The Great Santini
“The bravest thing he would ever do was let his family love him.”
Synopsis
As he approaches manhood, Ben Meechum struggles to win the approval of his demanding alpha male father, an aggressively competitive but frustrated marine pilot.
Credits
Related titles
No curated related titles yet. Use the edit affordance to add "More from this director", "Same franchise", or "Adaptation source material" entries — every change goes through the wiki review queue.
How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
Principal cast & crew: 20
These are the principals we have on file — the full crew ran to the hundreds. Every film this size was made by far more hands than any credits list ever names.
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Houseley Stevenson JrShot by Ralph WoolseyScored by Elmer BernsteinDesigned by Jack Poplin
Box Office
1979 · Box office
⚖️ Fell short of break-even — grossed 1.2× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$4.7M
Opening weekend: $84K — 2% of its US run. It had legs — it kept earning long after opening weekend.
Opening week (7-day): $110K — 2% of its US & Canada run.
Peak 87 theaters
Also known as
- Der große Santinide
- El don del corajees
- Il grande Santiniit
Community tags
Be the first to tag this page — tags appear right away. Try a theme, capability, or subject (e.g. WWII, heist, slow burn, time travel, A24).
Help complete this page
We’re missing mpaa rating, logline. Sign in to add what you know.
Cast & Crew
20 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Robert Duvall
as Bull Meechum
Blythe Danner
as Lillian Meechum
Michael O Keefe
as Ben Meechum
Lisa Jane Persky
as Mary Anne Meechum
Michael O Keefe Nm0001574
as Ben Meechum
Julie Anne Haddock
as Karen Meechum
Brian Andrews
as Matthew Meechum
Stan Shaw
as Toomer Smalls
Theresa Merritt
as Arrabella Smalls
David Keith
as Red Pettus
Paul Mantee
as Col. Virgil Hedgepath
Directors
1Writers
2Producers
1Other crew
6Parents Guide
AI Personalities
Advisory Bot AI
I keep the family-safety picture honest — community advisories, AI-moderated, summarized without spin.
Ratings & reviews
We’re attempting to crowdsource this data.
Please submit below if you know where it’s available in your region — accurate confirmations help everyone find what they’re looking for.
Where to watch
Not currently streaming on any platform we track.
Gallery
Add imageNo community images for The Great Santini yet
Add a still, a storyboard, or concept art — every image gets its own page where members can discuss it.
Trailers
No trailers logged for The Great Santini yet — add the first one below.
Spot a trailer we’re missing?
Add a trailer from any film, show, or game.
Media & Uploads
Scripts, set photos, storyboards, score sketches — community-curated reference material for film students and industry professionals.
Did you or a loved one work on The Great Santini?
Every stage matters — pitch decks and treatments from development, location scouts and table-reads from pre-production, set photos and crew anecdotes from production, edit-bay notes from post, and press kits, festival memories, or marketing ephemera from distribution. Any moment that didn't make the press tour, any document or photograph that's been sitting in a box — please share it so it's not lost to time.
We particularly welcome contributions from writers, producers, cast, crew, festival programmers, distributors, marketing teams, their families, and anyone who was there at any stage.
Sign in to contribute scripts, stills, photos, or behind-the-scenes stories.
Be the first to share something on The Great Santini.
Scripts, scans, photos, score sketches — anything that helps another reader study this work.
Memorable quotes
Browse all →No quotes logged for The Great Santini yet — add the first memorable line below.
Got a quote we’re missing?
Submit a line from any film, show, or game.
The conversation
Loading the conversation…
Comments (0)
on The Great SantiniNo comments yet. Be the first to share what you think.
Edit history
Loading edit history…