Comming Home

Review #58
Jerome Hellman Productions, 1978
Mov No. 25314
Genre: War Drama
Directed by: Hal Ashby
Staring: Jon Voight, Jane Fonda, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford
Oscars: 3 wins, 8 nominations
AFI 100 years, 100 _____ tributes: Passions (#78)
Runtime: 2h 6min
Best Quote: "1-2-3-4! We don't want your Fuckin' war!"

Vietnam was the worst mistake in American history, and this film, Comming Home, only serves to illustrate the point that activists and Veterins have been telling us for years.

Captain Bob Hyde (Bruce Dern) and his friend, Bill Munson, are officers in the United States marine core, and, they have been selected for duty in Vietnam.

Mean while, Seargent Luke Martin (Jon Voight) is sent home from Vietnam after having been shot in the back and paralized from the waist down.

One day, at the V.A. Hospital, Bob Hyde's wife, Sally (Jane Fonda) and Luke Martin happen to collide with each other. Intrigued by the loud, fowl-mouthed, abussive Luke Martin, Sally volunteers at the V.A. so she can get to know this man. They soon discover that they went to school together, and actually like each other.

Sally and Luke become intimate with each other, eventually turning the relationship into an affair. But time passes and Sally realizes that her husband is going to have to come home sooner or later, and he is going to find out about the affair.

Bob does indeed come home, with his leg shot up, and a citation forthcomming. But Bob is not the same person that left, and Sally is not the same girl that he left. To make matters worse, Bob learns of the affair between Luke and his wife...

There are several great Vietnam films, including Apocalypse Now, Platoon and Born on the 4th of July. Comming Home is definatly one of them, by far. It is a powerful and seductive film that will keep you on the edge of seat the whole time.

Jon Voight and Jane Fonda steal the show with their on screen chemistry, and Bruce Dern is exceptional. The action is fast paced and stunning. This film will leave you in awe of the way Vietnam Veterins were treated by their own government and society.

Plot:
The plot is exceptional and well done. Cudos to director Hal Ashby. He really captured the mood that the script was trying to get across.

The only problem with the film is that the ending doesn't clear anything up. What happens between the two men? whom does Sally go to? Does Bob kill himself? The answers are unclear, but Comming Home looses no points for this minor blemish.

Visual Effects:

Sound:
The score was well done, and the periodicly placed songs compliment this film to a T.

Character Development:
All of the main characters change in their attitudes, their ways of thinking, etc. Bob is a strong, manly man who goes off to war but come back an empty shell of what he once used to be.

Luke was once a disgruntled Veterine who thought the government had him shot and then dumped back in some V.A. hospital (this is true). Sally is an army wife who does what she is told to do, but when Bob come home she has changed her hair, got a job, a new car and had an affair with another man... she has difinatly changed, but only for the better.

Atmosphere:
Comming Home is a seductive war drama that will have you hooked almost from the word go. You want to see just what happens between Luke and Sally, and what she will do when her husband finally is sent home to her.

Realism:
A powerful Vietnam drama that is as real today with all of the American's war problems as it was during vietnam. the same issues... the smae problems.

Warren’s Rating:

Other movies nominated for Best Picture with it:
*The Deer Hunter, (1978); Heaven Can Wait, (1978); Midnight Express, (1978); An Unmarried Woman, (1978)