Coming Home - 1978

A man who believed in war! A man who believed in nothing! And a woman who believed in both of them!

Director
Hal Ashby 

Writers
Nancy Dowd  story
Robert C. Jones 
Waldo Salt 
Rudy Wurlitzer

Producer
Bruce Gilbert 
Jerome Hellman 

Cast
Jane Fonda - Sally Hyde
Jon Voight - Luke Martin
Bruce Dern - Capt. Bob Hyde
Penelope Milford - Vi Munson
Robert Carradine - Bill Munson
Robert Ginty - Sgt. Dink Mobley
Mary Gregory - Martha Vickery
Kathleen Miller - Kathy Delise
Beeson Carroll - Capt. Earl Delise
Willie Tyler - Virgil
Louis Carello - Bozo
Charles Cyphers - Pee Wee
Olivia Cole - Corrine
Tresa Hughes - Nurse Digroot
Bruce French - Dr. Lincoln

Review by Theo Robertson

Coming Home (1978)
Perhaps Not All That Great,

The problem I have with reviewing COMING HOME is to do with the subject matter . It's unreservedly anti-war which means it makes me feel slightly guilty when I say I don't like it very much . It's the same problem I have with holocaust movies , because of the subject matter myself and other audience members feel we must praise the movie regardless of its faults

The reason I don't like COMING HOME is because it feels like it was directed by someone who has spent a long time working on TVMs , there's a never ending soundtrack of pop music in the background ( Now I know where Jerry Bruckheimer stole the idea ) and there's little in the way of character arc . When we're presented by the characters at the start of the movie they're still basically the same people by the end of it . Luke Martin may find a focus for his bitterness and anger by the end but compare him with Ron Kovic with BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY to really see what I'm getting it

There are good points and it's all to do with the cast . Jane Fonda probably deserved her Oscar for best actress while Jon Voight certainly deserved his . It's also interesting to note that Bruce Dern and Robert Ginty play roles in which their characters are sent to the 'Nam as both these actors would later be typecast as psycho Vietnam vets . And I will praise the fact that COMING HOME is far more successful in showing the pain and anguish on the home front far better than WE WERE SOLDIERS

But I still have to stick with instinct that it's far from a great movie and benefits from being released before several other Vietnam War dramas .