Product Description

Perhaps the most powerful picture ever made about the shattering aftermath of the Vietnam War, Coming Home earned eight Academy AwardÂ(r) nominations* and three OscarsÂ(r): Actress (Jane Fonda), Actor (Jon Voight) and Original Screenplay. Hailed by critics as "dazzling" (Rex Reed), "gripping" (Leonard Maltin) and "unforgettable" (Judith Crist), it is a heart-rending examination of a critical period in our nation's history and "an uncompromising, extraordinarily moving film" (Roger Ebert). When Marine Captain Bob Hyde (Bruce Dern) leaves for Vietnam, his wife, Sally (Fonda), volunteers at a local hospital. There she meets Luke Martin (Voight) a former sergeantwhose war injury has left him a paraplegic. Embittered with rage and filled with frustration, Luke finds new hope and confidence through his growing intimacy with Sally. The relationship also transforms Sally's feelings about life, love and the horrors of war. And when, wounded and disillusioned, Sally's husband returns home, all three must grapple with the full impact of a brutal, distant war that has changed their lives forever.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16238 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-04-16
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 127 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Both Jane Fonda and Jon Voight won Oscars for their performances in this profoundly moving 1978 flick dealing with the aftereffects of the Vietnam War. Fonda, feeling isolated while her hawkish husband, Bruce Dern, is away in Vietnam, follows a friend's example and volunteers at a veteran's hospital. There she is reacquainted with Voight, an old friend who has returned from the war as a paraplegic. Lonely and disconnected from her husband, Fonda finds love, and fulfilling sex, with Voight. The sex scenes, very steamy for the time, are still provocative. This mature love story is about expanding your horizons, and is both moving and thoughtful. Director Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude) does succumb to melodrama on occasion, but these are forgivable slips. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Customer Reviews

Sensitive, evocative film with timely/timeless soundtrack!
You can read the reviews to find out how moving and real this film is. Jane Fonda, Jon Voight and Bruce Dern are all perfect in their roles. Since the soundtrack doesn't seem to be available, I am going to share with you the songs played on the soundtrack so that you can compile your own soundtrack.

They are organized by group.

Happy Viewing and Listening! This is a film not to be missed.

Beatles - Hey Jude
Big Brother & the Holding Company with Janis Joplin - Call on Me
Tim Buckley - Once I Was
Buffalo Springfield - Expecting to Fly, For What It's Worth
Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today
Bob Dylan - Just Like a Woman
Aretha Franklin - Save Me
Richie Havens - Follow
Jimi Hendrix - Manic Depression
Jefferson Airplane - White Airplane
Rolling Stones - Out of Time, No Expectations, Jumpin' Jack Flash, My Girl, Ruby Tuesday, Sympathy for the Devil
Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends
Steppenwolf - Born to Be Wild

Most moving of the Viet Nam films by far...
I realize that some folks' contempt for Jane Fonda has caused them to feel equal contempt for this movie... Dont let it... Regardless of one's perspective on Fonda's political position(s) over the years, "Coming Home" is nonetheless the most poignant of all the Viet Nam movies.

Made in a period before the subject had been done to death (especially in the 1980s, where pretense, posturing and insincerity reigned), "Coming Home" which, as per its title, takes place almost entirely on American soil, get the mood, and late-60s "look" uncannily correct.

Focusing on a paraplegic vet (Jon Voight) who falls in love with a married and not-worldly army nurse (Fonda) while her officer husband (Bruce Dern) is overseas, the Oscar-winning "Coming Home" is its era's equivalent of 1946's "The Best Years of Our Lives"... Some may consider that blaspemous, but it isn't-- at all.

Too bad this movie seems to be buried now... Is it because of the done-too-much-since-then subject-matter, or is it bias against Miss Fonda? I dont know. But despite all those other Viet Nam films that would come along, this a (rare) classic take on that period-- a period now so long ago.

A paraplegic vet, a military wife and the war in Vietnam
This is the moving story of a military wife, played by Jane Fonda, who volunteers in a veterans' hospital when her captain husband gets sent to Vietnam. Here she meets Luke Martin, a paraplegic, played by Jon Voight. When she first meets him, he's on a gurney, and when she accidentally bumps into him, his catheter bag is knocked over, embarrassing him so much that he goes into an angry rage and has to be restrained. Eventually, though, she comes to know him and, as his condition improves enough so that he can get a wheelchair, she gradually develops a relationship with him. Through the art of this film, I found myself drawn right into the emotional intensity of the situation and I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the life of a paraplegic.

All the actors are great, including the supporting roles of Bruce Dern as the husband and Penelope Milford as Fonda's friend whose psychotic brother commits suicide. No wonder the film was nominated for eight academy awards in 1979 with those coveted statues going to Fonda and Voight as well as a trio of writers for the screenplay. I applaud the entire production though because it never slipped into maudlin sentimentality. Instead it was a real story the way the Vietnam War affected us all; it was easy to relate to it.

The scenes in the veterans' hospital are particularly upsetting as we watch these young men gradually learn to live with their broken bodies. The audience is not spared the actualities of their care and of their suffering. However, as the film moves on, we get to know the Jon Voight character and the romantic scene between him and Fonda plays as bittersweet reality. Years have now past since the Vietnam War, but this film brings it all back. And it does this without one scene being placed in Vietnam itself. A fine film. Recommended.