The Robert Duvall Project, Vol. II
23
January
Since I last posted, I’ve watched two (ONLY TWO) RD movies. They were good though, so I’m excited to tell you about them.
The Great Santini: I’ve always thought it was interesting when people give themselves nicknames. My husband’s cousin refer to their grandfather as “Caesar,” which I can’t think one bestows on themselves lightly. Duvall’s character, Lt. Col. Bull Meechum (self-styled as The Great Santini) is as learned in the school of ass-ery as one can manage and still interact with others on a base level. Duvall was nominated for an Academy Award for this movie, and rightly so. He’s barely recognizable as an incredibly complex military man who basically sucks as a human. The tagline for The Great Santini is: The bravest thing he’d ever do was let his family love him. A little heavy-handed, but at least you know where you’re going for the next couple of hours. There’s a particularly awful scene where his son, Ben (played by Michael O’Keefe, who was in an episode of the third season of the West Wing), beats his old man in a game of backyard hoops, and Bull just…cannot cope with it. And acts out like a child. And it’s so unbelievably heartbreaking to watch. As in, my stomach was literally filled with bile, I could not deal with it. I think I watched it through my fingers. Either way, it was a great movie, full of layers and family dynamics for days. I give it an A.
True Confessions: This is another Black Dahlia movie, before it was cool, I guess. True Confessions is really not that great of a movie, but it’s just magical to watch De Niro and Duvall share the screen. De Niro plays a priest and brother to Duvall’s detective. It’s a long, drawn out murder mystery, which I can take or leave, but again, watching these two play together is like what I imagine it would be like to have Anthony Bourdain and Martha Stewart cook a meal together: minds melt, worlds collide, and the Sun explodes due to awesomeness. I give True Confessions a B+, simply based on the cast.
That’s as far as I’ve gotten. More later.
have you read any pat conroy (the great santini)? i think you would LURVE him…one of his (several) memoirs is one of my favorite all-time books – my losing season. one of his novels, beach music, is also an all-time favorite. recently he published a memoir about his life through books (other writer’s books, not his). it’s at the top of my “to read” list right now…