The Great Santini

The Great Santini, directed by Lewis John Carlino, is an American film starring Robert Duvall as an aggressive, competitive Marine fighter pilot who calls himself "The Great Santini," and his son Ben's struggle, on the cusp of adulthood, to win his approval. The film is adapted from Pat Conroy's semi-autobiographical novel; Conroy later wrote in a memoir that his real father was even worse than the novel's Bull Meechum character, and that his editor had asked him to soften the character because "no one would believe such an unlikable man existed." Due to weak marketing, the film was test screened in different cities under different titles like "Sons and Heroes" and "The Ace," before returning to theaters under its original name after a positive New York Times review. Robert Duvall and Michael O'Keefe both received Academy Award nominations for the film. Who it's for: anyone curious about a father-son drama drawn from a writer's own childhood, whose real father turned out to be even harsher than his fictional counterpart, an American classic tested under multiple different titles before release. Who it's not for: those wanting a warm, forgiving father figure, since the film centers on a father whose approval is nearly impossible to win.