The Great Santini

Skip the prestige-TV noise — The Great Santini is quietly one of the better ones. The length is exactly right for the story it is telling — nothing rushed, nothing dragged out. A 7/10 rating says what the writing already makes obvious: this one works. Robert Duvall leads a cast that never overplays its hand. Put it on tonight and see for yourself.

Part of the current wave of titles people are actually watching, The Great Santini earns its spot. The Great Santini trusts its audience to sit with discomfort instead of resolving it too quickly. As he approaches manhood, Ben Meechum struggles to win the approval of his demanding alpha male father, an aggressively competitive, but frustrated marine pilot. Robert Duvall and Blythe Danner lead a cast that treats the material with real seriousness. The Great Santini came out in 1979. The writing trusts the audience to sit with ambiguity rather than wrapping everything up in a tidy conclusion — it is the approach that separates good drama from great. It knows exactly what it is, and does not try to be anything else.

For anyone looking for storytelling that takes its characters seriously, The Great Santini delivers. It does not lean on comparisons to make its case. The complete film is available and best experienced without too much prior knowledge of where it goes. Robert Duvall's work here is the kind that gets referenced in career retrospectives. It makes everything else feel thin by comparison.

The Great Santini was released in 1979, directed by Lewis John Carlino. The full 115-minute film is available to watch now. Find exactly where it's streaming below, and TV Butler Pro makes it effortless to track your progress as you go. Just search the name, and Butler finds it instantly, tells you which service has it, and remembers exactly where you left off.