coming home

Director: hal ashby

Actor: jane fonda,jon voight,bruce dern,penelope milford

Data Published: Wed Feb 15 1978

Genres: Drama,Romance,War

Key Words: vietnam,paraplegic,vietnam war,wheelchair,u.s. marine corps

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077362/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_Home_(1978_film)

Description: Coming Home is a movie starring Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, and Bruce Dern. A woman whose husband is fighting in Vietnam falls in love with another man who suffered a paralyzing combat injury there.

Plot: In 1968 California, Sally, a loyal and conservative military wife, is married to Bob Hyde, a captain in the United States Marine Corps, who is about to be deployed to Vietnam. As a dedicated military officer, Bob sees it primarily as an opportunity for progress. At first, Sally dreads being left alone, but after a while, she feels liberated. Forced to find housing off the base, she moves into a new apartment by the beach and buys a sports car. With nothing else to do, she decides to volunteer at a local veterans' hospital. This, in part, is motivated by her bohemian friend Vi Munson, whose brother Billy has come home after just two weeks in Vietnam with grave emotional problems and now resides in the VA hospital. At the hospital, Sally meets Luke Martin, a former high school classmate. Like his friend Billy, Luke had gone to Vietnam but came back wounded. He is recuperating at the hospital from the injuries he sustained which left him a paraplegic. Filled with pain, anger and frustration, Luke is now opposed to the war. Luke at first is a bitter young man, but as he is increasingly thrown into contact with Sally, a relationship starts to develop. Eventually, Luke is released from the hospital, and, newly mobile with his own wheelchair, begins to rebuild his life. His relationship with Sally deepens. She is also transformed by him and her outlook on life starts to change. They have happy times, play at the beach, and the two fall in love. Meanwhile, Billy, traumatized by his experiences at war, commits suicide by injecting air into his veins. Driven by Billy’s suicide, Luke padlocks shut and chains himself to the gates of a local recruitment centre in a vain attempt to stop others from enlisting. Sally and Luke eventually make love, confronting his handicap. It is the first time Sally has had an orgasm. However, she remains loyal to her husband, and both she and Luke know their relationship will have to end when her husband returns home. Bob does return, too soon, claiming he accidentally wounded himself in the leg. He is also suffering from post traumatic stress disorder from what he has seen in combat. Bob discovers Sally’s affair from Army Intelligence, who had been spying on Luke since the gate incident, and both Sally and Luke agree that Sally should try to patch things up with Bob. Bob loses control; menacingly confronting the lovers with a loaded rifle, but ultimately turns away. The film ends with Luke speaking to young men about his experience in Vietnam, intercut with Bob placing his neatly folded Marine dress uniform on the beach, and swimming out into the ocean in the nude.