It was a family drama made in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. The film was about a miltary family - living on base. The father was a strict disciplinarian with his wife and teenage kids. He was constantly pushing them into sports and was abusive when his sons weren’t competititve enough for his liking. For instance; there’s a scene in which the father gets really upset and blows up when his sons aren’t playing hard enough in a backyard basketball game.
I vividly remember the film, but the title and the lead actors escape me, since I haven’t seen it in 10 or so years. I don’t think it is an obscure film, and its very similar in style and tone to “Breaking Away”, and is probably the same age as that movie too.
Starring Robert Duvall and Blythe Danner, IIRC. (Trying to decide if checking IMDB would be cheating or good research. In other words, am I be honorable or lazy?)
Great movie, btw. One of my favorites. If you liked it, I recommend other Pat Conroy movies–The Lords of Discipline (about a military school), The Prince of Tides, and Conrack (an older one, but good). They are all based on novels of the same names with the exception of Conrack, which is based on a Conroy novel called The Water is Wide.
IMHO, Conroy is a hell of a novelist. His books are criticized for being sorta melodramatic and his voice is one of those ornate Southern voices, but hell, that is what I like about him.
