Backdrop fallback

The Great Santini

The Great Santini

Share

The Great Santini

"The bravest thing he would ever do was let his family love him."

1979

1h 55m

6.8(73 votes)

Drama

Overview

As he approaches manhood, Ben Meechum struggles to win the approval of his demanding alpha male father, an aggressively competitive, but frustrated marine pilot.

Links & Resources

Social & External

Production Companies

Orion Pictures

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Robert Duvall

Robert Duvall

Bull Meechum

Blythe Danner

Blythe Danner

Lillian Meechum

Michael O'Keefe

Michael O'Keefe

Ben Meechum

Lisa Jane Persky

Lisa Jane Persky

Mary Anne Meechum

Julie Anne Haddock

Julie Anne Haddock

Karen Meechum

Brian Andrews

Brian Andrews

Matthew Meechum

Stan Shaw

Stan Shaw

Toomer Smalls

Theresa Merritt

Theresa Merritt

Arrabella Smalls

David Keith

David Keith

Red Petus

Paul Mantee

Paul Mantee

Col. Virgil Hedgepath

Creative team

Directed by: Lewis John Carlino
Written by: Lewis John Carlino
Produced by: Charles A. Pratt

Similar Movies

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump

A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.

Metropolis

Metropolis

In a futuristic city sharply divided between the rich and the poor, the son of the city's mastermind meets a prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences.

Jarhead

Jarhead

Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swofford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

A History of Violence

A History of Violence

An average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner.

Absolute Power

Absolute Power

A master thief coincidentally is robbing a house where a murder—in which the President of the United States is involved—occurs in front of his eyes. He is forced to run, while holding evidence that could convict the President.

Walk the Line

Walk the Line

A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.

Billy Elliot

Billy Elliot

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

Blade Runner

Blade Runner

In the smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles of 2019, blade runner Rick Deckard is called out of retirement to terminate a quartet of replicants who have escaped to Earth seeking their creator for a way to extend their short life spans.

The Elementary Particles

The Elementary Particles

Based on Michel Houellebecq's controversial novel, Atomised (aka The Elementary Particles) focuses on Michael and Bruno, two very different half-brothers and their disturbed sexuality. After a chaotic childhood with a hippie mother only caring for her affairs, Michael, a molecular biologist, is more interested in genes than women, while Bruno is obsessed with his sexual desires, but mostly finds his satisfaction with prostitutes. But Bruno's life changes when he gets to know the experienced Christiane. In the meantime, Michael meets Annabelle, the love of his youth, again.

Anatomy of a Murder

Anatomy of a Murder

Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. Over the course of an extensive trial, Biegler parries with District Attorney Lodwick and out-of-town prosecutor Claude Dancer to set his client free, but his case rests on the victim's mysterious business partner, who's hiding a dark secret.

Unknown Origins

Unknown Origins

In Madrid, Spain, a mysterious serial killer ruthlessly murders his victims by recreating the first appearance of several comic book superheroes. Cosme, a veteran police inspector who is about to retire, works on the case along with the tormented inspector David Valentín and his own son Jorge Elías, a nerdy young man who owns a comic book store.

Silent Barricade

Silent Barricade

A fiction piece centered around the Czech resistance to the Nazis.

Bread and Salt

Bread and Salt

A group of peasant farmers in turn-of-the-century Ukraine leaves home in search of better luck in Siberia. The story follows those who stay behind and their dispute with the landowner, as well as a love triangle involving a local beauty and two young men.

Sayedat el kasr

Sayedat el kasr

A chance meeting at an auction brings together Sawsan, a working-class girl and Adel, heir to a vast fortune with several estates to his name. This leads to a whirlwind marriage. This development spells trouble for Adel's fair-weather bourgeois clique, who are used to manipulating him with their own financial interests at heart.

Miramar

Miramar

Zuhra has nothing to do but to runaway after her family forced her to marry an old rich man. She goes to Alexandria where she works in a motel and there she meets people with different ideologies and thoughts about life.

Sleepless

Sleepless

Spoiled rich girl Nadia gets jealous after finding out her father's plan to remarry. She tries to break them apart, spreading lies about her new mother-in-law and getting involved with a man twice her age.

Moffie

Moffie

A young man in 1981 South Africa must complete his brutal and racist two years of compulsory military service while desperately maintaining the secrecy of his homosexuality.

Son, I Love Your Mouth 2: The Taste of the Forbidden

Son, I Love Your Mouth 2: The Taste of the Forbidden

Second part of the romance between father and son. In this installment Alex introduces his new girlfriend to Gonzalo, who cannot hide his jealousy.

Sudden Outbursts of Emotions

Sudden Outbursts of Emotions

Jane, a structured travel agent in Helsinki, lives a comfortable life with her longtime boyfriend Mikki, a struggling actor. When Mikki proposes opening their relationship to reignite lost passion, Jane reluctantly agrees to attend a sex-positive retreat. There, she meets Valma, a confident, free-spirited woman deeply rooted in the polyamorous lifestyle. Drawn to Valma’s openness and emotional clarity, Jane begins to question the limits she’s placed on love and connection. As their bond deepens, Jane finds herself navigating unfamiliar territory—desire, jealousy, and self-discovery—while her once-stable life begins to unravel. What began as an experiment in freedom becomes a profound turning point that challenges everything Jane thought she knew about relationships.

Recommended Movies

Dad

Dad

A busy executive learns during a meeting that his mother may be dying and rushes home to her side. He ends up being his father's caretaker and becomes closer to him than ever before. Estranged from his own son, the executive comes to realize what has been missing in his own life.

Dangerous Minds

Dangerous Minds

Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.

East of Eden

East of Eden

In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their father. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, how to get ahead in business and in life, and how to relate to his estranged mother.

The Fabelmans

The Fabelmans

Growing up in post-World War II era Arizona, young Sammy Fabelman aspires to become a filmmaker as he reaches adolescence, but soon discovers a shattering family secret and explores how the power of films can help him see the truth.

The Long, Hot Summer

The Long, Hot Summer

Accused barn burner and conman Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners.

A Few Good Men

A Few Good Men

When cocky military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee and his co-counsel, Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway, are assigned to a murder case, they uncover a hazing ritual that could implicate high-ranking officials such as shady Col. Nathan Jessep.

High Crimes

High Crimes

A female attorney learns that her husband is really a marine officer who has been AWOL for fifteen years and accused of murdering fifteen civilians in El Salvador. Believing her husband when he tells her that he's being framed as part of a U.S. Military cover-up, the attorney defends him in a military court.

Chasing Mavericks

Chasing Mavericks

Surfer Jay Moriarity sets out to ride the Northern California break known as Mavericks.

Testament

Testament

It's just another day in the small town of Hamlin until something disastrous happens. Suddenly, news breaks that a series of nuclear warheads has been dropped along the Eastern Seaboard and, more locally, in California. As people begin coping with the devastating aftermath of the attacks — many suffer radiation poisoning — the Wetherly family tries to survive.

Hud

Hud

Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."

Bravetown

Bravetown

After an accidental drug overdose, a talented teenage DJ goes to live with his estranged father in a small Army town, where he gets to the bottom of his own pain and learns empathy for others.

Eye of the Needle

Eye of the Needle

Great Britain, 1944, during World War II. Relentlessly pursued by several MI5 agents, Henry Faber the Needle, a ruthless German spy in possession of vital information about D-Day, takes refuge on Storm Island, an inhospitable, sparsely inhabited island off the coast of northern Scotland.

Boyhood

Boyhood

The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.

Radio Flyer

Radio Flyer

A father reminisces about his childhood when he and his younger brother moved to a new town with their mother, her new husband and their dog, Shane. When the younger brother is subjected to physical abuse at the hands of their brutal stepfather, Mike decides to convert their toy trolley, the "Radio Flyer", into a plane to fly him to safety.

Train Dreams

Train Dreams

A logger leads a life of quiet grace as he experiences love and loss during an era of monumental change in early 20th-century America.

The Social Network

The Social Network

In 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programmer Mark Zuckerberg begins work on a new concept that eventually turns into the global social network known as Facebook. Six years later, Mark is one of the youngest billionaires ever, but his unprecedented success leads to both personal and legal complications when he ends up on the receiving end of two lawsuits, one involving his former friend.

The Banker

The Banker

In the 1960s, two entrepreneurs hatch an ingenious business plan to fight for housing integration—and equal access to the American Dream.

Gigi & Nate

Gigi & Nate

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Ford v Ferrari

Ford v Ferrari

American car designer Carroll Shelby and the British-born driver Ken Miles work together to battle corporate interference, the laws of physics, and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford Motor Company and take on the dominating race cars of Enzo Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France in 1966.

Seven Days in May

Seven Days in May

A U.S. Marine Corps colonel alerts the president of a planned military coup against him.