Word: bulled
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...football season and, at the age of 32, reported as head coach at the University of Maryland, a school with dreams of football grandeur. To be certain that he did not get off to a bad start as a head coach, he took along some of his bull-necked Navy veterans. The record of Bryant's debut: six wins, two losses and one tie. He stayed at Maryland just one season, quitting when the college president, Harry C. ("Curly") Byrd, a former Maryland coach himself, reinstated a suspended player over the Bear's objections...
opposing Views bull intellectualizations other candidates crooks paranoid personalities assistants jerks underachievers reporters swine voyeurs zealots nuts "Come...
Robert Duvall brings great strength to the movie as Bull Meechum, a Marine pilot who, after flying in Europe for NATO, returns to his family in the States. He calls himself the Great Santini, convinced of his worthiness of the grandiose title in a friendly, arrogant sort of way. Keyed up by an unlimited confidence and a "can-do" attitude, what makes Meechum tick is the same patriotic puffery that inspired Lyndon Johnson. His 17-year-old son, his wife, his pubescent daughter and smallest son, find it difficult to receive back into the family a father who seems more...
...wins. Meechum shoves his wife to the ground and kicks his other children away when they protest that his son has beaten him fair and square. The situation defuses quietly after the initial heat--but the incident rips wide open a blister in the family that has festered since Bull Meechum's return, sowing the seeds of hatred that will later torment the characters with guilt...
Meechum may die, but the problem of the "can-do" war mentality is not resolved. The Great Santini portrays death as the outcome of Bull Meechum's arrogant, overconfident life. But it is an accidental death, and no one is transformed as a result. The final shot in the film is the same as the beginning: the family, minus Dad, travelling to a new home in a different city. Carlino examines Meechum's mentality, then throws up his hands and says, "So what...