The family in the movie The Great Santini (Carlino, 1979) is dominated by the father, Bull Meecham, who is himself ruled by the military and by a military view of life. He sees things in terms of a hierarchy. In the military, he has his place in the chain of command. At home, he is the top of that chain, the ultimate arbiter. He has certain precepts by which he lives and by which he expects his children to live, most notably his son, who he sees as a developing version of himself without any concern for the vision the boy might have of himself. He is most in his element in the opening scenes of the film, when he is in the air and unwinding in a bar after the mission. At home, he tries to recreate the order and discipline that marks life in the Marine Corps.
Satir (1988) describes how the married couple are the architects of the family. The relationship between the husband and wife in the film is strong and offers the support this family needs, while the relationship of the father to each of the children is more problematic. The relationship with son Ben is the most difficult. Ben would like to please his father, but Ben would also like to be his own man. He constantly tests the water. For instance, early in the film he asks his father what the father would think if he did not go into the Marines, and the father adamantly insists that the son will go into the Marines after four years of college.
Meecham recognizes no form of weakness on the part of his family. He treats them as troops, giving orders as if to an assembled platoon. The children seem to accept their father on his own terms--they stand in the hangar waiting for his plane to arrive as if preparing for inspection, a term their mother in fact uses. Yet, it is also clear that they resent the way he treats them--when he gives them orders outside their new home, Mary Anne says he reminds her of Godzilla and the others seem equally disaffected.
While Mee...