The Great Santini

Started by cron, April 16, 2004, 07:13:40 PM

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cron

Who has seen this movie?

Staring Robert Duvall.
I felt terrible after I saw it.  I think I was 10,  and my dad rented it ...    it's like  the ultimate   armed-forces-family movie.
context, context, context.

Ghostboy

I've seen it! In fact, this is the first movie I've ever seen. Ever. Well, maybe not (does Empire Strikes Back in utero count?), but the first one I remember.

All my life, I had these memories in my head of seeing something on television in which a man lifted another man up by the ankles and dunked his head in the toilet. I remember asking my mom what was going on, and I remember her response: "that's what they do to you in the army."

So there you have it: my pacifism's roots.

The memory remained, surfacing now and then; I sometimes wondered if it was a dream, too distant to differentiate from reality, or if it was in fact a movie, and if so, what the movie might be.

Years later, maybe five or so ago, that same mother rented The Great Santini and I watched it with the rest of the family. Euphoric waves of memory from the far reaches of my subconscious started rippling through my head the moment I saw Robert Duvall, Boo Radley, Gus from Lonseome Dove, pick up that young man by his army boots and send his head plunging into the commode. It was a landmark moment. A reconnection of sorts with my past. A rebirth. Years of therapy could not have achieved this.

So anyway, yes, I remember thinking it a fine film overall.