Great Character: Lt. Col. Wilbur “Bull” Meechum (“The Great Santini”)
In the 1979 movie The Great Santini, there is a character very near to my own life experience. The film was based on a novel by Pat Conroy (“The Lords of Discipline,” “The Prince of Tides,” “My Losing Season”) and Lieutenant Colonel Wilbur “Bull” Meechum was based on Conroy’s father. The character is a memorable one played with great gusto by Robert Duval who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role:
Here is the IMDb summary of the movie’s plot:
As he approaches manhood, Ben Meechum [Michael O’Keefe] struggles to win the approval of his demanding alpha male father, an aggressively competitive, but frustrated marine pilot.
He’s a man who when he’s at the controls of a fighter jet in a training exercise likes to proclaim:
I am Santini, the Great Santini. I come from behind the moon, out of the dark, unannounced. Watch out!
If you have seen the movie, I’m sure you remember this scene with Bull and his son Ben:
Bull Meechum’s problem: He is a warrior without a war. He needs to fight. And if there is nothing to fight around him, he will create one.
The pairing of he and his son Ben creates a fascinating dynamic. On the one hand, Ben loathes his father. At one point after his father has gone off on one of his alcoholic benders, Ben proclaims, “I hope he dies out there with the rest of the snakes!” Later Ben and his father, once again drunk, have a heart to heart, then Ben taunts his father, sprinting around the Colonel as Bull flails at his son, “I love you, Dad. I love you,” words the father so desperately needs to hear, but whose warrior won’t allow.
My father was an Air Force Colonel. A pilot. He was not an alcoholic. He was not an asshole like Meechum. But he was a military man. No matter the specific nature of the soldier’s persona, a son or daughter in a military family is a unique experience.
So today, I present Lieutenant Colonel Wilbur “Bull” Meechum not only as a great character, but also to honor GITS readers who have served in the military… and their sons and daughters who have also served their country in their own special way.
[Originally posted October 14, 2011]