Why was the movie called the great Santini
I never could figure that out
sharePat Conroy wrote this story about his real-life marine fighter pilot father. Supposedly Conroy's father referred to himself in the third person as "The Great Santini". The name was a reference to a magician.
shareyep. some magic dude he saw in chicago as a kid.
Season's Greetings!
I remember watching this movie on HBO in 1979 and at the time and I remember they re-named it "The Ace." I think it something to do with the poor performance it did at the box office and people confused it with a circus type movie. I knew this movie as "The Ace" for years.
Anyway few years later when Robert Duval became a big star, they went back to the "Great Santini" title when it was replayed on t.v. or on VHS.
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It was probably a little later, no? The movie wasn't released theatrically until late October of '79.
But no matter. Duvall was already a "big star" by the time this was released; he had the two Godfather films under his belt (including an Oscar nod), Apocalypse Now, Network, The Conversation, and other high-profile films.
"You liked Rashomon."share
"That's not how I remember it."
It probably was around the late spring early summer of 1980. I know it didn't last in theaters very long.
Duvall wasn't really a "big star" in 1979. He was most certainly an extremely talented actor and was well respected by the critics but in terms of the general public and main stream audience appeal, he wasn't that well known. He was a balding middle aged actor when this film came out. Remember that he was only a supporting actor in all those films you listed. His role in Network was rather small and so were the roles in The "Conversation" and "Apocalypse Now." The Conversation was a great movie that nobody saw. It's still a very under appreciated film.
He was unfortunately overshadowed in The Godfather by huge box office stars like Marlon Brando, James Caan, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton and later in part two by Robert De Niro. Even John Cazalle was more well know during the 70's.
The Great Santini was a great film but nobody went to see it.
He really didn't become a big well known main stream star until he won the oscar for leading actor in "Tender Mercies".
he wasn't that well known??? Role in Network small? He was one of the "villains".
He was unfortunately overshadowed in The Godfather by huge box office stars like Marlon Brando, James Caan, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton and later in part two by Robert De Niro. Even John Cazalle was more well know during the 70's.
You're way off. Definitely about Cazale. And Caan made one flop after another after "The Godfather". Duvall was in much better, and more widely seen films by the time "Santini" was released. Btw...comaparing his popularity to Brando's is just silly. And NO ONE went to see Tender Mercies.
So because he was one of the "villains" that means he had a large part?? O.K. "small" wasn't the right adjective to describe his role but he was a supporting actor in that film. William Holden, Peter Finch and Faye Dunnaway were the stars in that movie.
You're the one who is way off. Brando, Pacino, Caan and Keaton were huge leading box office stars during the 1970's. Duvall while critically acclaimed by film critics, was a balding middle age supporting character during the 1970's.
Duvall didn't even get nominated for a lead actor award until The Great Santini.
No one saw "Tender Mercies" when it came out but he won the oscar for his performance and it was a huge deal for his career.
JOHN Q
Don't mean to pick on you, but I think you have your timetable backwards. TGS wasn't renamed "The Ace". It's the other way around. Yes, it played on cable in October 1979 as "The Ace", but it was renamed TGS when it came out in the summer of 1980 and then nominated for Oscars in early '81. And it's been known as TGS ever since.
I agree with John Q about the first name being The Great Santini and then it got changed to The Ace. I saw it when it was in the theaters as The Great Santini. And then it became The Ace.
“One never quite allows for the moron in our midst.” Agatha Christie, The Mirror Crack'd
I am not sure where you got this piece of information from !! I watched it first time in 1980 and it was called " The Great Santini ".
The original Santini was a trapeze artist. (flying through the air and all that)
When Don Conroy was training he came back down after a good flight and said he was better than The Great Santini that day.
The name stuck.
I think the producers felt that the title "The Great Santini" would confuse people that this was some sort of circus movie so that's why they switched it to "The Ace". I think "The Ace" also tested better with audiences. I didn't matter anyway because it did poorly at the box office.
shareYeah, and it's too bad it didn't do better. I think it found a second life on HBO and on videotape (and now DVD).
At any rate, the whole "Great Santini" thing was, I think, part of Meechum's characterization; it was like this life of a semi-heroic, highly skilled fighter pilot was a character he was playing, like "amazing pilot," and he expected his kids to aspire to and step into the same kinds of roles, something beyond normal nonmilitary life. I haven't watched the film in quite a few years, but as I recall, he flies off at the end because he can't eject and ditch the plane in a safe area, so he accepts his own death as an actual hero, a terminal moment when the man and the character actually merge in a final and irretrievable way. Despite his flaws and his overzealousness at times, he really was, in the end, "great."
Yeah, I had never heard about it in the theaters. I first caught it on HBO in 1980 and was surprised the movie was that good.
The whole movie is really Duvall's performance which is outstanding.
But I"ve mentioned this before that Duvall although critically acclaimed in his supporting performances wasn't well known by main stream audiences and if know was seen as strictly a supporting actor.
Well the whole "Great Santini" thing was a part of massive ego and self promotion of the character which was one of his many flaws. But like you said he adhered to a strict heroic code so in many ways there was no question he was going to chose that decision at the end of the film even if it cost him his life.