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Dec 13, 2014Nursebob rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
One of the quintessential films examining the effects of the Viet Nam War on those who served and those who waited at home. Beautifully written and flawlessly performed (Jon Voight's and Jane Fonda’s Oscars were well deserved as was Bruce Dern’s nomination), Hal Ashby’s critical look at a system which sends men to fight then seems to forget them when they come back broken focuses on those internal battlefields that exist long after peace is declared; indeed, he restricts images of actual warfare to snapshots and grainy B&W news reports. The tone may be angry and sardonic at times, but his sense of compassion towards his main characters never wavers. There is a balance here with one man rediscovering his humanity while another loses everything he believed in, and in the middle Sally tries desperately to comfort both even though she can’t possibly understand what they’ve been through. The period detail is impeccable, including a brilliantly integrated score of 60’s rock anthems, and a few subtle touches add just the right amount of irony; a yuppie flashing a peace sign (the director’s brief cameo), a TV station going off air to the strains of the national anthem, and a bittersweet closing montage with Tim Buckley’s haunting Once I Was playing in the background. As a side note, the love scenes between Luke and Sally, besides being groundbreaking in themselves (the sexual needs of the handicapped were never addressed so honestly before), were filmed with such piercing intimacy they border on erotic art. One of the better films to emerge from the 70s.