Ross622
Hal Ashby's Coming Home is another film that tries to tell us how horrible and stupid the Vietnam war really was quoting what Oliver Stone who said in his first best director acceptance speech that "we learned nothing from the Vietnam war." thanks to other films that try to prove that to us such as Platoon and The Deer Hunter. The movie stars Jane Fonda as Sally Hyde a woman whose husband (Bruce Dern)leaves for the Vietnam war. Then she volunteers at a hospital where she meets a former high school classmate named Luke Martin (played by Jon Voight) when they try to make love with each other while at first talking about memories back in high school then Martin flipping out about not getting the immediate care he needs. The problem that I had with this movie was that why Jane Fonda got the lead part when she got a lot of soldiers killed 7 years back in 1971, but still she gives a good performance, along with Voight and Dern. Director Hal Ashby has made the feelings of the soldiers who fought in that war come to life in this film. And I really thought that the ending was unnecessary to conclude the movie.
Desertman84
Coming Home is a drama film that stars Jane Fonda, Jon Voight and Bruce Dern. The screenplay is based loosely on the novel of the same name by George Davis.It was directed by Hal Ashby.The plot examines the impact of the Vietnam War among the men who fought it and the women in their lives. Left alone in Los Angeles when her gung-ho Marine husband Bob (Dern) heads to Vietnam in 1968, proper wife Sally Hyde (Fonda) decides to volunteer at the V.A. hospital where her new friend Vi works. There she meets Luke Martin (Voight), a former high-school classmate and Marine who has returned from Vietnam 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 After a Hong Kong visit with her increasingly withdrawn husband, Sally finds a love and companionship with Luke that she had never known with her husband.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. The film ends with Bob swimming out into the ocean in utter despair, presumably to kill himself. As Sally enters the supermarket at the end, the two doors close behind her, accidentally forming the symbolic phrase "Lucky Out". She and Luke are now free to pursue their romance.Coming Home is an excellent film which illuminates the conflicting attitudes on the Vietnam War debacle from the standpoint of three participants - Sally,Bob and Luke - and how it has affected their lives. It also has stellar performances from Fonda and Voight,who won Oscar for their role in it.Overall,it is classic film about the scars the Vietnam War left on the bodies, minds, and souls of many soldiers and civilians.
FilmCriticLalitRao
"Coming Home" is an important film in the history of American cinema directed by Hal Ashby. He was an important cinema author who combined star power with ingenious subject matter.It is a matter of utter shame that films by veteran American independent cinema director Hal Ashby are not much known.This is the reason why he has remained an extremely talented filmmaker whose films have not been properly assessed by viewers.This is a sad thing about a filmmaker whose films always featured famous actors.Many of the films about Vietnam war are overtly dramatic and try to win viewers' sympathies by playing victim's card. "Coming home" is an exception to this rule as its canvass is broader in scope even though it talks about Vietnam war in an indirect manner.There are a couple of angles associated with this film.One of the simplest angles suggests that this is a simple story about a husband, his wife and a third person in her life.However,it is no so simple as it appears.A different serious angle states that people become frustrated when they don't have their loved ones around them. This is partly true about people who work for defense forces.In "Coming Home",there are some good glimpses of life at a military base especially in scenes about peaceful protests led by wheel chair bound Jon Voigt.Jane Fonda is good too in one of the best roles of her career.She shines as a quite soul who becomes involved in everything which happens around her."Coming Home" is great film about war without any bloodshed.It is a film which must be seen more than once in order to comprehend some lives whose foundation is built around hopelessness.
Bones Eijnar
COMING HOME (1978), Hal Ashby's anti-Vietnam drama concerning the war fought at home is certainly one of the most gripping films concerning the soldiers of USA made. Sally, (Jane Fonda won Best Actress) who's volunteered to work at the local veteran's hospital while her husband (Bruce Dern) is overseas fighting in the war, falls in love with paraplegic patient Luke (Jon Voight, who won Best Actor). The story is immediately gripping, much because of Hal Ashby's sensitive and caring direction, and though it almost slips into sheds of melodrama from time to time, it takes on a mature approach. The difficulties of this film confronting the sexual nature of the affair between Voight and Fonda, and the confused and unfocused despair of the soldiers who returned home are greatly handled with care and tact, and especially involving is the love relationship. Fonda's character seems naive, caring, and without any specific opinion about anything, and she literally bumps into Voight as he's propelling himself through the hospital corridors, strapped to a bed - he's angry because of the way he's being treated, and so the crash-in with Fonda results with spoils of his urine-bag all over him, the floor, and her. It's a great scene that shows the humiliation both of them goes through, he because of his handicap, and she because of her job. They both went to the same high school, but only knew each other by name (as he humorously remarks), and the observation of these two human beings falling in love is quite beautiful. Ashby lets his favorite music fall like raindrops throughout, and as they don't serve any ironic or obvious comment (apart from Tim Buckley's "Once I Was" in the powerful ending), I don't really see their effect besides punctuating the cultural wave of the late 60ties. However, this is 70s American film-making with a big heart that wants to say a lot about war, and everything it does to those closely involved.
AD
