The question can any movie about war be anti war ? Coming Home answers it . The main characters Sally and Bob Hyde ( Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern ) and Luke Martin ( Jon Voight) are not anti war but each experience it in a way that leaves them feeling different by the end. They are forced to learn nothing is as neat and simple about fighting in a war or trying to cope with it at home. Luke is already there as the movie opens. Sally slowly comes evolves of the course of
the story and Fonda gives a natural and often restrained performance. She plays against type but Sally is never gung ho for the war or and anti war activists at the end it's far more nuanced than that. By the end Luke has evolved as well from angry and frustrated to accepting what is and sharing his experience and how it changed him.
Bob Hyde is the most lost by the end and what made sense about his service, the war and his wife no longer make sense for him. The ending leaves many things unanswered but perhaps that's how it should be instead of neatly tying it together. It is possible that the fate of one character makes things possible for the other two but even that is left unresolved.
These are ordinary people at the beginning and by the end they are still every day people but they change . One interesting thing is it's not a movie about showing the battles on the field it's about the internal and external battles we have with ourselves and the affects of war.
Bob Hyde is the most lost by the end and what made sense about his service, the war and his wife no longer make sense for him. The ending leaves many things unanswered but perhaps that's how it should be instead of neatly tying it together. It is possible that the fate of one character makes things possible for the other two but even that is left unresolved.
These are ordinary people at the beginning and by the end they are still every day people but they change . One interesting thing is it's not a movie about showing the battles on the field it's about the internal and external battles we have with ourselves and the affects of war.