Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Doug0809 I watched this again after some 40 years. I was glad to see it aired. Being a Vietnam Vet, I like anything that focuses attention on the War, lest the suffering be forgotten. I read some of the reviews here. The one that says there's never a reason to go to war is nice. Only if we hadn't fought and prevailed in WWII they'd likely be writing in German or Japanese, or more likely, not writing at all.LOVED the music. Interesting that I think mostly all the songs were played in their entirety. And to hear two Beatles songs - wow - what did that cost?A very important and moving film, with a message not to be forgotten.

TomSawyer 2112 This is a hell of a movie. Not a lot of action, only relations between men and women. And the suffering from decisions of governments, merely based on balance of power, to sacrifice life of boys without them being dead.I really despise looking Anti-War movies, because most of them shows the actions of war, and most of the time, I meet some military guys who enjoy that as a kind of voyeurism.This movie took the choice of not showing a single act of war, and it is the best choice.The message is so strong, even 40 years later, it should keep anybody to go to war for any reason, because there are none.Watch it! Feel it! Understand it! A masterpiece.

Blake Peterson Coming Home is an eclipse of a romantic drama, one in which there are no clear signs of who should be with who or what should happen to who and who deserves what. Its characters are damaged in one way or another; most are trying to figure out what to do with their fragmented lives. Should they do what is considered to be the right thing? Or should they follow their heart and try to avoid causing even more damage as a result? Taking place in 1968, America has become shattered and unintentionally cynical. With the Vietnam War as a backdrop to everyday life, most are sick and tired of living under the societal pretensions of the previous decades; anger is prevalent, but an outreach of peace is too. Sally Hyde (Jane Fonda) has always been a wife first and a person second, so when her husband, Bob (Bruce Dern), goes off to fight in Vietnam, she finds herself uncertain of her priorities. She has never had to work a day in her life, and she's never been looked at as anything other than another man's property.With Bob gone, she finally has the chance to become the independent woman she never thought she could be. Sally, along with her friend Vi (Penelope Milford), decide to volunteer at the local V.A. hospital. There, she meets Luke Martin (Jon Voight), a past acquaintance who is back from Vietnam after an accident leaves him paralyzed from the waist down. Luke is understandably upset with how his life has turned out, and as Sally gets to know him, she not only develops feelings for him, but she also finds herself more aware of the mess the U.S. is in. She still loves her husband, but he has grown increasingly distant after facing violence on such a regular basis. When he comes home, Sally is forced to decide whether to remain a wife or start her life anew.Coming Home isn't a women's picture as its plot might suggest; it's something much closer to the heart and something more important to American history than a drama where romantic triangles run amok. It is one of the most essential films of the 1970s. Painting an unfiltered picture of life after Vietnam, it is by turns humanizing, upsetting, and moving. The characters are completely different people by the end of the film: Sally starts as a quiet housewife and ends as a woman in touch with her surroundings and her personal needs; Luke goes from the mindset of a bitter victim to an impassioned protester; Bob sheds his typical spousal roles and becomes an emotionally impaired disaster. Such transitions are risky, as they may not always ring true in the development of a certain figure. But Coming Home never stops being earnest. It could be moralizing, but like Sally, we are left to make our own decisions.Ashby, a seminal director of the decade, doesn't pick sides, preferring to let his characters go loose and see what paths they set for themselves. Like Robert Altman or John Cassavetes, you can feel his presence, but his presence does not interfere with the naturalness of any given situation. The Stones, Simon & Garfunkel, golden era Beatles, and Jefferson Airplane play at a near constant pace, almost as if Ashby is trying to remind us that times are changing and the world isn't what it used to be. It used to be a place where people only really "made it" if they got married and settled into domestic bliss. But now, with its preference for soft rock and free love, America isn't content to simply settle. Coming Home carries a restless energy; moving forward, not backward, is the only option. Fonda, Voight, and Dern are all outstanding, even if the third act leaps into melodramatic territory and betrays the realism set so effortlessly in the first two. The '70s explored film in a way that no other decade has, and Coming Home serves as one of the most authentic excursions into a culturally relevant topic. It's a life-on-the-home-front picture that makes life on the home front seem just as alien as life on the battlefield.Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com

Emil Bakkum For those who have consciously witnessed the American war in Vietnam, at least three films are more or less obligatory: "The deer hunter" (riddle: what hops through the woods with a machine gun? Rambi), "Apocalypse now", and "coming home". So it was high time to finally engage in the latter. On the surface it is a story about disabled soldiers, who try to recover in an American hospital. As a bonus the plot contains a love story. In general this combination leads to the typical bitter-sweet vicissitudes like in "A farewell to arms". But Coming home is different. Let me explain. Apparently the battle in Vietnam has something special. It is the extremely cruel and gruesome behavior on both sides, which logically results if you are unable to see anything humane in the other combatant. The right to bear arms is slightly less ludicrous than the right to arm bears (Chris Addison). In general soldiers will only tolerate waging war as long as they dispose of a credible justification. In the case of Vietnam such a motive was lacking, because obviously there was never a Maoist threat. In our times South-east Asia has even become one of our valuable business friends. Wars only solve the problems of politicians (Jan Vanspauwen). It is not surprising that some the war veterans can not cope with their experiences, and become mentally ill. The combination of incomprehension and feelings of guilt paves a sure way into a depression. The love-making is shallow and in fact looks like seeking comfort. Actually the characters seem to have a rather immature and unstable nature. They are naive clodhoppers. They fail to understand - as is expressed at the end of the film - that there is a choice to be made. That it is cold out there. That you should ponder. They go with the flow ("it just happened"), and evidently, without a tried conviction, experience some problems with loyalty. I find the disclosure of human weakness in the film appealing and moving. In particular I recognized the scene, where in despair the crippled Luke enchains his wheel-chair to the gate of the military recruiting center. Suppose they want to start a war, and nobody turns up (Arlo Guthrie)? In the late seventies we felt that the war in Vietnam had been purifying. In the eighties and nineties we believed that imperialistic wars had been abolished. But again we were fooled. See my review of "Rethink Afghanistan" (and Iraq was even more brutal). Invasions and occupations will probably be with us, Europeans and Americans, for centuries to come. In short "Coming home" is a shocking illustration of naivety, thoughtlessness, and horror. The accompanying music (Beatles, Rolling Stones, Steppenwulf and many more) has sentimental value. It is better to win peace and lose the war (Bob Marley). In addition I am somewhat fond of Jane Fonda, who also played sympathetic roles in "Tout va bien" and "Stanley and Iris" (together with Robert DeNiro!). Old memories about Henry Fonda ("My name is nobody"!) may also bias my preference. You could do worse than watching Coming home (me).