Coming Home
Perhaps the most powerful picture ever made about the shattering aftermath of the Vietnam War, Coming Home earned eight Academy AwardÂ(r) nominations* and three OscarsÂ(r): Actress (Jane Fonda), Actor (Jon Voight) and Original Screenplay. Hailed by critics as "dazzling" (Rex Reed), "gripping" (Leonard Maltin) and "unforgettable" (Judith Crist), it is a heart-rending examination of a critical period in our nation's history and "an uncompromising, extraordinarily moving film" (Roger Ebert). When Marine Captain Bob Hyde (Bruce Dern) leaves for Vietnam, his wife, Sally (Fonda), volunteers at a local hospital. There she meets Luke Martin (Voight) a former sergeantwhose war injury has left him a paraplegic. Embittered with rage and filled with frustration, Luke finds new hope and confidence through his growing intimacy with Sally. The relationship also transforms Sally's feelings about life, love and the horrors of war. And when, wounded and disillusioned, Sally's husband returns home, all three must grapple with the full impact of a brutal, distant war that has changed their lives forever.
One of the first films to deal with the aftermath of Vietnam, this Hal Ashby drama focuses on the effects war has on the people at home. Jane Fonda plays the wife of a tightly wound Marine officer (Bruce Dern), who is more interested in his own advancement than his wife's existence. When he heads overseas, she volunteers at a V.A. hospital, where she becomes involved with a paraplegic veteran (Jon Voight), whose anger at his injury and pain over his experiences in the war eventually fuels his passion to protest the war--and to be Fonda's lover. Though the film has its excesses and obvious melodramatic roles (such as Robert Carradine as a distraught vet unable to cope), it offers powerful performances by all involved; Fonda and Voight received Oscars, as did the screenplay. --Marshall Fine
Both Jane Fonda and Jon Voight won Oscars for their performances in this profoundly moving 1978 flick dealing with the aftereffects of the Vietnam War. Fonda, feeling isolated while her hawkish husband, Bruce Dern, is away in Vietnam, follows a friend's example and volunteers at a veteran's hospital. There she is reacquainted with Voight, an old friend who has returned from the war as a paraplegic. Lonely and disconnected from her husband, Fonda finds love, and fulfilling sex, with Voight. The sex scenes, very steamy for the time, are still provocative. This mature love story is about expanding your horizons, and is both moving and thoughtful. Director Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude) does succumb to melodrama on occasion, but these are forgivable slips. --Rochelle O'Gorman
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Coming Home Reviews
not what I thought it would be.Iwould give it a rating of 75. too much language. Jon Voight was great, but I didnt like jane fonda.
this was a very good experience. the DVD arrived very quickly and was definitely new
As one who was there, I could so relate to the shift from the Betty Crocker generation to an active resister to the Viet Nam war. The situations and emotions portrayed in this movie paralleled my own in so many ways and the performance of both actors was first rate. One of the best zeitgeist movies.
This Film is a classic. I watched it last night after not seeing it since 1978 at my local Drive in.
It has not lost one ounce of its Punch. Most of the Guys in the wheelchairs were not actors, but returned Vets.
Bruce Dern is also quite superb. The Extra Doco & Commentary are just Brilliant.
With the Iraq & Afghanistan war continuing i am sure these same type of hospitals are filling up again. Boys cut down in there prime, hidden away.
Watch this film again.
As if to counter-balance "The Deer Hunter", good old Jane Fonda starred in "Coming Home" (1978) with Jon Voight. Saved by the pure benevolence of American goodwill from a treason trial, she was allowed to pursue her craft (she is excellent at it). "Coming Home" seemed to be the realization of the self-fulfilling prophecy she created in 1972. It was that year that she traveled to Hanoi, the heart of America's enemy, and allowed herself to be posed on Communist tanks, wearing an army helmet. It was blatant "aid and comfort" provided to an enemy during a time of war. Jane did not stop there. Like a modern day Tokyo Rose, she got on the radio and told the troops their wives and girlfriends were having sex with hippies and protestors back home. To this day, the G.I.s have never forgiven "Hanoi Jane". She tried to apologize and say she was wrong, but her heart was never in it.
Eventually she married CNN founder Ted Turner, a man who may not be the anti-Christ (but may be), and may not have achieved his success by invoking Satan (but may have). When Turner saw CNN employees adorned in "ashes" to worship Ash Wednesday, he went ballistic about "Jesus freaks" in his employ. Such a crime! Jane, in the first move she ever did that I liked (other than wearing skintight sex clothes in her hot-selling workout vids), declared she was a "born again Christian." That was the last straw for Turner, who divorced her. There is no word on whether Christianity took in Jane's life, but I wish her well.
In "Coming Home", she portrays the very cheating wife she described to the boys in her "Hanoi Jane" days. She tries to pepper the performance with an apology to her officer husband, Bruce Dern, but it ends up being more of an explanation, which in light of what we know about Vietnam does not wash. Two thumbs down.
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