The Great Santini

Orion Pictures | Release Date: October 26, 1979

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

64	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Josh Larsen

You have a literally commanding Duvall at the center of it, wearing that uniform like a second skin. He’s more than willing to play Meechum as a monster of a father, while also giving hints, in small moments, that this is a man who has had tenderness of any kind ground out of him by a macho, mercenary system. Read full review

100

Roger Ebert

Sentimental without being corny, a tearjerker with dignity. The Great Santini is a movie to seek out and to treasure. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Carlino's direction doesn't help: he was responsible for the atrocious Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, and The Great Santini suffers from the same triteness, with its Deep South setting and a 'progressive' racial subplot that plunges deep into tear-jerk territory. See it for the acting; wallow in the sentiment. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

Though its emotions are big, the performances are so nicely nuanced that sentiment never overwhelms the story's emotional realism. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

Robert Duvall gives an excellent portrayal of a semi-psychotic, softened with a warmer side. But Duvall has to fight for every inch of footage against the overwhelming performances by several others in the cast - and that's the strength of The Great Santini. Read full review

Dave Kehr

Overcalculated, thoroughly false humanist mush—one of those “real movies about real people” without a single authentic moment. Read full review

David Sterritt

The Great Santini deserves praise for its willingness to look long, hard, and seriously at a realistic family situation -- a willingness too rarely found at a time when most films are obsessed with futile fantasies. [07 Aug 1980, p.19]

Vincent Canby

Mr. Duvall, Miss Danner and Mr. O'Keefe are the main reasons you should see The Great Santini. They play together with the kind of ease and self-assurance that, in a movie, is as exhilarating as it is rare. Read full review

Gary Arnold

For all its awkwardness and mawkishness, Santini deserves the shot. It has an authentic core of family drama and humor that could stir a large public. [03 Oct 1980, p.C1]

James L. Rowe Jr.

Despite the artificial ending, The Great Santini is a powerfully written and acted movie. [03 Oct 1980, p.22]

Pauline Kael

It takes place in the TV land of predictability -- that plain of dowdy realism where a boy finds his manhood by developing the courage to stick to his principles and stand up to his father.