User reviews

Hal Ashby's film shares many of the characteristics of the other big Vietnam film of 1978, "The Deer Hunter." Both are passionate and essentially incoherent in their view of the war… As Ashby and screenplay writers see it, most American soldiers who experienced the war came back mentally and/or physically ravaged…

An introductory pool table conversation among several disabled vets establishes the ground rules… Anyone who defends the war for any reason is wrong… Cut to enthusiastic Marine Capt. Bob Hyde (Bruce Dern) and his naive wife Sally (Jane Fonda) in the Officer's Club…

It is 1968…

A military campaign conducted by forces of the Viet Cong has just started and Capt. Hyde is looking forward to his tour of duty in Vietnam... As a dedicated military officer, he sees it primarily as an opportunity for progress… As soon as he leaves, Sally is forced to find housing off the base and moves into a new apartment by the beach with another Marine wife—the bohemian Vi Munson (Penelope Milford), whose traumatized brother Bill (Robert Carradine) is a patient at the local Veteran's Hospital…

Physically, Bill is fine, but "they sent him back without an ignition," Vi says… Lonely and looking for something to do, Sally volunteers at the hospital and runs across embittered cripple Luke Martin (Jon Voight). They soon discover that they went to the same high school, where he was the star quarterback and she was a cheerleader…

Now, paralyzed from the waist down Luke is subject to furious, self-pitying rages, understandable but still unpleasant and offensive… Sally externalizes his troubles, his scars, and his frustrations…And through Luke's eyes, Sally's absolute outlook on life starts to change… They soon become fairly close turning their friendship into a torrid affair… At the same time, Sally's husband was away discovering the horrors of the war…

There was a particular chemistry between Fonda and Voight which gave the film a certain magic

Sally (Jane Fonda) has a husband fighting in Vietnam and she feels optimistic about American involvement there. However she works at a hospital as a nurse and soon becomes caretaker of a bitter war veteran named Luke (Jon Voight).

At first, she is repelled by him - but over time grows to love him and admires his cause. (Luke feels the Vietnam War is a mistake and that countless innocent lives are being pointlessly lost.) "Coming Home" is the quintessential Vietnam War film - it's anti-war, pessimistic, gritty, depressing, and ultimately sort of whining. Some Vietnam films to go a bit overboard on the "tears for the poor souls" stuff and become very politically correct - "Coming Home" is like this and that might turn some viewers off.

However I thought the plot, characters, directing and writing were all interesting. Hal Ashby ("Shampoo") shows talent behind the camera and Jon Voight and Jane Fonda display chemistry in front of it.

I'm not typically a fan of Voight (or even Fonda to be honest) but they both do a good job here. Voight's final rousing speech to the classroom of students at the movie is simultaneously touching and uplifting. And the love scene is handled with care and doesn't seem gratuitous or unnecessary.

"Coming Home" may have its flaws, but I think it's one of the better "Vietnam movies" to come out of the era. You should see it if you enjoyed "The Deer Hunter" or "Platoon."

Obviously any film about Viet Nam that stars Jane Fonda and Jon Voight is going to cause more than a few knees to jerk. Fondas embracing the enemy and Voights devout pacifism have both been well-documented, so there's no need to elaborate. Don't let this cause you to avoid this film. Many veterans were on hand for the filming, and they saw that they were taking part in something special. If they can draw a truce with Fonda, than you can as well. The opening scene sets a tone for the film that it never veers from. A group of disabled vets play pool, and directly confront each other over why they were there, and what it all means. Director Hal Ashby (RIP) pulls no punches here. These vets aren't scholars debating on MacNeil-Lehrer. They struggle with these questions. They don't have the fancy initials after their names that impress people so much. There just the real people that fought the war.

The rest of the film follows on this point. Special care goes into each character.

Voights Luke Martin went to war to impress girls and feed his titanic ego. Because Ashby and his writers (Waldo Salt, Robert C. Jones and Nancy Dowd) didn't back off on showing Luke's bad side, it makes his transformation. He becomes a better person, because he develops the strength to look inside himself.

Bruce Dern gives an excellent performance, as well, in what is probably the trickiest part. Derns Bob Hyde is GI all the way, but returns from his first combat detail in a state of turmoil. He sees the insanity first hand and, quite frankly, can't handle it. The nice thing here is that he's not simply disillusioned by the politics of the war, but more by war, itself. It's to this films credit, that they didn't have Dern return home and do an about face and start protesting. That story has been told. Instead, once again, we see a human being struggling to understand things that may be unknowable. What makes a man cut another man's ears off, and throw them in his knapsack? How are you supposed to feel, when your fellow soldiers are boiling the flesh off a human skull, so they can mount it on a stake?

Oddly enough, Fondas character, Sally Hyde, may be the least "political" character in the film. Sure, she sees injustices at the VA hospital and gets involved volunteering, but this is merely as a novice. She asks very rudimentary questions about why the vets are being ignored, but she asks as a sympathetic human being, not an activist. As she eventually expands her horizons, she changes from an officer's wife into a more mature woman. As this happens, she falls in love with Voight. Neither person really wants it to happen. Voight doesn't want to betray a fellow soldier. Fonda doesn't want to betray her loyal husband. No easy answer.

It's a shame that "Coming Home" occupies such a small niche in film history. It's a quiet, thoughtful film that patiently tells its story. It doesn't have a single battle scene, but it remains incredibly powerful. Robert Carradines breakdown while he plays his guitar and sings, is a scene that should be taught in film school. Just one moment in an incredible film.

Don't let this gem fade away.

This film, the `other' 1978 movie about the Vietnam War, `Coming Home' takes a different approach than Michael Cimino's stark, shocking, `The Deer Hunter', which won a Best Picture Oscar.

Cimino used a power approach to deliver his message, drumming the filmgoer with sounds and images. Hal Ashby's `Coming Home' uses a more subdued, character approach to explore the real price of the Vietnam War.

I'm not so sure I'd agree that either Jon Voight (Academy Award-Best Actor) or Jane Fonda (Academy Award-Best Actress) is exemplary (they both won Academy Awards) but I think they are both very good. The bottom line is that this was an important movie, at a critical time, and the subject matter and its presentation really hit home. This is a film that is impossible to ignore, in 1978, or today, no matter what your political or social sensibilities may be. The language, the attitudes of all the characters is open, honest, frank. At the time this film was made, that was indeed breakthrough, for this subject matter, paramount.

An absolute must see.

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

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 .

Without a single scene of combat footage, this story manages to convey, in realistically painful terms, how much Vietnam scarred the landscape of America. And this is only a fictional viewpoint. The true life accounts must be gut wrenching. No one returned from the war the same person. To suggest a film be made showing an unaffected soldier would be incredibley unbelievable. When attitudes change and characters grow from harsh realities, you can't help but be caught up in their struggle. People you would never expect to protest a US -involved conflict, or even question it, did so with Vietnam. The Jane Fonda Sally character is such a person. She begins the picture somewhat naive, easily trusting, and sort of tied to her straight laced military existence as the wife of an enlisted man. But then she sees an entirely different world when he's gone, and over months, falls for his total opposite, symbolizing how much she can never go back to the woman she was at the beginning. It's very subtle and deeply felt acting that can achieve this and both Fonda and Voight deserved their Oscars for their moving and expert performances. Bruce Dern is the hardest to sympathsize with on the surface, but you realize he's been scarred by what he's seen too, and what has happened to him in his absence, so his world becomes more bitter as everything he once knew shatters around him. The 3 experiences, his, Voight's and Fonda's merge together at the end, in a series of heartbreaking realizations, until you're left as broken as the country was after the war. You can't NOT be affected by what happened in Nam. It's impossible. And this film clearly shows why. It's the most personal and touching of Hollywood's Vietnam treatments. And certainly the deepest acted. Buy a copy and judge for yourself...

Considered very important in its day, this film attempts to explore the impact of the Vietnam War on those who received wounds while fighting it, and on the wives left at home. It is relatively insightful and it does raise some interesting ideas about why people justify going to war, but the storyline itself is highly formulaic and it is too easy to see where it is heading. The film is also hurt by an overbearing song soundtrack. Almost all the time songs can be heard, playing softly as the characters talk and interact. There appears to be very little thematic motivation behind what is played and when it is played, but above all, it drowns out the on-screen action. The film is a bit on the maudlin side, and one might even say that it is "preachy" towards the end too, but it is nevertheless a good film. The quality of the acting saves the project, with a strong Jon Voight as a partially paralysed, angry Vietnam vet, and some good scenes with Bruce Dern in the final half hour. It was a big film when first released, and probably meant a lot because of its subject matter, leading to lots of awards and acclaim. It does not seem nearly as good nowadays, but it is nevertheless worth checking out, not only for the acting, but also for a capsule of post-Vietnam attitudes in the late 1970s.

Man, I watched this with no idea of what is was about, but I liked the directors other films, I was blown away by this films subtle power. A film like this would not be made today. The 70's was such a great time for film-making. The "risks" that were taken or at least it would be deemed as such in the film climate we are in today. The performances in this film were spectacular, the directing top notch, the pace beautiful and the ending was a punch in the gut to those who want definitive answers. Iloved it. We don't see this nowadays and regretfully probably never will again. At least we can enjoy these masterpieces today and compare to some of the drab nonsense that is produced nowadays. Don't get me wrong there is some great stuff being produced today as well, but you will not see anything as raw and unadulterated as the 70's gem.

Luke Martin (Jon Voight) returns as a wheelchair bound cripple from Vietnam. Capt. Bob Hyde (Bruce Dern) is sent over leaving behind his wife Sally (Jane Fonda). She's lonely and volunteers at a local VA hospital. Luke is angry but eventually they find comfort in each other. He is released and starts protesting the war. They begin an affair which is further complicated when her husband returns also suffering from his own war experiences.

This has the documentary meandering style of the 70s from Hal Ashby. It's a bit prodding. I wish the movie concentrated on either Luke or Sally. It's a lot of personal struggle for both characters. Jon Voight is terrific but Jane Fonda seems a bit too old for the part. She's around 40 at the time. It seems she's playing a naive young person at times. I would rather she play a mother in the movie. It would add to her conflict.

"Coming Home" was the first Vietnam War movie that dealt with the soldiers' plight sympathetically. Sally Hyde (Jane Fonda) is volunteering at the Veterans' Hospital in Los Angeles while her husband Bob (Bruce Dern) serves in Vietnam. In the process of working in the hospital, Sally sees how the hospital is unprepared to treat the people who are coming back from the war. When paraplegic veteran Luke Martin (Jon Voight) demands better treatment, rather than listen to him, they tranquilize him so that they won't have to deal with him. Over time, Sally and Luke fall in love. When Bob returns from Vietnam, he is completely damaged emotionally. The final scene shows the overall state of the world as a result of the Vietnam War.

Whenever I hear the Rolling Stones' song "Out of Time", it reminds me of "Coming Home". One thing that you get to see in the movie is how, when Sally and Bob are having sex, she is clearly not enjoying it; when Sally and Luke are having sex, she clearly is enjoying it. Fonda and Voight won well-deserved Oscars for their roles, and if you ask me, the movie should have won Best Picture. A solid masterpiece.

Compared to the bombast of 'Apocalypse Now' or 'Platoon', 'Coming Home' is a very restrained film about the Vietnam War. But in some ways a remarkable one, made at a time when Hollywood was still shy of the subject and foreshadowing the themes of 'Born on the 4th of July' by almost 20 years. Moreover, it's more subtle and less forced than that later movie, and also benefits from a more rounded narrative arc. And yet for all that, it's curiously uninvolving, especially in its earlier sections. The film certainly feels its age, with poor sound and awkward camera work, but the real problem lies in the soundtrack, a collection of brilliant songs that endlessly protrude into the narrative without the slightest pretext, marring the otherwise naturalistic mood. It's a shame, as the script's feeling for how lives intersect against the backdrop of great (and terrible events) is strong and rarely overplayed. A potentially good film spoiled by musical excess.

I agree with most of the comments about the overall quality of the film. It was definitely a teamwork political statement. The soundtrack is stunning,not only in the selection of songs from the period - by far the best film in this respect - but the subtle manner in which they are integrated into the film's soundtrack. The acting is good to excellent - Fonda, Voigt and Carradine in particular.

However, my one complaint is with the Dern character. In this I speak from some personal experience, as a vet with a tour of duty in Nam. This may be quibbling, but...perhaps his contract had a clause prohibiting cutting his hair, but the locks (for a Marine captain) are much too long. He would have received a direct order to get them cut . Also, the close relationship between Dern and the sergeant is out of character. Marine Corps Captains did not hang out with E5 enlisted men. This is even more blatant in the scene after Dern's return from Nam when he goes out drinking and brings home three enlisted Marines. A Marine Corps Captain would not be drinking in uniform with enlisted men on or near the base - let alone bringing them home. I won't go into the problems I have with Dern's apparent and largely unexplained repulsion at what his men did in the field. However, Dern aside, the film itself has a very authentic feel to it and there are unforgettable scenes such as those in the VA hospital and Voigt's final speech to high school students as Tim Buckley's haunting "One I Was" can be heard in the background. In many respects this film is the direct antithesis of Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket", which while visually authentic suffers from a lack of emotion.

I watched this again after some 40 years. I was glad to see it aired. Being a Vietnam Vet, I like anything that focuses attention on the War, lest the suffering be forgotten. I read some of the reviews here. The one that says there's never a reason to go to war is nice. Only if we hadn't fought and prevailed in WWII they'd likely be writing in German or Japanese, or more likely, not writing at all.

LOVED the music. Interesting that I think mostly all the songs were played in their entirety. And to hear two Beatles songs - wow - what did that cost?

A very important and moving film, with a message not to be forgotten.

I know that "Coming Home" won several Oscars and is considered a classic, but I have one major gripe with this film. While I liked the film overall, I truly hated the film's soundtrack. Instead of incidental music, the film is FILLED with nothing but late 60s rock and roll in scene after scene after scene. This sort of thing started in the 1970s and a ton of films were just jam-packed full of pop or rock songs. But, it's very distracting to me--and I hate that there aren't enough quiet moments in the film and it feels, at times, like I'm watching MTV and not a serious drama. And, compared to other films that shove song after song into them (like "American Graffiti"), "Coming Home" is much, much more invasive in its use of music. The bottom line is that I HATED the soundtrack!

The film is about a woman (Jane Fonda) who is home waiting for her husband (Bruce Dern) to return from his tour of duty in Vietnam. To fill her time, she volunteers to work with disabled men at the local VA hospital. Soon, she develops a relationship with a bitter paraplegic (Jon Voight). Over time, he lets go of much of his anger and he and Fonda have an affair. The impact of this on their marriage and Voight's subsequent anti-war crusade make up much of the rest of the film.

The acting was pretty good--particularly Voight. As for Fonda, I thought she was just okay and wonder if her receiving the Oscar (along with Voight) was more of an anti-war statement or a show of support for her behaviors during the war. Or, possibly it was just a slow year. All I know is that I expected something more for a prize-winning performance. As for the story, it's very much anti-war--and emphasizes the emotional and physical toll on the men who fight. This is something applicable to all wars--not just Vietnam. This universality is heightened by having no footage of the war. Without the terrible music, I'd give this one a 9--with it, 7. Yes, the music was THAT annoying.

By the way, this is a very adult film. It contains nudity and lots of harsh language. So, this is probably not a film to show your mother-in-law or a pre-school class.

Director Hal Ashby's amazing sense of time and place puts us right on the homefront of war, and "Coming Home" is arguably the best movie about war since "From Here To Eternity". When Jane Fonda, newly conscious of the problems facing the wounded men returning from Vietnam to the States, tries involving her women's club in a story about the soldiers and the ladies rebuff her, she doesn't bellow or preach--she does what we all would do, she gets mad and cusses 'em out. Her (extra-marital) relationship with paraplegic Jon Voight steers the movie's narrative away from the horrors of the era in the film's second-half (perhaps unintentionally, Ashby softens the scenario, making these lovers guiltless and a bit saintly). However, the Oscar-winning performances by both actors is admirable, and I loved it when Voight asks Fonda if she'll always be his friend (and makes her repeat it just to be sure). Ashby doesn't treat Vietnam trivially, although the war nearly becomes the backdrop to this affair. Still, these central characters are compelling and emotions run high. Penelope Milford's cynical working-girl is also wonderfully realized, but too-intense Bruce Dern is one-note as Fonda's husband (we don't see the arc of his character, and Dern gives us no variations). An evocative piece with terrific cinematography by Haskell Wexler and a fabulous '60s soundtrack. ***1/2 out of ****

When her husband Bruce Dern, a captain in the Marine Corps, is deployed to Vietnam, Jane Fonda has to adjust to living alone. She volunteers at a veteran's hospital and meets Jon Voight, who has recently come home from Vietnam without use of his legs. He's angry and passionately opposed to the war, and as Jane gets closer to this man who's completely the opposite of her husband, her entire worldview changes.

Coming Home is one of the most famous wartime dramas ever made. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards in 1979, but since it was released the same year as The Deer Hunter, there was some competition for the anti-war vote at the Oscars. While The Deer Hunter won Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Sound, and Film Editing, Coming Home took home three statuettes for Best Actor, Actress, and Original Screenplay. The acting and overall messages of the film are wonderful, and had it come out a year earlier or later, it probably would have swept up more gold.

If you haven't seen this classic, it's definitely worth watching, not only for the acting but for the piece of American culture. Many Americans, including the film's leading lady, were vehemently opposed to the Vietnam war, and this film captures their mindset and emotions in a very tangible, relatable way. It wasn't until 1989 that Hollywood produced another film of its kind with Born on the Fourth of July, the biopic of Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic. While I found that movie to be much more powerful and heart-wrenching, Coming Home was made first and deserves the respect of its time.

Just keep in mind that this is a very heavy drama; it's not a bunch of hippies holding up protest signs for two hours. The film is about all veterans, no matter their injuries, and how difficult it is to adjust when you come home to a world that's different from how you left it.

Kiddy warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to sex scenes and some adult situations, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

The best movie about the aftermath of the Vietnam war, and Jon Voight definitely earned his best actor Oscar for this film

The movie is good, but it's laughable how badly the great songs on the soundtrack are placed in the film, apropos of nothing. For this reason this film should be studied in film school on how NOT to use music. A good example of the correct way would be American Graffiti. It sets the tone to the action. Otherwise, a fine film.

'Coming Home' is a very powerful and meaningful film, but it was released the same year as 'The Deer Hunter' and that absolutely annihilated it when it came Oscar season. 'Coming Home' is a great film, but it is no where near as brilliant as Michael Cimino's one-hit wonder 'Deer Hunter'. Despite this competition, 'Coming Home' managed to win two Academy Awards for the lead actors -- Jon Voight and Jane Fonda. 'Coming Home' is the story of a beautiful, bright yet very understanding military wife, Sally Hyde (Fonda), who is married to the marine poster boy, Captain Bob Hyde (Bruce Dern - Black Sunday). Bob goes off to fight in Vietnam, leaving Sally with nothing to do but worry. Instead of sitting at home and eating bon-bons, Sally and her best friend Vi (Penelope Milford) volunteer at a Veternan's hospital where Sally is re-united with an old high school acquaintance, Luke Martin (Voight), who was a sergeant in Vietnam but know can't walk. The two become great friends but eventually lovers which comes to a boil when Captain Bob returns home after a couple years of fighting. The film also stars Robert Carradine and Charlie Cyphers. Hal Ashby does a fine job directing this picture, and Robert C. Jones and Waldo Salt provide a powerful screenplay. Jon Voight steals the picture which his heart-wrenching portrayal of a physically and emotionally scarred war veteran who reflects on his time spent in 'Nam and just wishes the war would end. Voight was great and won an Oscar, but I felt DeNiro deserved it more for his similar role in 'The Deer Hunter'. Jane Fonda rightfully won her Oscar for Leading Actress as the caring, king and understanding Sally who always wants to help someone and Bruce Dern is powerful in the role of Captain Hyde especially in the last fifteen minutes of the film. Besides winning two Oscars for the leading actors, 'Coming Home' was nominated for six other Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor - Bruce Dern, Best Supporting Actress - Penelope Milford, Best Original Screenplay (which it ended up actually winning) and Best Film Editing. It is a wonderful motion picture, but not quite on the level with the 'The Deer Hunter'. I recommend it for anyone who appreciates incredible acting and film-making. Grade: B+

The cast, from most of the stars to most of the supporting cast (e.g., almost all the patients in the hospital) are 20+ years too old for their roles. The ages of most people serving in Nam were the same as typical college undergraduates, 18 to 22. Had you seen 18 to 22 yo's going through this the perspective would have been VERY different. ... Ask yourself how different you were at 18-22 vs 40+. Would it be different if you were looking at near baby-faced youth instead of actors with age-lined faces? Youth with far less experience to fall back on? It is an illusion that there is anything to be learned here.