RELEASED IN 1978 and directed by Hal Ashby, "Coming Home" is a drama taking place on the shores of Southern California about a lonely Captain's wife (Jane Fonda) who befriends a bohemian, Vi (Penelope Milford), when her husband (Bruce Dern) is deployed to 'Nam in 1968. She volunteers at a Veteran's hospital where she meets a bitter paraplegic, who happens to be an old classmate (Jon Voight). Robert Carradine plays Vi's brother, who suffers PTSD.Like all great dramas, "Coming Home" is realistic and takes its time to establish the characters and their situations. The emotions run the gamut of the human experience. The performances by the principals are superlative. The outstanding soundtrack includes twenty hits from the late 60s by artists like The Stones, The Beatles, Hendrix, Buffalo Springfield, Joplin, The Chambers Brothers, Jefferson Airplane, Dylan and so on. The movie's not so much "anti-war" as it is just depicting the way it was for combat Vets after coming home.THE FILM RUNS 127 minutes and was shot in Manhattan Beach, near Los Angeles. WRITER: Waldo Salt & Robert C. Jones based on Nancy Dowd's story.GRADE: A

This is a hell of a movie. Not a lot of action, only relations between men and women. And the suffering from decisions of governments, merely based on balance of power, to sacrifice life of boys without them being dead.I really despise looking Anti-War movies, because most of them shows the actions of war, and most of the time, I meet some military guys who enjoy that as a kind of voyeurism.This movie took the choice of not showing a single act of war, and it is the best choice.The message is so strong, even 40 years later, it should keep anybody to go to war for any reason, because there are none.Watch it! Feel it! Understand it! A masterpiece.

For those who have consciously witnessed the American war in Vietnam, at least three films are more or less obligatory: "The deer hunter" (riddle: what hops through the woods with a machine gun? Rambi), "Apocalypse now", and "coming home". So it was high time to finally engage in the latter. On the surface it is a story about disabled soldiers, who try to recover in an American hospital. As a bonus the plot contains a love story. In general this combination leads to the typical bitter-sweet vicissitudes like in "A farewell to arms". But Coming home is different. Let me explain. Apparently the battle in Vietnam has something special. It is the extremely cruel and gruesome behavior on both sides, which logically results if you are unable to see anything humane in the other combatant. The right to bear arms is slightly less ludicrous than the right to arm bears (Chris Addison). In general soldiers will only tolerate waging war as long as they dispose of a credible justification. In the case of Vietnam such a motive was lacking, because obviously there was never a Maoist threat. In our times South-east Asia has even become one of our valuable business friends. Wars only solve the problems of politicians (Jan Vanspauwen). It is not surprising that some the war veterans can not cope with their experiences, and become mentally ill. The combination of incomprehension and feelings of guilt paves a sure way into a depression. The love-making is shallow and in fact looks like seeking comfort. Actually the characters seem to have a rather immature and unstable nature. They are naive clodhoppers. They fail to understand - as is expressed at the end of the film - that there is a choice to be made. That it is cold out there. That you should ponder. They go with the flow ("it just happened"), and evidently, without a tried conviction, experience some problems with loyalty. I find the disclosure of human weakness in the film appealing and moving. In particular I recognized the scene, where in despair the crippled Luke enchains his wheel-chair to the gate of the military recruiting center. Suppose they want to start a war, and nobody turns up (Arlo Guthrie)? In the late seventies we felt that the war in Vietnam had been purifying. In the eighties and nineties we believed that imperialistic wars had been abolished. But again we were fooled. See my review of "Rethink Afghanistan" (and Iraq was even more brutal). Invasions and occupations will probably be with us, Europeans and Americans, for centuries to come. In short "Coming home" is a shocking illustration of naivety, thoughtlessness, and horror. The accompanying music (Beatles, Rolling Stones, Steppenwulf and many more) has sentimental value. It is better to win peace and lose the war (Bob Marley). In addition I am somewhat fond of Jane Fonda, who also played sympathetic roles in "Tout va bien" and "Stanley and Iris" (together with Robert DeNiro!). Old memories about Henry Fonda ("My name is nobody"!) may also bias my preference. You could do worse than watching Coming home (me).

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.