From Boo Radley to Lt. Col. Kilgore, it’s impossible to pick just one Robert Duvall performance that defines his career or solidifies his importance to the entertainment industry. Duvall passed away on February 15 at the age of 95. Like the rest of the world, I’ve grown up watching him, and he appears in many of my all‑time favorite films.
It’s certainly not the official standard by which to measure an actor, but for me and my friends growing up, there was something about signature lines—the ones that got repeated over and over again. These lines had power because they were delivered with honesty, intensity, or comedy, and they highlighted just how strong those performances were. They became reference points in our own lives, instantly setting the scene of a story or capturing the emotion—or comedy—of a situation.
Robert Duvall was one of those actors who could take the words on a script and turn them into one of those signature lines. And while Duvall has a long list of incredible films and quotable moments, it was one of his box‑office failures that spoke most to me and my friends.
The film was The Great Santini, released by Warner Bros. in the late summer of 1979, mostly to empty theaters. It wasn’t the movie’s fault—the reviews were strong—but that summer’s competition included Alien, The Amityville Horror, Rocky II, and Apocalypse Now. And of course, Duvall earned an Oscar nomination for his supporting role in Apocalypse Now, so it’s safe to assume that might have drawn a little attention away from a quieter, more personal film like The Great Santini.
On top of that, the film's marketing floundered. Warner Bros. decided the title sounded too much like a circus act, so over the next few months, they tested several new titles: Sons and Heroes, Reaching Out, and The Ace. The Ace tested slightly better with audiences, but even with that change, the film still struggled, and they eventually restored the original title.
The plot follows Bull Meechum, a fighter pilot who is a hard, flawed, and complicated man—especially in his role as a father and husband. Based on Pat Conroy’s novel of the same name, the movie gave Duvall the chance to play a deeply complex character grappling with shifting family dynamics and themes of racism, toxic masculinity, and pride.
The scene that stayed with me and my friends was the one where Duvall’s teenage son finally beats him in a one‑on‑one basketball game. In most families, this would be a rite of passage—a proud moment where a son becomes a man, or at least proves himself on the court. But in The Great Santini, that moment is too much for Bull Meechum to handle; he can’t deal with being bested. So, he starts bouncing the ball off his son’s head while shouting, “Squirt the tears for me, Ben! You know you’re my favorite daughter!”
My friends and I teased each other with that line on the court and around school. Looking back, I think it’s because that scene held so much truth, and it resonated with us in a way we didn’t fully understand at the time. If you were a young man with a stern father, you knew exactly what that felt like, and maybe joking about the line helped take some of the sting out of those moments in real life.
It’s hard to say why certain movie lines stay with you and become part of your childhood vocabulary, but the ones that do are always grounded in honesty. They become reference points, instantly setting the tone of a story or describing an emotion. Lines delivered as powerfully as the ones Robert Duvall gave us end up woven into a shared vocabulary, staying with us as if they were spoken directly to us.
There’s something magical about an actor who can deliver a line on screen—or on stage—and have it stay with an audience for the rest of their lives. That’s the kind of career Robert Duvall had; he brought such honesty and depth to his lines, his roles, and his characters that they stayed with you long after the credits rolled.
It’s hard to imagine many actors racking up as many unbelievable, powerhouse performances as Duvall has in his lifetime, but fortunately, his list of work is long, and we can always revisit it to remember and experience what he left us.
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