A warrior without a war, Lt. Col. Wilbur "Bull" Meechum, a pilot also known as "The Great Santini" to his fellow Marines, moves his family to the military base town of Beaufort, South Carolina, in peacetime 1962. His wife Lillian is loyal and docile, tolerant of Meechum's temper and drinking. Their teenaged kids, Ben and Mary Anne, are accustomed to his stern discipline and behave accordingly, while adapting to their new town and school. Ben is a basketball star. On the court at school, he is a dominant player. In one-on-one games on his driveway at home, his father won't let him win, even if it means using unnecessarily physical tactics or humiliating the boy, bouncing the ball off his head, and yelling at his other kids and wife for interfering. Ben finally beats him in basketball, but rather than be proud of his son's dedication, he berates and insults him. Later that night Ben awakes to the sound of his father practicing basketball alone in the driveway. His mother tells Ben not to be angry at his father, and that deep down he is secretly proud of Ben. The father is just struggling with losing so much control of the things he used to know. This is seen most prominently when Ben is publicly embarrassed one night at the school gym when his dad, not wanting to feel ashamed, orders him to get even with an opponent who committed the foul. Ben tackles the boy and is ejected from the game. Ben befriends a young black man called Toomer, who is being harassed by Red Petus, a bigoted bully. Toomer exacts revenge on Red with the help of a hive of bees, but tragic consequences ensue as Red shoots Toomer. Ben, against the orders of his father, leaves the house and tries to help Toomer, but arrives too late. Meechum is angry for his son's disobedience, but his fellow Marines tell him that Ben showed courage by choosing to help his friend. Meechum is unwilling or unable to appreciate his son's sensitive nature. Their relationship is still a delicate one when the Great Santini flies one last mission, a military maneuver, from which he does not return. When Meechum's jet has an engine failure he chooses to crash it into the sea rather than eject and risk it crashing into a nearby town. After his father's death and subsequent funeral the family packs up and leaves town. Ben has assumed the role of his late father and has become the "man" of the house, something his father always wanted him to be.
Lewis John Carlino adapted the script from Conroy's novel. Carlino also directed the film. The title character, Lt. Col. Wilbur "Bull" Meechum, aka "The Great Santini", was based on Conroy's father. The story, for the most part, follows the book. The movie's major divergence is the absence of Sammy, Ben Meecham's Jewishbest friend. The spelling of the main characters' surname was also changed from Meecham to Meechum. Also changed is Meecham's aircraft; in the book, he flies and commands a squadron of F-8 Crusaders, while in the film the fighters shown are F-4 Phantom IIs. Much of the film was shot on location in Beaufort, South Carolina. Tidalholm, the 19th century-house used for the Meechum residence, was later used in The Big Chill. The film was shot in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio but was only produced in that ratio in the LaserDisc format. Both the VHS & DVD releases are in 1.33:1, also known as or pan & scan. To date the film has not had a release in the Blu-ray Disc format.
is often credited as a ghostwriter for the feature film. However, Raucher did no work on the film; the misconception arises from the fact that, in the 1980s, Raucher was hired to write a television pilot adaptation of the movie; he only wrote "a couple of pieces," he explained. Raucher has stated that, into the 2000s, he continued to receive fan mail for Santini, and that the volume of letters he received was surpassed only by those for Summer of '42.
Release
executives were concerned that the film's plot and lack of bankable actors would make it difficult to market. It made its world premiere in Beaufort in August 1979 and was soon released in North Carolina and South Carolina to empty cinemas. Believing the film's title — which implied it was about circus stunts — was the problem, it was tested with other titles: as Sons and Heroes in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as Reaching Out in Rockford, Illinois, and The Ace in Peoria, Illinois. As it tested better in Peoria, The Ace stuck, though even with its new title it was still performing poorly. Orion Pictures eventually pulled the film and sold cable rights to HBO along with the airline rights to recoup its losses. Producer Charles A. Pratt still had faith in the film and raised enough money to release The Great Santini in New York City under its original title. It received positive reviews, and business was steady. Two weeks later, it debuted on HBO, and audiences stopped coming. Orion executive Mike Medavoy blamed the film's box office failure to a lack of a traditional release: screening it first in New York and expanding markets due to word-of-mouth.
Critical reception
The film was well received by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 95% rating, based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "Like almost all my favorite films, The Great Santini is about people more than it is about a story. It's a study of several characters, most unforgettably the Great Santini himself, played by Robert Duvall ... There are moments so unpredictable and yet so natural they feel just like the spontaneity of life itself." John Simon of National Review wrote that The Great Santini was 'an uneven achievement that nevertheless contains enough of value to justify catching it'.
