Themes: Coming Home, Haunted By the Past, Starting Over
Main Cast: Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Robert Ginty, Penelope Milford
Release Year: 1978
Country: US
Run Time: 130 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Hal Ashby's 1978 melodrama examines the impact of the Vietnam War on the "war at home" among the men who fought it and the women in their lives. Left alone in Los Angeles when her gung-ho Marine husband Bob (Bruce Dern) heads to Vietnam in 1968, proper wife Sally Hyde (Jane Fonda) decides to volunteer at the V.A. hospital where her new friend Vi (Penelope Milford) works. There she meets Luke Martin (Jon Voight), a former high-school classmate and Marine who has returned from 'Nam a bitter paraplegic. As their relationship grows, Sally sees the effect of the war on the soldiers after they come back, inspiring her to rethink her priorities; Luke's spirits begin to lift, and a hospital tragedy helps focus his anger toward meaningful protest. After a Hong Kong visit with her increasingly withdrawn husband, Sally finds a love and companionship with Luke that she had never known with her husband. Once Bob comes home with his own injury, however, the three must find a way to deal with a changing world and with a system that betrayed the men fighting for it. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Review
Originating as a project for Jane Fonda's production company, Coming Home took five years to get made, but it was still part of the first wave of Hollywood movies to address the controversial Vietnam War. With the presence of outspoken antiwar activist "Hanoi Jane" as the star, and fellow activist Haskell Wexler behind the camera, Coming Home espoused a clear antiwar stance, personalized through the characters' coming to consciousness over the war's toll. The cinéma vérité shooting style, particularly in the opening scene of vets discussing whether they'd fight again if they were able, enhances the story's intimacy. No one experiences the war the same way, but no one comes away unscathed. Coming Home was praised for its sensitive performances, Jon Voight won the New York Film Critics Circle prize for Best Actor, and it was nominated for eight Oscars, but it was quickly overshadowed by Michael Cimino's more inflammatory Vietnam epic The Deer Hunter. Still, although The Deer Hunter won Best Picture, Fonda and Voight won Best Actress and Best Actor, and Nancy Dowd, Waldo Salt, and Robert C. Jones won an Oscar for their screenplay. By leaving the fighting offscreen and the ending ambiguous, Coming Home potently captured the elusive yet irreversible psychological disruption in the wake of Vietnam. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
Robert Carradine - Bill Munson; Ron Amador - Beany; Ken Augustine - Ken; Cornelius H. Austin, Jr. - Corny; Jonathan Banks - Marine at Party; Beeson Carroll - Captain Carl Delise; David Clennon - Tim; Olivia Cole - Corrine; Pat Corley - Harris; Charles Cyphers - Pee Wee; Sally Frei - Connie; Bruce French - Dr. Lincoln; Mary Gregory - Martha Vickery; Teresa Hughes - Nurse De Groot; Mary Jackson - Fleta Wilson; Richard Lawson - Pat; Marc McClure - Highschool Class President; Kathleen Miller - Kathy Delise; Stacey Pickren - Sophie; James G. Richardson - Marine at Party; Arthur Rosenberg - Bruce; Dennis Rucker - Marine at Party; Rita Taggart - Johnson; Gwen van Dam - Mrs. Harris; Gary Lee Davis - Marine Recruiter; Tony Santoro - Porsche Policeman; Danny Tucker - Monty; Willie Tyler - Virgil
Credit
Jennifer Parsons - Costume Designer, Ann Roth - Costume Designer, Silvio Scarano - Costume Designer, Michael W. Hoffman - Costume Designer, Chuck Myers - First Assistant Director, Hal Ashby - Director, Don Zimmerman - Editor, Donald Thorin - Camera Operator, George P. Gaines - Production Designer, Michael Haller - Production Designer, James L. Schoppe - Production Designer, Haskell Wexler - Cinematographer, Jerome Hellman - Producer, George P. Gaines - Set Designer, Buzz Knudson - Sound/Sound Designer, Nancy Dowd - Screenwriter, Waldo Salt - Screenwriter, Robert Jones - Screenwriter, June Samson - Script Supervisor
Sally Hyde (Jane Fonda) is married to Bob (Bruce Dern). Bob has gone to the Vietnam War. She goes to volunteer in veteran hospital where Violet, her friend, works too. In the hospital, she meets an old friend, Luke Martin (Jon Voight). Like Bob, Luke had gone to Vietnam but came back paralytic. Love between Luke and Sally grow. After the suicide of Violet's Brother (another veteran who came back somewhat unbalanced), Luke has only one obsession: do anything to stop the sending of young men to war.
Jon Voight role as Luke Martin was inspired by paralyzed Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic, who had recently completed his book Born on the Fourth of July at that time. Kovic's autobiography would later become an Oscar-winning motion picture of the same name directed by Oliver Stone, starring Tom Cruise as Kovic.
