The Great Santini (1979) starring Robert Duvall

I like how Roger Ebert described the film in his 4-star review: "Like almost all my favorite films, The Great Santini is about people more than it's about a story. It's a study of several characters, most unforgettably the Great Santini himself, played by Robert Duvall."

At the start of the movie we learn that Duvall's character - a marine fighter pilot  - is not only a strict disciplinarian, but he's also a jokester who loves to pull all kinds of practical jokes on his comrades, such as pretending a can of soup is vomit. His nickname is "Great Santini" but it's never really explained. In this classic scene, he thinks his buddy is in the stall next to him, and his prank goes wrong ---

   

He also has a bit of a drinking problem. But as his superior officer tells him, he's a great leader, and gives him a new assignment training pilots in South Carolina where he moves with his wife and 4 children (the film is set in the 1960s)  Here's another scene with Duvall with his new squadron:

   

I also love the part where he meets his new maid, played by Theresa Merrit of the 70s TV show That's My Mama!.  She steals the scene when she declares she can take a punch just like a man and challenges Duvall to a fight. It's hilarious. There are some other funny bits in the film, such as when his daughter gives him a taste of his own medicine when she jokes that she's been impregnated by a pacifist. 

But the movie is not solely a comedy, though there are quite a few light moments. There are also some serious and touching moments, especially near the end.

The main focus of the story is on Duvall and his oldest son played by Michael O'Keefe.  This is the only other movie I've seen with O'Keefe besides Caddyshack;  I was really impressed with him in this role and all the scenes he has with Duvall - the arguments, fights, and even moments of bonding, especially when Duvall takes him out for a drink on his 18th birthday and he has a funny "drunk" scene.  I also love the scene where Duvall wakes the son up at 4 in the morning to give him his birthday gift - his old WWII bomber jacket.    

But throughout the film there is tension between the two. Duvall puts pressure on him to be the best, whether its being the best future pilot or being the best athlete on the team.  

There's a subplot in the film is about O'Keefe's black friend (Stan Shaw) who stutters and is teased by some of the local white racists.  At first I wondered if this subplot was necessary. but as I thought about it more I realized that it is meant to show real hate and its consequences. At the end of the film we realize that Duvall and O'Keefe never really hated each other, even if it feels like hate. 

With Blythe Danner (as Duvall's wife).

American Sniper (2014) directed by Clint Eastwood

American Sniper stars Bradley Cooper as the real life Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle. It was recently released on DVD/Blu-Ray and I was able to catch up with the film, which has been both acclaimed and criticized. The main criticisms seem to stem from objections to the original memoir by Kyle and the US's involvement in Iraq in general. A few months ago, Cooper was a guest on the NPR program Fresh Air with Terry Gross  and he talked about how the film is meant to be a character study about Kyle and the toll it takes on him and his wife played by Sienna Miller. It sounded sort of like The Hurt Locker, but with Clint Eastwood directing, I didn't know what to expect.

I have heard people say they won't see it; some say it goes against their values (one person I know got into an argument with someone supporting the film), and another person said they won't see it because they are not Republican and not pro-American. So I'm wondering, is this film so one-sided? Eastwood's films are usually thought-provoking and politically neutral (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, etc).

After seeing, I'd probably give the movie two stars out of four. Average to me. I didn't think it was a terribly made film but something about it didn't fully satisfy me; something was missing. I liked the idea of exploring the soldier's inner plight and life at home after his deployments (four of them are depicted). And I was impressed with the combat scenes, very intense and realistic, on par with Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters to Iwo Jima (I only saw parts of those).

Not so convincing (or interesting) to me were the scenes with Cooper and Miller, who I thought was miscast in the role. Her character has many emotional scenes and plays an important part of the film - the film is almost as much about her as it is about Kyle. But I didn't think she had chemistry with Cooper. In the early scenes where they are dating Miller says she doesn't want to marry a soldier. Then later, Cooper asks Miller if she likes country music, and she says no and it made me wonder what they really had in common.

I think there are some good scenes where Cooper deals with his emotions when he's back at home, such as the scene in the bar where he needs some time alone, which I think is one of the best scenes in the movie. I also enjoyed the scenes where he volunteers his time with the wounded vets. I was reminded a little of Hurt Locker and Born on the Fourth of July (1989); both films are better in my opinion.

I wish there were more scenes with Cooper interacting with more people at home - perhaps with other family members, or with an older veteran, say from Vietnam or WWII. There was one or two quick moments with his brother, but I would have liked to have seen more because the Sienna Miller scenes were rather dull to me.

Also I'd like to have seen some explorations of Kyle's faith; his character seems hot-tempered and less than reverent in the beginning of the film. Later he declares his faith in a higher power a few times but it's not explored enough where I understood. Sergeant York (1941) was a better film that explored this theme with more insight I feel.

Surviving Cast Members of "It's A Wonderful Life"

Writing about my favorite movie the other day - It's a Wonderful Life (READ POST HERE) - got me wondering about how many of the cast members were still living.  I know that Karolyn Grimes, who played the young daughter Zuzu, is the most prolific surviving cast member, still making public appearances at age 74.

But I wasn't sure who else from the movie was still living. So I checked IMDB and found only a handful of actors still living, most of them child actors who retired many years ago.

Adult actors:

- Virginia Patton (Ruth Dakin Bailey) is still living at age 88
- Marian Carr (Sam Wainwright's wife) is still living at age 89

Child actors:

- Jimmy Hawkins (Tommy Bailey) is still living at age 73
- Carol Coombs (Janie Bailey) is still living at age 79
- Jeanie Ann Roose (Little Violet Bick) is still living at age 78
- Ronnie Ralph (little Sam Wainwright) is still living at age 81
- Michael Chapin (Young George's friend) is still living at age 80

Unfortunately, IMDB does not list any other credit for the actress who played little Mary Hatch - Jean Gale, nor any information about her birth date. Sigh!

These actors passed away in recent years. Gone, but never forgotten. RIP.

- Larry Simms, who played Pete Bailey, died in 2009 (age 74)
- Bobby Anderson, who played Little George Bailey, died in 2008 (age 75)
- Angentina Brunetti, who played Mrs Martini, died in 2005 (age 98)
- Mark Roberts, who had the key to the swimming pool, died in 2006 (age 84)
- Charles Lane, who played Potter's rent collector, died in 2007 (age 102)
- Harold Landon, who played Mary's brother Marty, died in 2002 (age 84)
- Todd Karnes, who played Harry Baily, died in 2000 (age 79)
- Ellen Corby, who needed $17.50 on George's wedding day, died in 1999 (age 87)
- Sheldon Leonard, who played Nick the Bartender, died in 1997 (age 87)
- Jimmy Stewart, who played George Bailey, died in 1997 (age 89)

It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and how it became one of my favorite movies

Over the years, Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life (IAWL) became one of my favorite movies. 

I first discovered IAWL in the mid-late 1980s, on television. At the time, the rights to the movie expired, and TV stations aired this as a  Christmas movie during the Christmas season. Often, it aired numerous times on the same channel in one week, week after week. An entire generation discovered it during this time, including me.

If you remember the old TV Guides from the 1980s (I collected them for awhile), there used to be a feature called 4-Star Movies, which listed all of this week's movies that the magazine's critics (including Judith Crist) praised. I will never forget seeing the title "It's A Wonderful" life listed dozens of times in one week. I wish I had an old copy of TV Guide to share it on the blog. If I ever find it, I'll scan the page and update this page.

So the year was about 1985 or 1986 (can't recall exactly which). I was about 10 or 11 years old at the time. That's when I got my very first "portable" television set for my bedroom, a gift from a relative that probably got it from a garage sale. It was a small B/W set, and looked like this one in the picture.

This was the coolest thing in the world in the days before the internet and smart phones. I never had cable growing up.  Back then, all I had was a TV set and a few channels. In Chicago, the channels were 2 (CBS),5 (NBC),7 (ABC),9 (WGN),11 (PBS) ,20 (PBS),32 (FOX), 38 (Christian), 44 (Spanish), 60 (Syndicated), and 66 (Syndicated).

With that little TV I would sometimes come home from school (I was a latch-key kid) and watch my favorite shows. On Saturday mornings, there were cartoons - Muppet Babies and Bugs Bunny & Friends were favorites....when 11:00 AM came, the "best" shows were over and it was time to go outside and get some fresh air. In the evenings, I enjoyed "Night Gallery" and "The Twilight Zone". Sometimes there was a made-for-tv movie or a "movie of the week" on, and I'd watch it then talk about it the next day with school mates. I'll never forget watching the 1978 film Superman on that little TV on ABC. Before I had a VCR, I recorded the audio-only on a cassette recorder, believe it or not. Superman, Superman II, and Superman III were my favorite movies in the mid 1980s.

During this time, while switching channels one day, I happened to catch the last half hour of IAWL. It's the part when Clarence comes to visit George Bailey.  I was captivated. It felt like an episode of "The Twilight Zone". George was living a nightmare - no one knew who he was. It fascinated me.

What also struck my attention: two of the supporting characters had the names of Muppets - Bert and Ernie.

All my life up to then I had been a huge fan of The Muppets and Sesame Street, and hearing George Bailey yell "Hey Bert! Ernie!" was so oddly amusing to me. Supposedly it's never been officially confirmed whether the Muppet pals were named after the movie, but come on. I'll never buy the idea that it's just a coincidence. Jim Henson knew a great movie when he saw one.

In subsequent years, whenever I caught the movie on TV, I only saw the ending! I kept saying to myself..."one day I'm gonna see the whole thing!"  Then my family purchased a VCR in June of 1987, a huge milestone in the history of my TV viewing.

Like Wile E. Coyote setting a trap for the Road Runner, I remember setting that VCR to video tape the movie for the first time that Christmas season. The recording had commercials and took up 3 hours of video tape space. Sadly, I never watched the entire film that season. I said "One day I'll get around to watch it".  Then I remember "fast forwarding" while watching the movie in high speed thinking "wow this is a long movie". Then I got to my favorite part - the end with Clarence, and was filled with nostalgia remembering the excitement of watching the movie for the first time in bed under the covers watching on my little black and white TV.

Then the movie aired in color on a local TV station in either 1988 or 1989, I can't remember which, around Christmastime. Wow! I though. The colorized airings were not as common. I remember thinking "this time I'll tape the movie in real-time and cut out the commercials manually by pressing "PAUSE" when needed. This time, I was forced to watch the entire movie, and got a better sense of George Bailey's life and friends. Most of the dialogue with the the bank went over my head as I was still too young to fully understand home loans and why it was so important to Mr. Martini's family. I did think the part with the goat was funny, though, and I did get that Mr. Potter was a bad guy. A REAL bad guy.


By the Christmas season of 1989, IAWL still aired on TV numerous times, and I considered it as "one" of my favorite movies, but not my "all-time favorite". In 1989, my favorite movie was - brace yourselves - Batman  with Jack Nicholson. I had seen it 4 times in theaters (a record breaking achievement until recently). My second favorite was Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Yes, these movies were my early "loves". Puppy love, really.

But not true love.

1990 was the year where my knowledge of movies expanded. For my birthday that summer I received as a gift a large coffee table book called LIFE GOES TO THE MOVIES, and it fascinated me all summer. I started renting "older" movies from the video store that year, and learned more about the filmography of Jimmy Stewart, whom I came to admire primarily because of IAWL.

I caught IAWL on TV every year. In 1992 I finally recorded the black-and-white version on PBS "uncut", without commercials.

Around this time, it occurred to me that Jimmy Stewart was still alive -  a living legend! I remember watching a TV retrospective of his career on PBS one day - it was hosted by Johnny Carson. I was captivated by it, and learned about all the other movies he did. I remember thinking, Wow, The Philadelphia Story looks like a good movie! So I rented that one. I also caught up with Rear Window and then The Shop Around the Corner. Incidentally, all of these movies are featured in this blogathon!

Then I saw Harvey, and that, too becoming a favorite movie of mine, and this film solidified the case that Jimmy Stewart was my favorite actor.

I also remember traveling halfway across the city on public transportation to rent the harder-to-find Stewart movies, such as Born to Dance and Destry Rides Again. The more I saw, the more I realized that IAWL was still my favorite.

By 1994, IAWL had become my favorite movie and has been so ever since.

Each time I see it I see something new, and at various points in my life.

• Potter, the heartless bank CEO has become all too relevant in today's world, I feel, especially after the 2008-2009 financial collapse.


• When I was a kid, I didn't understand what a prostitute was so it was only years later that I realized what little Violet Bick grew up to be.


• The line where George's dad says "You want to be a millionaire by age 30" makes more sense to me now that I'm past 30 years old and know what it's like to have those kind of dreams, and have had to sacrifice some.


• I can understand the jealousy that George feels about his more successful childhood friends, and seeing his friends and brother get married before him.


• The dad having a stroke has more meaningful to me now that I've known people who have suffered them. And after my mom died I could relate to George even more, when I suddenly had more responsibilities than ever before, just like George.


• Sometimes when I watch the colorized version, I'll see details I never noticed before, such as the Coca Cola and Cigar signs in Gower's Drug Store.


• And I notice funny, oddball things like when little George puts the coconuts on the Ice Cream even after little Mary says she doesn't like them and he gives her that speech about them coming from Tahiti. 

Even this weekend I noticed something new.

After reading Kate's post on Citizen Kane and the description of  Kane knocking over the furniture in his house, I was reminded that George has a similar tantrum in IAWL and made me think about why he did that, right in front of his wife and children. Then when I consider all the disappointment he experienced in his life, he was bound to snap. It's the most heartbreaking scene in the film and James Stewart's acting is brilliant. I'll never forget in 1990 when PREMIERE magazine listed IAWL as the best film of 1946 in a retrospective looking back at the last 100 years of films. The writer of the article wrote "James Stewart is the greatest American actor of the twentieth century".

For more about this movie read the review at:
Old Hollywood Films

Another take on this movie is from Katie from She Likes Movie, who does not like this movie.