Hal Ashby’s anti-war manifesto COMING HOME has a killer opening and ending - an improv conversation from real-life paraplegic Vietnam War vets, among whom, Luke Martin (Voight) remains silent, paying due respect to other’s authenticated voice; and for the ending, Ashby goes understatedly poetic, juxtaposing three protagonists’ respective actions and topping the movie off with a radical sucker-punch, sometimes death can be aligned with such beauty, especially against the nature force which hits like a juggernaut -, which leaves everything in between wobbling between a stern censure of war’s atrocity and futility, and a felicitous meet-cute between an able-bodied woman and a disabled man.

Hitting the home run of being nominated for 8 Oscars, including the Big Five and all four acting categories (eventually won 3), COMING HOME is a seminal cinema agitprop that jumps on the bandwagon of Vietnam War’s disillusioned sequela, and rams home its lucid message with poignancy, compassion and persuasion, if less artfully, as the plain truth speaks volumes itself.

Jane Fonda plays an ordinary military wife Sally Hyde, when her Captain husband Bob (Dern) is deployed to Vietnam in 1968, she finds vocation in volunteer work at a nearby veterans hospital, where she meets her former high school classmate Luke, now paraplegic and seething with grievance. The two strikes up a friendship that is profuse of romantic tingles, what will it take for Sally to two-time her husband? A cocktail of her compassion (pity sex is something we can all bank on), Luke’s winning charm, Bob’s prejudice and gung-ho spirit, plus a deep-seated void needs to fulfilled (the earth finally moved thanks to Luke, sans priapic penetration, a revolutionary moment of addressing female orgasm in American cinema), Sally’s transmogrification takes shape both physically (hairdo, an eyesore to today’s aesthetics) and mentally (her view of the war alters organically by the horrific aftermath she experiences firsthand in the hospital), albeit at the cost of her morality, which Ashby deems of much less import than the imperative to “stop war and make love”, in fact, Sally and Luke’s union represents a quintessential American dream which is consummated belatedly, between a school jockey and a cheerleader.

By cramming the movie with a rich soundtrack of iconic hits (The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Tim Buckley, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Simon and Garfunkel, you name it!), COMING HOME incubates an unsetting discrepancy with its drab palette and bleak reality (a suicide is witnessed with not enough emergency but apathy), and really has its finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist. Narratively, Ashby doesn’t mince words about his true cause, thus subtlety is wanting in expressing the obvious.

For the two Oscar-winning performances, both Fonda and Voight should owe their victory as much to serendipity as their own aptitude, an Oscar No. 2 is quite a feather in Fonda’s cup, only Sally is entrenched with a rather uninspiring character arc, her ordinariness is too much in the forefront, although Fonda delivers an all-around effort to extricate Sally from her conservative shell, still, her inscape is sadly, without much complexity to be astonished about (Jessica Lang has done a finer job in Tony Richardson’s posthumous BLUE SKY 1994); Voight, apart from his touching peroration near the end, carries off with a hefty tang that we never know where his damage lies, whether he recovers or not, there is a perceivable sadness in his slightly stiff smile, the scar is appalling, keep smiling, man.

The unknown Penelope Milford reaps an Oscar nomination as Sally’s gal pal Vi Munson, which she earns with one scene by unleashing Vi’s bottled-up devastation at her brother’s demise. Last but definitely not the least, a terrific Bruce Dern, though losing out his Oscar to Christopher Walken in THE DEER HUNTER (1978), is actually, mesmerizing in eking out Bob’s pent-up disintegration with superlative assurance and explosiveness, which essentially elevates the coda to the stratosphere of its much-needed impressiveness, for what it is worth, Hal Ashby’s COMING HOME ultimately rises above its own political agenda and finds humanity in its core, for that reason alone, it deserves a place of its own.

referential entries: Ashby’s HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971, 7.4/10), THE LAST DETAIL (1973, 8.1/10), BEING THERE (1979, 8.3/10); Tony Richardson’s BLUE SKY (1994, 6.1/10).

和《獵鹿人》同臺競技，兩者平分蛋糕，最佳男女主給了《榮歸》，簡方達能贏了梅姨，只能說簡方達資源好，演技沒看出來，這部太乏味了，只能說運氣不好碰上了《獵鹿人》。安吉麗娜朱莉他爸的表演還可以，但也沒到從德尼羅手上拿過最佳男主的程度，這片子和《莎溫情史》的惡心有得一拼。/《榮歸》coming home美國導演hal Ashby哈爾·阿什比＆最佳男主Jon voight沃特＆最佳女主Jane fonda簡方達。/電影開場一群退伍軍人打著臺球談論越戰(zhàn)時打臺球，房間里每個人都直言不諱，并不像關于戰(zhàn)爭的典型電影而有一種紀錄片的風格，隨后布魯斯·鄧恩Bruce Dern扮演的海德上尉Captain Hyde在陸軍基地周圍慢跑，滾石樂隊唱著“你不知道發(fā)生了什么，你已經離開太久了，你不能回來認為你仍然是我的” 。海德為他的第1次履職做著準備，這時是1968 年越共以極快攻勢襲擊了城市＆軍事基地＆美國駐西貢大使館（1950年在艾森豪威爾領導下，美國卷入了越南的局勢，越南在法國殖民政權垮臺后被劃分為越共北方＆非共產主義南方，在肯尼迪的領導下，第1批美國顧問1963 年飛抵南越，協(xié)助南越軍隊vs對抗北方越共，在林登·約翰遜的領導下，1965年戰(zhàn)爭升級，美國士兵第1次部署到前線，春節(jié)以雙方傷亡為一年的開始。最初美國人被樂觀＆過度自信＆理想主義所驅使，美國干預的背后是多米諾骨牌理論：如果越南被北方越共占領，整個亞洲會被共產主義占領，盟友會對美國失去信心，自 30 年代以來，綏靖政治不是許多人的選擇，強硬行動才是唯一方法，否則就是在幫助獨裁者，不幸的是，約翰遜嚴重誤判了敵人，高估了自己的實力，美國人幾乎沒有成功的機會，只有少數(shù)人注意到這點，直到 1975 年美國人才離開越南），海德上尉也受到樂觀＆過度自信的驅使，他懷著成為戰(zhàn)爭英雄的雄心前往越南，他甚至可能成為少校，在他的告別派對上一位同事說“從上頭傳來的消息，查理在這次春節(jié)的進攻里開槍打死了一團，這只是一個時間問題—— 海德說我為這樣的機會等了很久”。海德＆他的妻子sally莎莉（簡·方達因此獲得奧斯卡女配）分別后，以為鏡頭會和海德一起去越南，但鏡頭跟隨莎莉＆海德下屬的女朋友vi維，開始了一段友誼改變了Sally 的生活，《榮歸》最初的劇本是2個女人追求個人自由的女性故事，但簡方達是越戰(zhàn)老兵羅恩·科維奇的朋友，在劇本中加入了他的故事，但最終電影還是帶有原創(chuàng)劇本明顯的女權主義的痕跡，他1889 年的自傳是奧利弗.斯通的越戰(zhàn)電影《七月四日》誕生的基礎。在退伍軍人事務部醫(yī)院，痛苦的人試圖從戰(zhàn)爭中掙扎著恢復過來，和被國家拋棄的感覺作斗爭，中產階級＆高中橄欖球隊的啦啦隊長＆一生都在盼望著成為某某人的妻子的sally到退伍軍人醫(yī)院做志愿者，莎莉＆盧克墜入愛河，撫慰了盧克因戰(zhàn)爭的憤怒＆敏感，他曾經夢想成為一個戰(zhàn)爭英雄并付諸行動，但隨著幻想破滅，他對發(fā)生在他身上的事情很憤怒，比如肉體上的殘缺；比如他在醫(yī)院沒有得到很好的治療，感覺被國家遺棄的孤獨感，在尋尋覓覓有歸屬感的身份；比如他對戰(zhàn)爭的恐怖感到不安煎熬折磨的復雜性，當他和自己和解、和平共處時，才能正視戰(zhàn)爭后遺癥的傷口，找回自己的生活，并賦予生活新意義，并最終在結尾說出了自己對戰(zhàn)爭的看法——盧克告訴高中孩子，我們都被自己的國家欺騙了，當嬉皮士站在街角舉起和平標志，青少年被征召入伍，職業(yè)軍人奔赴越南，美國告訴人民美國在越南做正確的事，但沒有人真正確定那里到底發(fā)生了什么。這更像是一段布道，就像卓別林在《大獨裁者》結尾的演講，盧克承認他一到越南就改變了看法，和海德不同的是，盧克馬上意識到戰(zhàn)爭是一個巨大的謊言，國家通過它來利用美國年輕男性的希望＆夢想，盧克直面承認他在為錯誤的一方而戰(zhàn)，海德很想反駁抨擊盧克，但他不能因為盧克代表了他曾經夢想成為的神圣的戰(zhàn)爭英雄。電影把越戰(zhàn)描述為“存在的噩夢”，只有當美國真正承擔起責任，承認自己錯了，意識到自己＆自己搏斗時才可以開始療傷，才能以后避免同樣錯誤，在 1980 年代幾部越戰(zhàn)電影中也找得到同樣的主題，比如奧利弗·斯通 Oliver Stone的越戰(zhàn)3部曲《野戰(zhàn)排》《出生于 7 月 4 日》《天堂與地獄之間》早近10年，他本人就是一名越戰(zhàn)老兵。這是一部不僅從越戰(zhàn)創(chuàng)傷中歸來的電影（這也是電影的缺點1，電影塞了太多的主題，看起來有點脫節(jié)，缺點2應該更深挖掘海德的角色會更有層次感）；關于探索戰(zhàn)爭后遺癥ptsd，戰(zhàn)爭對士兵的影響＆以及戰(zhàn)爭對那些沒去越戰(zhàn)的人的影響，他們在這些影響后的掙扎；在混亂絕望中的愛情故事批判了現(xiàn)代社會框架內男性＆女性的性別角色：每個人都在社會極限內盡力證明，男人被描繪成有力量，必須證明自己，必須成為最好最強大的人，即使因此摧毀重塑了自己，莎莉的治愈＆理解＆母性創(chuàng)造了希望＆創(chuàng)造了團結，莎莉對盧克的愛不是肉體上的更多是精神上的，盡管她＆盧克有關系但她絲毫沒有懷疑她的婚姻。當海德從越南回來因為他的英雄主義無法忍受坡腿開槍自殺，她＆盧克分手去幫助她破碎的丈夫，提前歸來的海德已經不再是離開前那個自信熱情的軍官，他現(xiàn)在走路跛行，像盧克一樣支離破碎，當他了解了離開期間發(fā)生的事情，有那么一刻似乎要殺死莎莉＆盧克，這時盧克拆除海德的“步槍”＆“刺刀”，幫助海德＆sally兩人和解。/電影的配樂：披頭士樂隊、滾石樂隊、布法羅斯普林菲爾德、西蒙和加芬克爾、艾瑞莎富蘭克林、蒂姆巴克利、鮑勃迪倫＆The Chambers Brothers錢伯斯兄弟＆荒原狼＆calvin harris ＆Janis Joplin＆Jefferson Airplane ＆Jimi Hendrix。 /在80年代這個10年中，電影越來越只看娛樂＆票房，簡方達也拋開政治立場出售健身視頻，沃特的政治傾向也戲劇性轉向右翼，電影也見證了好萊塢該死的時代。

剛看這部劇得時候，我在上大學，那時候大部分得時間都在追韓劇，但是這部劇卻讓我花了好幾個深夜，一點一點的看完了，我不懂離家的滋味，我只知道自己出生在中國大陸，但是卻也被劇中被迫分開的兄弟二人感動到，那個年代多少這樣的悲歡離合呀，還好兩孩人大都明事理，即使有人走了歪路，也能被拉回來，當然大哥、二哥的婚姻悲劇，也許是豪門注定的，幸好他們的家庭迎來了一個敢于打破常規(guī)的人，幸好結局不是沒有機會改變，幸好我們的祖國越來越繁榮昌盛！