The Great Santini

Bull Meechum is a hard case, a fighter pilot so skilled that he's called "The Great Santini." But now it's peacetime 1962. And more at home playing "top gun" in the cockpit than father in his living room, he's become that most useless figure: a warrior without a war.

Based on Pat Conroy's autobiographical bestseller, the film gathers other powerful actors alongside Duvall - fellow Oscar contender Michael O'Keefe, Blythe Danner and Lisa Jane Persky - as family members showing corage under fire as Meechum battles his demons. Their work makes the Great Santini soar.