MovieChat Forums > Coming Home (1978) Discussion > Jon Voight- now a conservative!

Jon Voight- now a conservative!

posted 16 years ago by travelhk
27 replies | jump to latest

jon voight, a former 60's radical and war protester, is now a conservative. he once was friendly with the liberal actress jane fonda during the production of the anti-war film "Coming Home", but they have since parted company. he voted for reagan and bush, endorsed giuliani, and is now campaigning for john mccain. unlike ms. fonda, jon voight has visited the troops overseas and supports them!
p.s. i stand to be corrected, jane fonda did visit the troops overseas- the north vietnam troops in 1972!

[–] ndatmo-1 16 years ago

I remember sitting in a a folding chair a couple rows behind Jon Voight and his very pregnant wife at a fundraiser auction during the time Ms. Fonda was married to Tom Hayden in the anti-war days. Various celebrities had donated film-related items to be auctioned off.
Odd now to think that that was probably a teeny little Angelina Jolie, long before her Dad did such a political switcheroo from his COMING HOME days.

...........Hate is the essence of weakness in the human mind...........

[–] mlmerit 15 years ago

You can be conservative and hate war, I do. You can be conservative and either support troups or not. Being conservative has nothing to do with supporting the troups. Most people had a problem with Jane Fonda because during a war she went to the country we were at war with and made the statement that we were wrong for being there. That was enough, but she took it further and said many horriblly stupid things about our servicemen. If you ask her today I bet she doesn't believe in any war but were she respected enough by servicemen men and women I bet she would support their needs as she did in this movie. The question is if there is any war to be believed in and supported. Or are there just situations called war that we have NO choice but to support because of their effects should we not do so?

[–] ndatmo-1 15 years ago

Well said mlmerit - No matter how many times Jane Fonda has apologized for her bad judgement w-a-y back (and she hasover and over again) some people would rather hang on to bitterness and recrimination. Those people will never be willing to believe that those of us in the Anti-War movement always respected and supported the people in the military and wanted them home and safe at the same time knowing how wrong the incursion was. A lot of people now have that FOG OF WAR hindsight. A lot of other people want us to sink into the same kind of destructive, wasteful swamp...just in different parts of the world.

...........Hate is the essence of weakness in the human mind...........

[–] johndeckbose 15 years ago

Watching Coming Home right now, and it hurts so much to think of what Jon Voight has become. His performance as Luke is way too powerful to just be an acting job.

How do your convictions change so deeply? I'm 53 now and have never experienced such a moral about-face. I just don't understand it.

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[–] johndeckbose 15 years ago

Ophiuchus, you're right on target about the fear tactics.

It conjures a two-sided perspective. On one hand, you'd think people that rich and famous are somehow insulated from the charade. But on the other hand, when you have so much to lose, maybe you become even more vulnerable to the trickery.

Bob Dylan sings, "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose."

I guess the inverse is equally true.

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[–] johndeckbose 15 years ago

It seems, for Mr. Voight, the distortions have come years after the drug-taking ceased. Like an acid flashback, but with confusion and remorse replacing the psychedelia.

He wants to come off like a now-virtuous anthropologist, but how can you trust the convictions of someone who has so thoroughly changed his perspective? And it's one thing for an ex-addict to rant against the influence of drugs, but why must he degrade and discredit the entire countercultural movement of the late Sixties and early Seventies?

What's to stop Voight from changing his mind again? He has sacrificed his credibility. Trusting him now would be like marrying the woman you cheated with, and then being shocked when she has an affair.

[–] cflr 15 years ago

Voigt has quite obviously gone insane.

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[–] johndeckbose 15 years ago

Oh, man, I never heard this before! Thank you Ophiuchus. It's so thoroughly in keeping with Voight's manic behavior. I guess you never know what he's gonna get behind and pretend to champion.

It's so sad when a celebrity, otherwise with access to the media, sacrifices his credibility, and then struggles to get it back . . .

[–] johndeckbose 15 years ago

Voight has really taken it to another level now. Did you see his comments on Fox News this past weekend? He claims Obama is heading, and supporting, a Communist conspiracy in the US government "with which, little by little, he rapes our nation."

Voight has lost it. This is no longer dissent -- this is delusion.

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[–] Angel_of_Mons_1914 15 years ago

Actually, if you guys would do a modicum of research, you'd learn that Jon Voight began turning against the Left around the time of this movie due to the hypocrisy concerning their lack of outrage over the mass killings and torture by the Communist Vietnamese, Khmer Rouge (supported incidentally by the Carter admin via Beijing) and Pathet Lao of former members of the regimes, ethnic minorities, political dissidents et al during this period resulting in millions more dead and displaced.

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[–] Angel_of_Mons_1914 15 years ago

Thank you for that well-constructed, intellectual and thoughtful rebuttal.

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[–] Angel_of_Mons_1914 15 years ago

Then why don't you look it up? He has said it multiple times.

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[–] Angel_of_Mons_1914 15 years ago

Whether you believe it or not makes for a better argument than insinuating that I'm a liar. The mere fact is that he has stated that it was during the period when the post-American withdrawal atrocities were taking place, which would have been around the late 70's/early 80's (recall that Coming Home was released in '78) that he began to turn against the Left. You may choose to believe it or not, but he did say it.

I will say that his participation in liberal activism seems to have waned after this movie when so many other Hollywood people who had been active against Vietnam and in other leftist causes maintained theirs. That would seemingly support his statement.

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[–] tvashtar2919 14 years ago

If you are not a Liberal in youth, then you must not have a heart. If you are not a Conservative with age, then you must not have a brain.

[–] Prismark10 14 years ago

If he was a liberal in the 60s because of drugs then his drug problem dogged him in the 70s and maybe also the 80s.

Even in the 80s he was a liberal or came across as one. He was in The Rainbow Warrior film in 1992 which was not far from being an environmentalist propoganda.

So what changed?

Maybe all the pay well cameos in films since the mid 90s onwards that he has had and also his likely about turn in politics after 9/11, which affected a few others in Hollywood.

Its that man again!!

[–] westal_sage 12 years ago

People grow up.

[–] Ironman54 10 years ago

Exactly. And it takes longer for some than others. Fact is, the NVA were ready to throw in the towel after the TET Offensive. But they too watched our 'news' broadcasts and saw the anti war movement start to produce real results. When the enemy is beating its own self, the smart one steps back and lets them self destruct - which is exactly what the NVA did.
They knew to be patient, wait for us to withdraw back to half a world away and then simply walk in the front door and take over. The American press (in particular 'Uncle Walter' Cronkite) had most Americans believed we got our asses handed to us during TET. They saw the 'visuals' on TV and were shocked/disgusted. Many older people, based on this press coverage and commentary, joined the youth of the day and called for the war to end, the troops returned home. This isn't my opinion, this is the story as told by the head NVA General. They were very close to surrendering after TET. Fonda didn't help matters with her stunts. Whats so terrible about it all is that reasonable people could agree that it was time for the war to end and the troops to come home but they should have been coming home victorious, not the way they were returned.