Xixax Film Forum

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.

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.