Word: santini
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...GREAT SANTINI Directed and Written by Lewis John Carlino
...through his veins. He is tough on his men, his family, himself. Everyone's back hairs stand at attention when Bull Meechum marches into the room. Once, in that great good war against Hitler, Bull was a genuine air ace with a heroic nom de guerre: the Great Santini. Now, in 1962, when only statesmen get to go eyeball to eyeball with the enemy, Bull finds himself out of meaningful work - orchestrating practice missions in the skies over Beaufort, S.C. He might as well be running the shooting-gallery concession at a penny arcade. So this "war hero without...
...Great Santini is a movie of old-fashioned virtues. It takes its characters, and their place in American life, seriously. It presents the viewer with people he can take home with him, because they were always there. Lewis John Carlino has adapted Pat Conroy's novel without much cinematic grace, but the artlessness serves the subject and showcases three splendid performances: Blythe Banner as the willowy, resilient Lillian Meechum; Michael O'Keefe as 18-year-old Ben, his father's cross and joy; and, above all, Robert Duvall as the raging Bull-sacred monster, gung-ho dinosaur...
...this movie season of $30 million demolition derbies and feature-length promos for sound-track albums, The Great Santini had a hard time making itself heard. The film bivouacked in one town after another, opening to sympathetic reviews and closing to public indifference. Its distributor, Orion Pictures, sold the film to airlines and cable networks as a mild soporific for weary travelers and viewers. Doubtless, it was seen as nothing more than an up-scale TV movie, with its careful pacing, liberal humanism and "small" subject: the family. Now Santini has found an almost posthumous success in a Manhattan bijou...
...Silver Jubilee production Bruno Santini designed fresh costumes and settings for the fairy world that are all silver and black. And, taking a cue from the Fairy Queen's remark about being able to "swing upon a cobweb," he opened the show by dropping in a huge cobweb. This denial of a broad spectrum only serves to heighten the impact of the ensuing magnificent procession of Peers, fifteen strong, resplendently garbed and sporting rich velvet capes of different colors. The music itself not only parodies marches by Bellini, Meyerbeer, Wagner and Verdi but is also better than the pieces...