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Yar, you be here: Coming Home > Customer Reviews Coming Home Customer Reviews (7 - 9 of 21 Reviews)Offensive
I'm not offended by the anti-Vietnam War message of this movie. I am offended at the cocky infidelity. The single most offensive scene to me is when Jon Voigt sits in front of the married couple (Bruce Dern and Jane Fonda) flaunting his sexuality, his shirt off, showing absolutely no regard for the husband who is being betrayed. Voigt stands on the moral high ground as he condemns America's invasion of Vietnam. Why did the cocky little sneak have to rub his sexuality in the husband's face? I saw no love between Voigt and Jane Fonda. I saw a wooden performance by Jane Fonda. She did much better work in On Golden Pond, when her father and Katharine Hepburn brought out the best in her. A relative of mine was a Vietnam War hero who returned disillusioned and, like John Kerry, had nothing good to say about the war. I have no problem with a veteran going through Hell and having a change of heart. I was opposed to the war myself, so I was on Voigt's side, politically. The fact that Voigt is a war veteran in a wheelchair (in a movie) doesn't make his sneaking, self absorbed character any more sympathetic to me. All it does is let me know that the movie makers are trying to play on my sympathies. How can you object to a crippled vet? Let him do whatever the hell he wants. When Bruce Dern holds a gun to Voigt's naked chest, I found myself hoping he would blow the annoying little sneak away. That sums up my reaction to this terrible movie. Sound and Image
It's no accident that several of the reviewers plead for information about where to find the soundtrack for this movie, which consists not of original music, but songs from the era. As far as I know, it's never been available, but this shows just how well the songs were selected and used in this movie. In particular, the use of Tim Buckley's "Once I Was" in one scene is so overpowering that I wondered for many years what the song was, and where I could find it, searching through used record bins for the (nonexistent) soundtrack album. There are several important themes in the film, all of which are discussed in other reviews, but the Buckley song expresses the feelings of Bruce Dern's character in a way that could not have been achieved any other way. Most moving of the Viet Nam films by far...
I realize that some folks' contempt for Jane Fonda has caused them to feel equal contempt for this movie... Dont let it... Regardless of one's perspective on Fonda's political position(s) over the years, "Coming Home" is nonetheless the most poignant of all the Viet Nam movies. Made in a period before the subject had been done to death (especially in the 1980s, where pretense, posturing and insincerity reigned), "Coming Home" which, as per its title, takes place almost entirely on American soil, get the mood, and late-60s "look" uncannily correct. Focusing on a paraplegic vet (Jon Voight) who falls in love with a married and not-worldly army nurse (Fonda) while her officer husband (Bruce Dern) is overseas, the Oscar-winning "Coming Home" is its era's equivalent of 1946's "The Best Years of Our Lives"... Some may consider that blaspemous, but it isn't-- at all. Too bad this movie seems to be buried now... Is it because of the done-too-much-since-then subject-matter, or is it bias against Miss Fonda? I dont know. But despite all those other Viet Nam films that would come along, this a (rare) classic take on that period-- a period now so long ago.
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