COMING HOME
US, 1978, 128 minutes, Colour.
Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Robert Carradine, Penelope Milford.
Directed by Hal Ashby.
Coming Home is a serious drama about the aftermath of Vietnam in the U.S., frequently moving and putting the late '60s into a perspective probably impossible at the time. Jon Voight portrays the all-American, injured, disillusioned soldier who revives and survives; Bruce Dern is the enthusiastic unquestioning patriot whose disillusionment is destructive; Jane Fonda, in yet another superb performance, is the American whose points of view are broadened and changed. Rich in detail and fine performances, notably Penelope Milford as Vi, the film tackles basic human questions of love, marriage, loneliness, adultery, violence, injury and pain in a film that works seriously and well on the popular audience level. It shows that time does tell. The stars and screenplay won Oscars. It is the other side of The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now.
1. The impact of the film in '78-'79, ten years after the high points of the Vietnam war. the hindsight of the late '70s that the war would end? The film's awards and meriting these?
2. The quality of the content in terms of American self-understanding? The techniques of sentiment and feeling for communicating this? Catharsis for the Americans? The impact on non-American audiences? The skill of the stars. Oscars for example. for the stars and the screenplay?
3. Where did the film's sympathies lie? The importance of sympathy and empathy for message and meaning? The audience's emotional response to the war, to the coming home and its problems, to rehabilitation? To the changed United States? To the individual emotional crises? The relationship between emotional and intellectual response? The balance of the film's point of view, biases? The critique of the war, of the American people?
4. Audience identification with the characters? Understanding Luke, Bob and Sally? Empathy? Seeing their different points of view? Appreciating the changes in their points of view? The response of men to the main characters, of women to these characters?
5. The atmosphere of the opening and its setting the tone for the film: the hospital and its detail, the men in the hospital and their disabilities, psychological effects, rehabilitation? The importance of the content of the discussions and the variety of points of view voiced? The loss of limbs and the contrast with Bob running? The contrast at the end with these men alive and Bob dead?
6. The patterning of the songs throughout the film? A montage of '60s songs with the atmosphere. the protest? The attitude of Americans towards the war at the time, Hawks and Doves? Protest movements. hippie movements? The songs and their lyrics and the validity of their comment? The fashions of the time, the posters, films like 2001?
7. The contrast with the officers' party and its talk, the officials and their commissions, attitude towards the war, towards the Vietnamese? Chess, newspaper? Bob and Dink and their attitude towards going to Vietnam and returning, a jingoistic patriotic atmosphere? The introduction to Sally and Vi in this atmosphere? Setting up the potential conflicts and changes of points of view?
8. The presentation of these characters as ordinary people, the detail of ordinary things that they did. the presentation of their attitudes and beliefs? Their limits of points of view - and the audience's hindsight judgment on these attitudes? How authentic the presentation of these Americans?
9. The bonds between Bob and Sally and their representing the average American man and woman? The presentation of their home at the base, their love for each other and the presentation of this love, their ability to talk together? The pathos of leaving and the expectations that each had of the other? The contrast with V1 and Dink and their relationship? The later transition to Hong Kong and the reuniting of Bob and Sally? In the light of all that had happened? Their becoming strangers to each other, Bob and his distance, Sally and her awareness of her relationship with Luke? The effect of separation. the war? The two being in an exotic and unfamiliar environment? The various effects of the war?
10. The presentation of Sally and Vi and the women who remained at home? Vi and her concern for her brother Billy and his mental collapse? Sally and her volunteering? Her awkwardness in working e.g. the urine sequence, the serving of the food? The introduction of Luke via the photo? The fight? Luke and his antagonism and Sally's memories and reaction to him? Her decision to move house and her greater dedication to her work? Her decision not to tell Bob and the repercussions of this? The hold that Bob had over her? Her growing social awareness, the importance of the meeting with the ladies and the discussion about the newspaper? The build-up to her being at home in the hospital, helping Luke? The importance of inviting him to the Fourth of July dinner? His suspicions and awkwardness, her awkwardness? The help that each gave to the other, the potential for love, Sally's resistance? Sally going with this background to Hong Kong and its effect on her? Her changing? Hong Kong being a crisis point and affecting the change especially in her relationship with Luke?
11. The details of the hospital and its way of life, the people there, the doctors, cooks, V1 and her work, Billy and the sequences of his madness, talking, outings, sing-songs? This setting of the hospital for Billy and his madness, singing, his phone call about his death? Billy as a symbol for the destructive madness of the war?
12. The portrait of Luke: his injury, his cynicism, the clashes and the straitjacket sequence? The food? The memories of the past and his place in the school? His gradual unburdening of himself to Sally? Being unfair to her at first, the meal, the lust? The playing ball and the various details of his change? Moving from bed to chair? The mellowing but yet the growing protesting? Chaining himself to the gate, the television interview? The importance of the sequence with the prostitute? What did Luke represent in terms of the effect of the war on the American male?
13. Luke's change and his survival, his talk to the schoolchildren, spreading his attitudes? The view that prevailed?
14. How sensitive was the Portrait of Vi? In herself, an ordinary American girl, authentic? Her bonds with her brother, the relationship with Dink? Her grief? The importance of the night out with Sally and the pick-up? Her drunkenness and the effect of the grief on her?
15. Sally and the gradual change - how did it appear even in her clothes, hair etc.? Her preparation for Bob's return? The effect of the affair with Luke on her -and the sensual presentation of this lovemaking? The confiding with Vi? Sharing love with Luke, knowing the repercussions for herself, the moral issues, the effect?
16. The introduction of the theme of surveillance? Audience response to this in the light of the '70s? The rights of the F.B.I. to survey Luke? The invasion of privacy and the way that this was used?
17. Bob and his return - audience tension about the relationship between Luke and Sally, Bob and the effect of the war on him? The irony of the accidental shooting and its repercussions on him? The decoration? Sally's expectations and build-up for welcoming him? His distance, drinking and the soldiers coming round and changing the atmosphere of the party? His story about himself and his wound? His heroism and the decoration? How well was his lack of balance portrayed? The surveillance and the explanation to him? The effect on his lack of balance? The reckless driving? The melodramatics of the confrontation with Luke? The gun and the confrontation with Sally? Luke's persuasiveness in telling the truth? The importance of Luke's and Sally's honesty? The effect on Bob, his revulsion towards the decoration, his disillusionment, the futility of his life, stripping himself naked and going into the sea - the potential for washing clean, the reality of death by drowning?
18. The portrait of men in the '60s in the U.S. and the effect of Vietnam: madness and death with Billy, patriotism turning to disillusionment and futility with Bob, survival and mellowing with Luke?
19. The importance of the final themes of Luke and his confrontation, forgiveness, injury, reaching out? How well handled was the adultery situation from the point of view of psychology, morality, forgiveness and guilt? The future?
20. The transition to a symbolic and contrived ending - three people as representing American attitudes towards the war: Bob and disillusionment to death, Luke with bitterness to survival, Sally from unthinking to conscious and dedicated attitudes? How humane was the film, the importance of emotions and response, a critique of the United States in the '60s focusing on the war?
