Other Titles • Coming Home • Hemkomsten (1978) • Sie kehren heim (1978)
Synopses for Coming Home (1978)
1.
When Sally Hyde’s (Jane Fonda) husband, a ramrod-straight marine captain, Bob Hyde (Bruce Dern), is sent to Vietnam, she leaves the isolated world of the officer’s quarters and begins volunteer social work at the veterans hospital. There her unthinking support of the war and her blindness to its effects are challenged by meeting the crippled men struggling to recover, psychologically as well as physically, from their time in country. Many, like Luke Martin (Jon Voight), now a paraplegic, are embittered and full of unfocused, uncontrollable rage, which he takes out on the prim, controlled Sally. Interestingly, they went to the same large high school, but she was a pretty, popular cheerleader type and he was just a guy in the back of the class. Gradually, as she changes politically (always signaled by changes in hair and fashion) and he recovers emotionally, they become friends and then lovers. This causes a sexual awakening in Sally that furthers her transformation from a repressed wife to an independent woman. Then her husband comes home.
Hal Ashby’s film, with its classic rock soundtrack and lush photography by Haskel Wexler, submerged its politics in a warm nostalgia, although it was made just a few years after the war ended. Still, it’s theme of individual transformation, both political and sexual, struck a chord with baby boomer audiences who all felt, to varying degrees, that they had done the same thing.
(22 votes)
2.
"Compelling and Absorbing. An Excellent Film!" -Variety
Perhaps the most compelling picture ever made about the shattering aftermath of the Vietnam War, Coming Home earned eight Academy Award nominations and three Oscars: Best Actress (Jane Fonda), Best Actor (Jon Voight) and Best Screenplay. Hailed by critics as "dazzling" (Rex Reed), "gripping" (Leonard Martin) 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 sergeant whose 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 transforms Sally's feeling 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.
(28 votes)
3.
Both Jane Fonda and Jon Voight won Oscars for their performances in Coming Home, a 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, Amazon.com
(13 votes)
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