Which one is better? - Coming Home (1978) Discussion

[–] scagnetti777 18 years ago

Watch both. If your looking for an opionion well like the saying goes ........

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[–] TowelRail 18 years ago

COMING HOME there is NO CONTEST

'nuff said

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[–] Freddy_Newendyke 18 years ago

Yes, Coming Home is far superior. I found BOTFOJ quite meandering, and the film ended really abruptly. Coming Home is such a great character study, and has one of the best love stories in film in it. It's so tender and moving. And it doesn't take the easy route by making the husband a misogynistic monster.

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[–] jackyisajester 18 years ago

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or not.
If you are XD...if you aren't :'(

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[–] chuckdduck23-1 18 years ago

Coming Home!
The acting is phenomenal, just every character is brilliant, the script is amazing. Plus, now that Tom Cruise has lost his mind, it's harder to like movies he's in.

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[–] Castor-29 18 years ago

Here's an idea -- judge the two movies objectively, not taking into account who-came-first and the rare couch jumping incident... and you'll see Born on the 4th of July is the FAR FAR FAR better-made film.

Ron Kovic's journey is one of the most powerful sagas ever put on film. Tom Cruise has never been brilliant before this or since this, but believe me, he is here. As a director, at least with this film, Oliver Stone is head and shoulders above Hal Ashby.

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[–] Chwelve 17 years ago

"Oliver Stone is head and shoulders above Hal Ashby."

That's where you really, really lost me...

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] krasnegar 17 years ago

Und zo?

It's "Based on a true story" as filtered through the agenda of Oliver Stone.

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[–] Washingtonnative (2613) 5 years ago

"Coming Home"

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[–] Cripplehawk 17 years ago

I believe that the charactar of Luke was based on Ron Kovic (Ironic isn't it). I did not see Coming HOme completly though.

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[–] JoeLoebner 17 years ago

"Coming Home", no question about it.

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[–] niktemadur 17 years ago

Without a second of hesitation, Coming Home. In fact, BOTFOJ doesn't even belong in the same breath/sentence.

Don't get me wrong, BOTFOJ is a fine film, but Coming Home KO's any competition it's been thrown at so far, two of the main reasons (but not the only ones) being The Writing and The Acting. There isn't a single false note in this film, which is to say, there is plenty of sentiment, but not a drop of sentimentality, and neither Oliver Stone nor Tom Cruise were able to rise to that level.

Just one example of Coming Home blowing BOTFOJ right out of the water:
The Chamber Brothers "Time Has Come Today" sequence raises the crescendo to almost impossible expectations, yet the little "tiff with the wife" truly delivers, without a doubt the scariest domestic fight I've seen in my entire life.

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] billymac72 17 years ago

My sentiment exaclty. Coming Home was made closer to the period than "4th of July" and echoes the confusion of that time more accurately. I guess one could say that America was in a "healing phase" and just trying to come to grips with the effects of the war. Socially, the "sensitive male" became a staple of the new self-help industry, and pop culture reflected this. By the 80s, films tried dealing more with combat itself ("Platoon," "Full Metal Jacket" etc.), and started to become more removed from the controversy of the politics, imo. Istead, these 80s films generally helped solidify certain "truths" about what was wrong with the Vietnam War that continue to be mainstream today (although many of such "truths" are still debatable).

This is a weakness that films, by their nature, can not help. Once they become retrospective, the phenomena is akin to Monday Morning Quarterbacking; they begin to apply modern thinking/sensibility to historic periods, which can at times create glaring problems with authenticity. In this sense, Coming Home is just more authentic.

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[–] Frankenlotter 17 years ago

Defnitely Coming Home, but Born On The Fourth Of July is still a fantastic film.

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[–] JoeLoebner 17 years ago

Coming Home

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[–] jporter-6 15 years ago

Born on the Fourth of July is clearly a vehicle for a star. Coming Home has actors. The difference? In Coming Home, we watch Capt. Hyde disintegrate and Luke Martin try to re-build his life, though he is a jodie. We watch a wife--I hate to talk about Jane Fonda--betray her husband. The suffering in Coming Home is great and is not meant to specifically enhace the personal reputation of the actors involved, though it does because of their willingness to confront the evil truths pressed by the conflicts of the story line. In Born On The Fourth Of July, we are expected to admire the dramatic presentation of a movie star. (This observation is not meant as a hit at Tom Cruise. He did what movie stars do.)

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[–] geoffrey-jackson 12 years ago

Between Born on the Fourth of July or Coming Home.

Difficult question.

It took me a while to make the connection between these to films. I think it was when Luke started paying for female companionship.

By the way, I'm going through a Jane Fonda phase at the moment. Did Born during an Oliver Stone phase.

Although both films have the same theme and wheelchair aspect, one is a romance and the other is a documentary.

Born has more scope in time and presents to the viewer the causes of the trauma and then getting over it. Home leaves more to the imagination but has more character dynamics. Both are excellent films and well worth watching.

To say that one is better than the other will be unfair.

Having said that, though, and just rating Home 8/10 I am surprised to find that I rated Born only 7/10. In that respect Home is generally better. In retrospect I guess it's because Home has more emotional tension and Born has a slightly repugnant ending with its sense of victory. There are no winners in war.

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[–] brefane 11 years ago

Coming Home is a cliché. A dove is a better lover than a hawk...so says the film. Fonda is unconvincing. The soundtrack and the cross cutting try to cover up its shallowness. The characters are one-dimensional. Penelope Milford coms across an amateur. The ending is ... a cliché. BOTFOJ all the way!

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