Col. "Bull" Meecham — The Great Santini (1979)

A towering portrait of toxic masculinity and complicated father-son love. Duvall plays Bull Meecham, a Marine Corps fighter pilot who terrorizes his family with the same intensity he brings to combat. It's one of cinema's great contradictions: a character you simultaneously despise and pity, whose bullying masks a desperate fear of irrelevance. The film earned Duvall his third Oscar nomination.