WATCH NOW
Sally Hyde is the ultimate military wife. She is loyal, sociable, agreeably quiet and sexy, and most importantly, supportive of her husband. However, this can be difficult at times because, “You know what they tell them,” a friend once told me. “‘If the Marine Corps had wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one.’“ Regardless of this, Sally is fairly content in the spring of 1968, as her husband gets ready to go on a tour to vietnam. It is quite possible that he is going to be given a promotion there. After all, the war has to be for a just cause. It has to be, or we wouldn’t be fighting it.
This is the persona of Sally Hyde at the beginning of Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home.” A moving film in its entirety. Towards the end of the film, a year after the viewer sets eyes on Sally Hyde, she has transformed into a different character. One who is not only confused about her beliefs but is also confused with her loyalties as she has been turned onto new feelings she has not felt before. Although she has not bulked up and turned into a radical political activist or a hippy like most of the1960s creatures, she is no longer sure about accepting what her husband or any other person claims to be true.
Coming home touches many subjects, however, at the heart it speaks of that transformation that comes from within Sally Hyde. Portrayed by Jane Fonda, Sally Hyde is an interesting character. One has to question the intelligence and the self expression of Fonda when one considers the character typecasted for her. She’s a little reserved which makes her shy and at the same time somewhat tastes and self intelligent. It isn’t surprising that she was a cheerleader in highschool. She is a person who doesn’t seem to have much opinion and ideas on anything. Perhaps she doesn’t even think there is a need for her to think. Her husband can do that for her.
When her husband (Bruce Dern) enlists, she is left to fend for herself. At this stage of her life, she finds herself without a home, a marriage, a high school to attend, or even an Officers’ Club. She has found freedom. Having the liberty to step outside her housewife role allows her to do different things. Purchasing a (previously owned) sports car. Renting a beach house. Even volunteering at a local hospital’s Veterans’ Administration branch. That’s where she meets Luke (Jon Voight). After being filled with so much pain, anger, and frustration, he tries to get over it all, but she had always recognized him from high school as the football captain. Having gotten paralyzed from the waist down while fighting in the war, he propels himself through the hospital using canes and a strap-on table equipped with wheels. He will eventually advance to using a wheelchair. But for now, he has very different opinions about Vietnam in comparison to Bruce.
In the film “Coming Home,” Luke and other paraplegics are treated without compassion. For this reason, the opening sequence episodes of the film have such a profoundly touching impact on us. Their first encounter was anything but ordinary as Luke collides with Sally, resulting in his urine bag rupturing and spilling its contents on the floor. It is humiliating like that which Luke will have to deal with and if she is sincere in wanting to be a volunteer, she has no choice, but to deal with such incidents as well.
She is, and she finds out. Luke used to be a menace in the early years and the hospital staff preferred to just put him to sleep with medication. The zombies are the least amount of trouble. Sally tries to get to know Luke, talk to him and even ask him for dinner. He slowly redirects his anger toward the war instead and begins to grow calmer and more mature. One day, quietly, he “You know there’s not an hour goes by that I don’t think of making love with you.”
They finally make love, with Luke confronting his handicap in a scene of great tenderness, beauty, and tact. For Sally, however, it was the very first time and she succumbled to unfaithfulness. But it isn’t an affair because she stays devoted to her husband, even though both her and Luke are aware that when she returns home, everything comes to an end. However, he does return much earlier than expected because of a self-inflicted injury. In his attempt to find out more about his wife, he overhears her talking with someone in the US Army. The last scenes are undoubtedly the most ambivalent of the film, betraying the uncertainty of the director and the scriptwriters regarding the Dern character’s actions.Before the film reaches its undesirable and unfulfilling conclusion, Dern is led into scenes of unregulated, chaotic rage. Such is the case, however, in the last twenty minutes, which leaves more to be desired. The final twenty minutes leave much to be desired which is unfortunate because for the rest of its length the movie ‘Coming Home’ is brilliant.
And it achieves much because it addresses the interrelationship concerning Fonda and Voight without holding back. With all its emotional tenderness, the movie is even harder to portray.
Consider. The film haas three concerns to deal with in this relationship, all of which are dealt with honestly. The first is the Voight’s paralysis. It is Voight’s concern ‘You aren’t one of these women that gets turned on by gimps’, and her response is no. The second is how deep their affair goes emotionally and within the intimate areas which is so explosive dramatically. Nevertheless, the movie tackles this misconception through clarity indirectly proving how strongly they feel towards each other so that the viewers can understand.
The third is the aspect of the relationship Fonda and Voight shared. Here, “Coming Home” operates on a dimension that does not rely on the war, the husband, the paralysis, the time period or the location, or any other plot devices. The film in essence reveals that there has been such a schism among men and women in so many films and so many types of sexual antagonists or lovers or rival or other pair combinations have been created that the simple human friendship between these two individuals is a revelation.
To watch more movies like 9 Ball (2012) 123website.
Also Watch for more movies like: 123movies.
