Robert Duvall had himself a fantastic year of 1979. He was nominated for his supporting role in the iconic war film Apocalypse Now. He follows up that “napalm-smelling” performance with another Oscar-nominated performance in this movie The Great Santini. His character in this movie is a form of his character from Apocalypse Now. His character, Bull Meechum, is a hardened Marine who knows nothing but victory and competition. He lives his life with a code and he involves his family in his code. The main theme of the movie is family and at the heart of that theme is a father-and-son story. A very good one at that. The movie was directed and written by Lewis John Carlino, and he did a wonderful job in making the small moments matter. The story itself is a sentimental one, but it stays away from being sappy. There may be tears over the course of the film, but at least you should not end the movie feeling depressed.

Lets get ourselves acquainted with the Meechum family. Bull Meechum(Robert Duvall) is the patriarch of the family and is known as a great pilot and a Marine superstar. His wife is a gentle Southern lady named Lillian (Blythe Danner). She is a very supportive woman to all of her family, including her difficult husband. Then there are the kids-four kids in total. But our main focus is on the eldest son, Ben (Michael O’Keefe). Ben is eighteen years old and is a star basketball player for his high school. Bull is grooming him to join the military, but Ben has other ideas on what he wants to do with his life. Thus culminating a conflict between father and son. There are two main sections to the story: the relationship between father and son and the relationship between Ben and Toomer Smalls (Stan Shaw), the son of their black maid and their experiences in dealing with a racist named Red Petus (David Keith).

The first part of the story is absolutely my favorite and it consists of the first portion of the movie. It’s fun to watch Robert Duvall play to win, but its sad to see how it affects his family. The family constantly goes through hardships because they are always moving because of the military and this setting happens to be in South Carolina. As I mentioned in the opening, this is a father-and-son story. It’s all about Ben wanting to love his father, but at the same time, go on a different path. There was a scene that was hard to watch where Duvall and O’Keefe were playing backyard basketball and Duvall kept bouncing the ball off O’Keefe’s head during one of his modes of high intensity. This is a man who is a fierce competitor(he even wants to beat his son in basketball), a strong leader but has qualities of a dictator.

Now the second part of the film is very strong, but I’m not sure if it fits in the movie as a whole. The whole Toomer Smalls relationship seems tangential to the whole father-and-son story we were set up with. It explains the racism that prevailed in 1962 South Carolina very efficiently, but it seems a little random that it was in this movie. That being said, it was well-done and an integral part of Ben’s character.

The Great Santini is one of those films you won’t hear too much about which is a shame because I was taken by surprise how much I really enjoyed the film. It’s a character piece that is not afraid to take risks, which I cannot say the same of today’s films. I love watching father-and-son stories to see the different connections. Duvall and O’Keefe gave very strong performances and they bounced off each other very well. Both Duvall and O’Keefe were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances. Blythe Danner deserves a mention because of her performance as a sweet, gentle mother. There are many amusing, upbeat moments of the film, but beware of a dark sadness hiding within. Prepare to cry on more than one occasion. This film tackles the themes of heroism, self-sacrifice, grief, and the sense of being a human very well. I was taken aback on how much I loved this film, but I do love surprises.

My Grade: A

“I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

I have many ideas and thoughts about Apocalypse Now. Based off Joseph Conrad’s Hearts of Darkness, it is considered to be one of the best films of the twentieth century and one of the best Vietnam War movies ever made. I can generally agree with that assessment, but this movie is overly complicated sometimes. The movie has much to say on character and Darwinism. This movie follows Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) as  he is tasked to travel downriver from Vietnam to Cambodia to assassinate a former American colonel, Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando). But when Willard arrives to meet the Colonel, he realizes all is not what it really is. Kurtz has sided with the North Vietnamese for reasons of Darwinism and staying alive. He confesses how much stronger the Vietcong were than the Americans. They would go to any length to win the war and that is what gave them strength according to Kurtz. Kurtz was once one of the greatest soldiers in the American army and now after the reality of the war set in, he is taken over by madness and despair. This entire movie is about the journey Willard takes to understand what exactly Kurtz has gone through over the course of the war because Willard is going through the same ordeal.

This movie shows both the joy and angst of filmmaking as director Francis Ford Coppola will say. This movie was a very hard shoot as it took over four years to film. (Actor Laurence Fishburne was 14 when he began shooting, and 18 when it ended and Harrison Ford filmed his part before Star Wars made him famous…..and that was two years before this movie’s release). The movie was full of complications ranging from sickness (Martin Sheen had a heart attack on set) to actors being very hard to work with (Brando being Brando). But in the end, this was Coppola’s baby. Sure, he had The Godfather films but this is his heart and soul. With all the trouble this film had, it is remarkable how great this film is. Coppola really makes clear what he thought about the war itself and how hard it damaged the human psyche. He underlines the hell these humans have gone through over the course of this journey.

One of the best supporting characters is Robert Duvall as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore (he said the opening quote of this review). His performance actually earned him an Academy Award nomination rightfully so. Talking about insanity, this man only cares about surfing and beaches. He only agrees to help Willard take a beach because that beach had great waves. Plus in the Redux version (which this review is from), Kilgore uses helicopters to chase down Willard on the river because of accusations that they stole their surfboards. He also uses his choppers as he plays Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” as he swoops down over young schoolchildren. It’s a little over-the-top, but I guess that fits the insanity part very well. Another fun supporting character is Dennis Hopper’s role as a photojournalist for Kurtz. He is supposed to be the funnyman and he incites poetry which he clearly heard from Kurtz himself.

There is one thing that this film wouldn’t work without and that is the opening song. “The End” from The Doors is an iconic tune and it has a significance in the film. I can’t imagine the opening sequence of the treeline being blown away working well without this song. Also keep an eye on the Oscar-winning cinematography from Vittorio Storaro. The movie is utterly gorgeous and he created some of the most beautiful sequences in cinema history.

As well-liked this film is, it does have its share of controversies. Brando, whom was perfect for the role, had a salary of one million dollars (which was unheard of during its time). But there is a sequence in the movie that created even more controversy. The live killing of a cow as part of a sacrifice. Animals are supposed to be protected during movie-making, but this movie actually killed a cow for an incredibly gruesome scene. That is one scene that really appalls me due to an actual animal being killed.

Apocalypse Now is an important movie. Following the success of 1978’s The Deer Hunter, it proved there was an audience for Vietnam War movies after all. It took me several tries to realize what a monumental and influential film this is. It is a very long movie, but it’s a journey about how humankind reacts to the horrors of war. You see Kurtz as a villain at first, but as you come to the end of the movie, that is where we gain some sympathy for the man after everything he has been through. Francis Ford Coppola created a very important piece of art-the biggest film of his career. This is a hard movie to get through, but I think it’s worth watching in the end.

My Grade: A-

“Jaws in Space.” The perfect three words to describe 1979’s unique Alien. If you look at it closely, Alien is very similar to Jaws. An abnormal giant creature is terrorizing a bunch of innocent humans, and even the introduction to each monster is eerily similar. I really dig the influences that Jaws made on Alien. I liked how they hid the alien until the end, where we finally get to see him in all his grotesque glory. The 1970’s was a hard time for sci-fi. Not many science fiction movies were made in the midst of American exploitation films, but luckily Star Wars and Close Encounters changed everything. Because of the success of those films, one of the best sci-fi/horror classics of the twentieth century was able to get produced. I am not much of a horror guy but if you are able to add a science-fiction element to the horror and actually make it good, well you can count me in. I enjoyed nearly everything about this film from start to finish.

One of the film’s best strengths is its pacing. It moves purposely at a slow pace. People would expect the movie to be about the alien from the start, but the alien does not begin its reign of terror until the movie has been running for a good amount of time. But we are treated to wonderful characterizations (conversations on money shares), the silence of space, and the anticipation of what will happen next. But from the start, it’s worth investing your time into the characters of the ship, The Nostromo. Another strength is the production design thanks in part to designer H.R Geiger. The Nostromo has a wonderful design to it and you can tell the influences from Star Wars. But what about the creature himself? My goodness, they are scary-looking creatures. From the harmless looking chest-burster to the killing machine that is called the Alien, they are visually disgusting creatures (in a good way). In today’s day and age of movies, the visual effects still hold up very well. The effects actually won an Oscar.

The Nostromo is a commercial deep-space vessel on its way home when it picks up an SOS signal from a distant planet. The SOS signal awakens the crew from their deep hypersleep way earlier than anticipated, The seven-man crew is led by Dallas (Tom Skerritt) and the rest of the crew consists of Ripley (Signourey Weaver), Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Kane (John Hurt), Ash (Ian Holm), and Parker (Yaphet Kotto). Once they get to the signal, they realize that this was not an SOS signal at all. It was a signal of danger now that a very dangerous lifeform is a stowaway on their ship. Will they be able to destroy the alien before they get destroyed themselves?

Another reason why the movie works so well is the presence of a strong female lead character. So we have ourselves a 70’s rarity: a female-driven science-fiction movie. Signourey Weaver’s Ripley plays out like a character straight out of a 1950’s movie and I love it. Ripley is a hero worth remembering in future movies. Weaver is the most important character of the movie, but let’s not forget about the rest of the cast. I find the ages of everybody interesting. A typical horror or thriller movie has most of their characters between 20-30. Outside of Weaver and Cartwright, everyone is 35 or older. I liked that because they added experience to their characters thus making us care more about their fates. Ian Holm was the oldest cast member at 46, and is the second most important character. His character is actually an android and his profession is a science officer. So you might have the feeling he will play a pivotal role with the alien (and the humans) fates. I must give a shout-out to John Hurt for taking it so well the fate of his character, Kane. Kane happened to be the lucky fellow involved in the horrifying chest-bursting sequence. I’ve seen this movie several times and the shock value of this scene still remains at a high point.

This movie was directed by Ridley Scott, whom would go on to have an impressive career in Hollywood. But this movie is where he was mostly introduced to the film world. He did one hell of a job directing the movie. This movie could have easily been a movie with cheap scares, but he grounded the movie. He made it much more than just the alien. In a way, you can count this as another similarity to Jaws. That shark movie began the mighty career of Steven Spielberg…..just like this film did with Ridley Scott.

Overall, I really enjoyed Alien so much. This movie spawned many sequels and spin-offs, but none of them impacted me like this movie did although 1986’s Aliens is also a classic. The movie is scary and thrilling, but Ridley Scott’s powerful directing and Signourey Weaver’s acting prowess did much to elevate the movie. Then there was the impressive visuals, the good use of sound (a smooth mixture of silence and Jerry Goldsmith’s score), the good script by Dan O’Bannon. This is really an unforgettable classic and its up there with Jaws (yep, I mentioned it again) as my favorite horror movies from the 1970s’. If these kind of films have a good story, then you bet I’ll like them.

My Grade: A