Toomer - Saddest Story Ever? - The Great Santini (1979) Discussion

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ginz 18 years ago

U thought titanic, which focused on some rich spoiled woman and her love affair with decaprio is sadder... give me a break...

reply

[–] tanner3212001 18 years ago

Paaaaaaalease ! I hope you are being a wiseass? How can you compare a poor, loving,caring guy with a stuttering problem who wouldnt hurt a fly being murdered to some stupid chick flick about some inane fantasy created for teenage girls in heat to watch!!! By the way... I guess I was one of the few people/cattle/sheepble not to go to see such a sappy and pathetic movie.Not too mention that skinny no talent rail from Canada with the most annoying finger nails on a chalk board voice. Again...I hope you are not serious?

I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me

reply

[–] Edward_de_Vere 18 years ago

--------------------------------------------------------------
>Paaaaaaalease ! I hope you are being a wiseass? How can you compare a poor, >loving,caring guy with a stuttering problem who wouldnt hurt a fly being >murdered to some stupid chick flick about some inane fantasy created for >teenage girls in heat to watch!!! By the way... I guess I was one of the few >people/cattle/sheepble not to go to see such a sappy and pathetic movie.Not >too mention that skinny no talent rail from Canada with the most annoying >finger nails on a chalk board voice. Again...I hope you are not serious?
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Off subject, but "inane fantasy [for] teenage girls in heat" is about the best characterization of "Titanic" claptrap that I've ever read.

"The Great Santini" is a case study in what a great movie should be: intense and believable characters (with the lead character played by a first-rate actor) with intense and believable life scenarios, as opposed to the idiotic escapist fantasies that make up 95% of the film industry.

reply

[–] tanner3212001 18 years ago

Thank you Edward I whole heartly agree with your reply to my posting.They sure dont make em like they use too !

I've got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me

reply

[–] gchurch1988 17 years ago

The three saddest movie scenes:

1) Field of Dreams - playing catch with his father (the only scene where men are allowed to cry).
2) Titanic - Band playing while showing the mother reading story to her children.
3) Schindler's List - Schindler leaving

reply

[–] easportguy 13 years ago

1) Field of Dreams - playing catch with his father (the only scene where men are allowed to cry).

Have you not seen Brian's Song?

reply

[–] ragreen259 18 years ago

By the looks of things, apparently not.

reply

[–] pbl1 18 years ago

sorry, but no. the toomer sub-plot took away from the focus/emphasis of this movie and was an annoying distraction.

reply

[–] pbl1 18 years ago

sorry, but no. the toomer sub-plot took away from the focus/emphasis of this movie and was an annoying distraction.

reply

[–] mrjonz72 18 years ago

Can someone please tell me what happend to Toomer?
I was watching it on AMC, this morning, but it was on like 3am
and I dosed off at the part wear Toomer grabbed Keith David and had his head under the truck, afteer that Point I just assumed he was going to be killed.
I dozed off and woke up at the point where spoilers.............

See below

Santini just died, so what did they do to Toomer and did Keith David get away with it?

reply

[–] kman1020 18 years ago

David Keith's character shot at Toomer's dogs and when one of them was killed, Toomer got real angry. Keith continued to shoot at the bus and hit Toomer. When he realized what he had done, Keith started to get scared and started to apologize. At that moment, the remaining dogs attacked Keith and bit him to death.

reply

[–] mrjonz72 18 years ago

Thanks!

reply

[–] EjioforBond 17 years ago

I had a problem with the audience reaction to that scene. Although we sympathize with Toomer and despise Red, we should keep in mind that Red didn't deliberately shoot Toomer and is horrified when he sees what he's done. Nevertheless, Toomer lets his dogs out and must know that they'll kill Red. The audience I was with actually cheered when this happened, while I was thinking of the irony that Toomer was the only one of the two who deliberately took a human life.

Sometimes there's no substitute for watching a movie in a theater. The audience reactions can be very disturbing - and instructive.

reply

[–] lanative 17 years ago

Red got what was coming to him.

reply

[–] dispenser 16 years ago

That's a decent point, but what trumps all of that is that Red was evil.

Maybe not "shoot someone in the gut on purpose evil", but evil enough to shoot a man's dog, and then attempt to shoot another one. And once Toomer was shot, his releasing of the dogs falls entirely under self-defense. And he didn't know the dogs would kill him necessarily. It could've been just to chase him off the property so he wouldn't harm no one else, man or dog.

reply

[–] mcarter71 14 years ago

Oh please, if Red would have kept his racist ass at home he would have lived to a ripe old age. Let this be a lesson that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

reply

[–] cmap2 13 years ago

I had a problem with the audience reaction to that scene. Although we sympathize with Toomer and despise Red, we should keep in mind that Red didn't deliberately shoot Toomer and is horrified when he sees what he's done. Nevertheless, Toomer lets his dogs out and must know that they'll kill Red. The audience I was with actually cheered when this happened, while I was thinking of the irony that Toomer was the only one of the two who deliberately took a human life.

Sometimes there's no substitute for watching a movie in a theater. The audience reactions can be very disturbing - and instructive.

Agreed. Red was a racist bully, but he wasn't evil incarnate. He still had enough humanity to be aghast that he accidentally shot Toomer and feel genuine remorse. It's impossible not to have sympathy for Toomer in light of his medical condition and the way the whole situation unfolded, but I don't think Red was so irredeemable that he "deserved" his fate or that his death should be celebrated. It was a tragedy all-around.

reply

[–] PussyCrusher_Principal 7 years ago

That's fitting, because Toomer was the only one of the two who had a good reason to intentionally take a life. Silly post.

I hate bloodthirstiness, but in the heat of the situation, are you telling me Toomer, while he's bleeding to death, having just watched his dogs being shot, and thinking about his mother all alone, should have taken stock and risen above? Or that the audience shouldn't thoroughly enjoy this little bit of Justice Toomer gets before he bleeds out? Think before you post.

reply

[–] liscarkat (16530) a year ago

You make a strong point, sixteen-years-ago guy. It was obvious Red shot Toomer unintentionally, but it hadn't occurred to me that Toomer murdered Red.

reply

[–] BecJ5 9 years ago

At that moment, the remaining dogs attacked Keith and bit him to death.

One of the most satisfying scenes in any movie "ever."

reply

[–] PussyCrusher_Principal 7 years ago

Very satisfying, especially the fact that he KNEW he'd never get away. I hope the adrenaline made him taste better to the dogs!

reply

[–] yippeeskippy2002 18 years ago

There was a reason for Toomer: to be the friend of Ben, and then for his tragic death to bring father and son together. So there was a point. To me personally, it wasn't a distraction, but a necessity.

reply

[–] rondine 16 years ago

I'm sure someone has already pointed this out to you, but that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard about this movie-
it wasn't a subplot, it had to do with Ben (Pat Conroy in real life) finding a friend and finding his independence.
Watch the movie again.

reply

[–] rockmail 14 years ago

Apparently it did it twice in one movie, wow!

Apparently it did it twice in one movie, wow!

reply

[–] TenaciousD-light 18 years ago

I thought he was hot too, althogh it was made a long time ago. I'm sure he's old now. Oh well, I don't care!

Dionne: Hello... that was a stop sign.
Cher: I totally paused!

reply

[–] nolimitholdem 18 years ago

Did you realize that he is the guy that played Fred on Roseanne? (Jackie's husband, Andy's dad)

reply

[–] tom0557 18 years ago

Agreed! Toomer was a nice person minus any malice.

reply

[–] ms3168 18 years ago

I don't think the death of Toomer was the saddest event in any move...ever. In fact, it wasn't even the saddest part of this movie. Toomer may have died, but he went down swinging. How many murder victims get to exact revenge on thier killers? The saddest part of this movie was the fact that Bull's family had to put up with him for as long as they did.

reply

[–] emerica171 18 years ago

Hands down, the saddest part is when Toomer is collecting the money for his bees and Red drops his honey jars on the ground. Anyone else find Toomer a weird name?

reply

[–] chesterrodney 18 years ago

Not the saddest thing I've ever seen in a movie. But it's part of the history of black people and the abuse they had to go thur in this country. Patterson had no reason to hate Toomer, except for the fact that he is black. As was stated in the film. Back in the day it was comman place to abuse and make fun of black people. It happened all the time, they had no rights and were looked down on because of the color of thier skin and their status in life. Now that's the saddest thing. And yes Toomer is a weird name, but black people in the south were also known for nameing their kids names like Toomer and Hucklebuck, Boobie, Bubbachuck, Atwood and so on. Names like those were just passed down from slavery times.

reply

[–] mrliteral 18 years ago

Everybody knows this http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069289/ is the saddest story ever.

http://www.writingup.com/blog/mrliteral

reply