we've been working with but I was glad that it was well received. When I was a kid I probably would've given this movie a 4, and now as a father and husband who goes out of his way to leave work at work and home at home I still give it a 4.