Coming Home

Coming Home examines three types of people affected by the Vietnam war.  There are the soldiers who come home crippled, unappreciated for their sacrifice and in horrible care.  Then there are the soldiers still out there or about to leave, full of pride and little anxiety at first and then disillusioned and wondering why they get to live or keep their limbs.  Lastly are the women left behind to worry about their men overseas who see the devastation of the dead and paralyzed men returning.

As Bob (Bruce Dern) is about to leave for Vietnam, his wife, Sally (Jane Fonda), tells him she will stay with his mother and not work, just like he wants her to.  Soon she starts volunteering at the Veterans hospital and rents a house near the beach with her friend, Vi (Penelope Milford).  At the hospital, driven mostly by curiosity, she finds an old classmate, Luke (Joh Voight), who is now paralyzed and enraged about the way he is treated.  As Sally becomes closer to Luke, and eventually starts a steamy affair with him, she wants to make people more aware of the treatment the injured veterans are having to endure.

While visiting Bob on leave in Hong Kong, we understand more of the current soldier’s plight.  Before Bob left, he was much more laid back and calm, but now overseas he seems drained and tense.  He talks about the horrible things he’s seen, like how his men cut off victims heads and put them on spikes as warnings, and how everything just seems like bullshit, not at all the patriotic duty everyone makes them think it will be.  We also get the real reason he doesn’t want Sally to work, or volunteer (her once justifiable loop hole).  Bob is really just afraid she will be unfaithful while he is away.

For Sally, it seems that she is on a path of self discovery while her husband is away.  It felt like she and Vi always had men to depend on all their lives, but now with just the two women running a house, they realize they can exist without men.  Sally is more taken care of than Vi though, who still works regular shifts while her husband is away.  With Sally realizing how wonderfully privileged her life has been, she feels more obligated to give back and volunteer.  And once she finds Luke, she finds more purpose in helping him, both with his physical setbacks and political agenda.  Then, as they become lovers, Sally learns that men can be sexually giving as well, but no one really wants to see Jane Fonda in that explicit of a position.  You have been warned.

By this tail end of the film journey, I’ve seen multiple movies about the mistreatment and plight of paralyzed Vietnam veterans.  I’d say that this gives the viewer a broader perspective by not just focusing on a man in the wheelchair, but becomes watered down to a love triangle.  Sadly, the only character I really liked here was Luke, he gained my sympathy while Sally and Bob seemed to be setting themselves up for their problems.

“And I know some of you guys are going to look at the uniformed man and you’re going to remember all the films and you’re going to think about the glory of other wars and think about some vague patriotic feeling and go off and fight this turkey too.  And I’m telling you it ain’t like it is in the movies.”

On Golden Pond

Only at the age of twenty-five, I’ve already found bits of me growing old.  Those few gray hairs have already multiplied to a streak and after a good downhill hike, I feel it all through my hip the next day.  There used to be some unspoken idea of invincibility floating through my mind, now I see that if we’re lucky enough to see our prime there will be a decline.  Of body and possibly the mind.  But as we inevitably age, we should not let these truths become a burden.  It’s important to take each year as a celebration and find happy things to come back to that will help keep us young in spirit.

In the film On Golden Pond, an old couple returns to their summer lake cottage they have had since their days as newly weds.  Right away, Ethel (Katharine Hepburn) is excited to return, “The loons, they’re welcoming us back.”  “I don’t hear a thing,” says her husband, Norman (Henry Fonda).  At first we get the idea that Norman is an old foggy, just a grouchy old man who’s mind is going along with his body.  He only lets his guard down around Ethel, the scenes where he can admit to his fear when forgetting things is heartbreaking and sweet.  I could not bear the thought of Norman and Ethel split apart.

Their only child, Chelsea (Jane Fonda), will be visiting with her fiancé and his son for Norman’s 80th birthday.  Norman and Ethel haven’t seen Chelsea for years.  They love her just as much, but it seems their relationship is strained, especially between father and daughter.  Chelsea and Bill (Dabney Coleman) can only stay for one day, since they’re going to Europe and ask if young Billy (Doug McKeon) can stay there for a few weeks.  It seems kinda low at first to just pop in for a quick visit and ask for some babysitting services, but having a thirteen year old boy around does Norman a lot of good.  Though there’s some immediate friction, Norman and Billy become thick as thieves and have some adventures together between weeks of boating, swimming and fishing for old Walter.  But when Chelsea returns, she’s jealous of the quick bond Billy has made that she has always wanted with her father.

There’s something amazing about watching two of the greatest veteran actors together in their golden years.  Hepburn and Fonda both won lead acting Oscars for their perfect portray a pair of old loons still busting with life.  Sadly, On Golden Pond was Fonda’s final film.  Between his hilariously delivered smart-ass-old-man lines, “Oh, sure.  Black bears, grizzlies.  One of ’em came along here and ate an old lesbian just last month.”, and his touching moments of vulnerability, this really is one of his greatest roles.  It’s wonderful to see him become suddenly invigorated by the presence of a young boy.  And Hepburn’s portrayal of an old woman who doesn’t live by her age is amazing.  From old song and dance routines she does alone, practicing her loon calls and even diving into perilously cold waters, Hepburn’s Ethel is an amazing woman.  Best of all, Norman and Ethel together are the perfect couple who have only bonded closer after so many years.

On Golden Pond is such a touching story filled with reasons to celebrate life, love and happiness.  There are so many films out there about youth and young love, but films about happy people in their seventies or eighties are very few and far between.  Our culture tends to dismiss people after too many wrinkles or candles on the cake.  If we can make it to those high numbers, what an accomplishment, what a life.  And if after fifty years together you can still call your spouse a friend, you’ve got more to celebrate than most people.  I’m not big on tears, or admitting to them, but this film made me cry and thankfully my husband was there.  I only hope to say the same thing in fifty years.

“Life marches by, Chels. I suggest you get on with it.”

Julia

Lillian Hellman was an American playwright famous for The Children’s Hour, The Little Foxes and Toys in the Attic.  Throughout her career, she was involved with a few left-wing causes, and was on blacklisted by Hollywood in the 1950’s for having communist acquaintances.

The film is based of Hellman’s memoir, Pentimento, dealing with Lillian (Jane Fonda) writing her first play, her rise to fame and relationship with a lifelong friend, Julia (Vanessa Redgrave).  We’re shown small scenes as Lily and Julia grow together, hiking and visiting Julia’s rich grandparents as teens, taking time to visit while studying at Oxford.  From the glimpse at their relationship together we conclude that Julia is the bold, daring one wanting to change the world, while Lily is more reserved, soaking in everything about Julia.

While Julia is studying in Vienna, she becomes part of the anti-fascist movement in 1930’s europe.  Things are getting more and more dangerous around her, she’s even hospitalized in an air raid.  When Lily becomes a famous playwright traveling to Moscow, she is approached by a man sent by Julia.  She’s offered a mission to help aid the anti-fascist movement by smuggling money into Berlin.

Without Julia’s heavy influence in her, I would not have believed that Lily would agreed to do this.  She always seems to be trying to live up to Julia.  While on this mission, we see that Lily is a pretty terrible smuggler, she’s very nervous and even sweaty at times.  Terrible poker face.  Along the way we realize that there are people helping her.  Without them casually telling her what to do, the whole thing would easily blow up in smoke.

The one part of the film I could really appreciate and connect with was when Lily was writing her first play.  She hits the highs and lows of writing, like throwing her typewriter out the window and writing THE END repeatedly in triumph.  But along the way there is the dreaded writers block.  While stuck in that rut, her mentor and lover Dashiell (Jason Robards) gives her some tough advice, “If you really can’t write maybe you should find a job.”  If I’ve learned anything from this blog, it’s that writers block sucks but to get going again is a wonderful feeling.

The film is done very well, both Fonda and Redgrave put on wonderful performances.  The portion of the film within the smuggling mission is most intriguing and pulls a good amount of suspense.  But besides that, I just didn’t feel invested in the story.  The relationship between Julia and Lillian seems to hold strongest in Lillian’s mind.  Does Julia hold Lillian in such high regard?  She’s able to name a child after her, and ask her to be a money mule at the same time.  I thought Lillian was pretty naive, yet she was to embody the great writer.  I wasn’t buying it, but maybe that’s just me.

“You better tear this up. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just not good enough, not for you.”