It turns out I like Hal Ashby movies. Unlike other directors I've grown to like or follow over the years, I never went through a deliberate Ashby phase where I decided to watch all his stuff or specifically get acquainted. I just started to notice his name on stuff I like -- HAROLD AND MAUDE, THE LAST DETAIL, BEING THERE and now COMING HOME.Ashby's movies have this kind of deceptive nuts and bolts simplicity to them. The stories are told in a straight forward fashion without many attention seeking frills, all taking place in a world that seems very realistic. In some ways this is a hallmark of lots of serious 70s cinema. In others, it's integral to the look and feel of Ashby's stuff.
Jane Fonda stars the wife of a Marine (Bruce Dern) who is leaving for Vietnam as the story starts. We get the clear idea from the offset that Fonda has made the transition from high school cheerleader to dutiful wife without much in between, and left stateside alone, she doesn't really know what to do with herself. So, she starts to volunteer at a hospital for vets and finds herself drawn to the at first seemingly out of control with anger, paralyzed vet played by Jon Voight.
As the two grow closer in Fonda's husband's absence, they both begin to change. Fonda becomes more independent and starts to form her own ideas about the state of the troops who have returned home and what war does to men. Voight begins to slowly transform his anger into passion and goes from ranting victim to lecturing activist. All the while, the return of Fonda's husband looms in the distance, sure to bring some kind of end to this relationship that everyone can agree won't be pretty.
Aside from the involving story and powerful acting, the movie also boasts a rock and roll soundtrack of amazing quality, featuring the likes of the Stones, Hendrix, The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel. Almost every scene seems to be set to a rock classic, or a deeper cut that should have been a classic.
Songs are used to tie whole sequences together. There's a long sequence in the middle of the film mostly tied together with "Sympathy for the Devil" where Voight and Fonda's post-hospital lives are contrasted. Voight returns to his apartment, enjoys little things like grocery shopping, tries to sleep with a hooker, and then responds to an emergency situation with another vet. Fonda flies to Hong Kong to visit her husband who is on R&R and finds him totally changed, and unhappy with the changes in her life. The sequences cut back and forth and the tension rises as Jagger's vocals and Richards' guitar carry things along.
The morals and ethics of the film are a little murky, but I guess the morals and ethics of Vietnam were also murky. Hell, the morals and ethics of every day existence are murky. Is it okay for Fonda to indulge in adultery just because she feels bad for a vet and misses her husband? Does she owe it to her husband to stick with him during his tough times? Is it wrong of the vet to speak out against the war? This movie has the messiness of a film driven by character, not plot. It's about the way the characters change because of each other, or in spite of each other, and we rarely feel the screenwriters behind the scenes turning the screws.
The fact of the matter is, Fonda's character sealed her own unhappy fate when she got married too young, with too little experience -- it's only a matter of time before the wider heretofore unseen world of thoughts, feelings and experiences starts to look attractive, regardless of the circumstances.
In any case, the movie works because of the way it approaches these subjects -- for the most part, it is quiet and even a little tender, relying on little personal revelations as opposed to big dramatic moments. The characters for the most part are realists -- by the end of the film, they're not deluding themselves or lying to themselves anymore. They're just trying to deal with what life has thrown their way, and it's hard.
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