630
PARTISAN REVIEW
stiff , a littl e outside h er p art as if en cased in lacquer, like h er bouffant
ha irdo. Even when sh e lets h er h a ir down and becomes the J a n e we all
know, thi s woman rema ins a sp ecta to r in h er own life, sta nd ing by
helpless and unfocu sed when h er two men fin a ll y confront each o th er.
There' s n o po liti cal dimen sion to the war in thi s script. T h e
mov ies, graced with th ose la rger-th an-life fi gm es on the screen , are
inev ita bl y a person a li zin g medium , and Jon Vo ight 's rol e simpl y has
mo re person a l reson an ce and sh ading th an Fonda's. Thi s is es peciall y
true ea rl y in the film , in th e hospita l scen es, wh ere Vo ight pl ays a
sarcas ti c and expl os ive man . It's too bad we see so littl e o f thi s side of
him later in the film; wh en he leaves th e hospit a l a to uch of the sa int
and h ero settl es over him, and hi s a nger is channel ed h ea lthfull y into
love and protest-a perfect sixti es combin ati on . Vo ight 's situa ti o n goes
beyond the iss ue of Vi etn am and th e veteran . As a cr ippl e he is pl agued
by a sen se of h elplessn ess and in adequ acy, embitt ered by in adequa te
ca re and offi cia l n eglect, and h e feels tha t o th ers vi ew him as a n o bj ect,
a case. " Is thi s invite-a -gimp-to-dinn er ni ght ?" he as ks Fonda, a ft er she
reaches out to him.
Unfo rtun a tely th e script doesn't extend thi s kind of understandin g
to the poor husband, wh o is o ff in Vi etn am while th e roma nce fl owers.
He is no t onl y sexi st but commonpl ace in every way, an embodiment of
the o lder values Vo ight and Fonda leave behind . He returns home after
an a bsurdly unheroi c mi sh ap-he shoots himself in th e leg- and
tho ugh th e film would like to bl ame hi s frea k-o ut on what h e h as seen
in Vi etnam , we can 't help but no ti ce tha t it's actua ll y hi s wife's
infidelit y tha t pushes him o ver th e edge. Bo th Hellma n and director
H a l Ashby told me th ey pl ayed with man y different ways of fini shin g
the hu sband off (including a viol ent public blow-up , whi ch th ey wi sely
a bandoned ), but the idea lized love a ffa ir and the a rbitrary trea tment of
the husband account fo r the let-down of the la ter pa rt o f th e film .
Coming H ome
includes an unu sua l and powerful sex scen e th a t fo r
once makes perfect dramati c sen se; in th e li ght of Vo ig ht 's di sabilit y
and Fo nda's inhibition thi s h ad to be a crucia l moment. But as the
roman ce develop s, Vi etn am recedes and Ho ll ywood takes
O\'tT.
Th e
hos pita l part o f th e film is mo re fresh and ambitiou s, and tackl es a
la rger subj ect, with mo re visu a l va ri ety, tha n an ythin g tha t h appens to
the characters in th e o utside wo rld.
T he hospita l scen es are a lesson in how to ma n age sombre
ma teri a l witho ut being gloomy o r sadi sti c. (Thi s wasn ' t the case with
Th e Men,
a commercial fa ilure, wh ere Brando's " method " perfo r–
mance is so di scomfo rtin g tha t we h ave the urge to cut and run .)
In a
