The Great Santini (1979) on Netflix
In 1962, Marine pilot Bull Meechum moves his family to Beaufort, South Carolina. His teenage son Ben tries to earn the approval of a father who never lets him win.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.2/108,014 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes95%
Trailer
Plot summary
Lt. Col. Wilbur "Bull" Meechum, a Marine pilot his fellow Marines call the Great Santini, moves his wife Lillian and their children to Beaufort, South Carolina, in peacetime 1962. Lillian tolerates her husband's temper and drinking, and the teenage children, Ben and Mary Anne, are used to his discipline as they settle into a new town and school. Ben earns a place on the school basketball team, but in the one-on-one games he plays against his father at home, Bull refuses to let his son win, using rough play and insults while the rest of the family watches. Ben also becomes friends with Toomer Smalls, whose mother Arrabelle keeps house for the family.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Great Santini (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Producer Charles A. Pratt wanted U.S. Marine Corps equipment for the film, so he wrote a letter promising that Bing Crosby Productions would make a movie that would "boost recruiting of the right sort of men". The Corps disliked the script and asked for changes.
- The one-on-one basketball game in which Bull Meechum bounces the ball off Ben's head while asking "You gonna cry?" was parodied in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and in episodes of The Simpsons and Roseanne.
- The title character, Lt. Col. Wilbur "Bull" Meechum, known as "The Great Santini", was based on Conroy's father, and the film was adapted from Conroy's own novel.
