Best Actress: Jane Fonda II
How did they ever afford the music rights for all the songs featured in Coming Home? Any one of them should've been the entire budget!
I'm not usually a war movie watcher, they don't rank up at the top of my list. I have so few (if any) war films on my watchlist, I don't particularly enjoy movies or media about war (I like Pearl Harbor because it came out when I was 14 and it was the romance and the fact that it was Josh Hartnett; and in terms of 'real' war movies, I can appreciate the marvel of Saving Private Ryan but god damn do I hate the story), but this might be one of the earliest (fact check me if I'm wrong, my knowledge of this film sphere is short) anti-war movies that doesn't really hammer you over the head with a message.
You absorb the message by watching these characters deal with an off-screen war. You have Jane, as Sally, the repressed wife of a US Marine who undergoes a transformation when he's shipped out. You have Luke, played by Angelina Jolie's father (who also won an Oscar for his performance), as the injured war vet turned anti-war protestor. You have Bruce Dern as Bob, Sally's wife, the Marine who thinks he's going off to do his duty but comes home injured (from a self-inflicted wound) and wondering what kind of hero he is and what kind of man he is as a result of what he's seen and done over there.
This movie is more about the emotional toll of war on everyone involved and the way it affects us in different ways. There's so much to love about Jane's performance in this film. She's never preachy, instead taking us on the journey of a military spouse who has her eyes opened to the realities of post-war life. It's interesting to watch.
So, speaking of Jane... if Jane Fonda has no fans, I'm dead. I adore this woman. She's a role model, she's an icon, she's a legend, and while I'm not one for the tired nepo baby discourse, if we were to rank nepo babies by talent, she's surely the top of the list. I wish Jane Fonda had 20 Oscars. She's almost always the best part of every movie she's in (I was going to say she's the best part, but The China Syndrome came to mind and Jack Lemmon is also phenomenal in that). And is she ever on the wrong side of an issue? Educate me, but I don't think she is.
I love her, she deserved this.
PS. To go back to Coming Home, for a sec. It's weird what imprints on your brain and leaves a cultural footprint, because I remember reading in a Vanity Fair issue sometime in the 2000s about the 'Vietnam Oscars' when Coming Home and The Deer Hunter went head-to-head with their differing messages on the same war, and while I can't say it informed my opinion on either film (it's been so long since I've watched The Deer Hunter and it's so heavy I'm not sure it's on the watchlist), it definitely left a mark.
(I used to read Vanity Fair religiously, I don't remember when I fell off, but I lived for the Hollywood issue and now I can't be arsed. You can read it here.)
Jane was nominated against Ingrid Bergman (Autumn Sonata), Ellen Burstyn (Same Time, Next Year), Jill Clayburgh (An Unmarried Woman), and Geraldine Page (Interiors). I enjoy all of these actresses, but I'm a certified Jane stan, so I have to root for her. (Your time will come, Geraldine!)
DID I LIKE COMING HOME? I mean, I doubt I'd watch this again unless I do another type of rewatch challenge, but it's a fine performance from Jane.
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Did you like Coming Home? What are your thoughts on Jane Fonda's second Oscar win?
Keep up with all my Rewatching the Best Actresses posts here!
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