The Great Santini

The Great Santini is a 1979 American drama film directed by Lewis John Carlino, written by Carlino and an uncredited Herman Raucher, and based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Pat Conroy. The film stars Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner, and Michael OKeefe.

A warrior without a war, Lt. Col. Wilbur Bull Meechum, a pilot also known as The Great Santini to his fellow Marines, moves his family to the militarybase town of Beaufort, South Carolina in peacetime 1962. His wife Lillian is loyal and docile, tolerant of Meechums temper and drinking. Their teenaged kids, Ben and Mary Anne, are accustomed to his stern discipline and behave accordingly, while adapting to their new town and school.Ben is a basketball star. On the court at school, he is a dominating player. In oneonone games on his driveway at home, his father wont let him win, even if it means using unnecessarily physical tactics or humiliating the boy, bouncing the ball off him. Ben is publicly embarrassed one night at the school gym when his dad, drunk, orders him to get even with an opponent who committed a foul. Ben decks the boy and is ejected from the game. ........

Source: Wikipedia