The Great Santini

We were talking about movies last week that I was waiting to see get remastered for Blu-Ray and I talked about Steel Magnolias. Well if we were to loosely associate movies then this would be the” masculine” version of that film in my opinion.

Now has anyone out there been raised in a military family? Because you might see what I am getting at here but be very careful if you have never seen this movie. See Steel Magnolias despite it’s obvious humor can sometimes make people a tad uncomfortable because it hits close to home while it tries to stir your emotions and introduce you to the female characters that live in a small southern town.

Well The Great Santini does just that for people who may have had the joy of living in a military family. The more gungho your father happened to be the more likely this movie will make you take long bathroom breaks to get away from it. I myself have to stop this damn thing more than a few times and take deep cleansing breaths while trying to get through some of the more um “interesting” parts of this flick.

Robert Duvall is dead fucking on with his portrayal here although he is playing this character way more into the “psychotic” side of the fence in my experience. My father shared many of these quirks when he was in the Army but he never quite combined them like this probably because mom would have up and shot him with one of his god damned guns he left lying around the house had he decided this type of behavior was OK at home.

But boy… memories! Duvall gives us heaping helpings of bravado, gusto, testosterone, plain meanness, cruelty, and tops it off with all night drunk-a-thons whenever the stress at work or home gets too much which happens more often than not. Oh yeah baby. I so have that t-shirt.

Meanwhile the eldest son gets a ring side seat and special treatment for you know… being the eldest son and having to live in unfortunately close quarters with his pilot “god almighty” daddy knows bestestestest. Yep, been there done that one too!

You got such well known wholesome military family fun as marital violence, yelling, screaming, dads ever increasing drinking problem, but they never seem to show mom’s ever increasing drinking problem. Unless I missed that one while I was hiding my eyes. All while making it all look good, pristine, and inspection ready when the neighbors stop by. JOY!

Those were the days I tell you. Pure military gold!

BUT!… Just like I know my parents really loved each other through thick and thin despite occasionally trying to beat each other black and blue I have to say this movie portrays that particular aspect of military life just as well and sure Duvall is a huge shit head of a father in this thing but you sort of see how he was not one of those guys that was ever really built to last but to do his job or die trying and very much a product of his era. I also know from personal experience these guys also thankfully tend to mellow the fuck out eventually. At least someone I know did but boy did I learn some useful lessons in how not to behave close up and personal like.

So if you ever want to dip your toe into a good movie that heads in the exact opposite direction as the feminine fueled Steel Magnolias while staying on the same path. Try this one out…

But if you have a military family background I hope I have provided some fair warning.

Watch with a large pillow right beside you just in case. Mega icks, mega mega icky icks. Oh, and the DVD available right now sucks ass. It is not even widescreen so you might want to pass till they get a remaster on this one.