Robert Duvall's Most Kaiju-rrific Role!

Robert Duvall. Source: Wikipedia.

With the recent passing of Academy Award-winning actor Robert Duvall, it made me reflect on a small (but somewhat fun) tidbit about one of his more prominent roles. Most folks know Duvall from his excellent work in the first two Godfather films, Network (1976), Apocalypse Now (1979), and his aforementioned Oscar-winning turn in Tender Mercies (1983), but this blog post will focus on The Great Santini (1979), a film that earned Duvall a Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of the tough, no-nonsense Marine pilot Bull Meechum, who has a strained relationship with his family. (The movie also earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Michael O'Keefe, who went on to star in the 1980 comedy classic Caddyshack, for playing Duvall's son.)

So, as you've likely guessed by now, The Great Santini is Robert Duvall's most kaiju-rrific role. But how? Let's count the ways.

Luckily, we won't have to take off our shoes to figure out the total, as there are only two. The first way is pretty self-explanatory and is contained in this line in the film:

Mary Anne Meechum: He does remind me someone from the movies, but it's not Rhett Butler.

Karen Meechum: Who's that?

Mary Anne Meechum: Godzilla!

The second way is much more obscure, but it's in there ... somewhere! According to Destroy All Planets/Gamera vs. Viras (1968) star Carl Craig, he's an extra in The Great Santini, though he's never been able to pick himself out in the movie. But Carl was on location when they were filming in South Carolina in the late 1970s, so, as he once put it during an interview, the back of his head is somewhere in The Great Santini.

And there you have it -- The Great Santini is almost certainly the first movie that references Godzilla to earn major Academy Award nominations, in addition to featuring a (very!) brief cameo from Gamera series icon Carl Craig.