Man, I forgot how powerful that final scene was. The music is a bit dated, but Voight was so damn good. What the hell happened to that guy? Didn't anything rub off on him?
There was a quote from Haskell Wexler's son -- who recorded sound for Coming Home -- in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls about this sequence. I don't have the book on me (and I may be thinking of another source as well), but I remember him saying that Jon Voight improved incoherently for hours when they shot this and they all thought the sequence would have to be re-shot... but then, master editor that he was, Hal Ashby salvaged it in the editing room. I think it's safe to say that this scene represents the sentiments of Ashby far more than those of Voight, who was basically bullshitting his way through the scene (the best moments clearly resonate, though). In any case, Ashby would have been devastated by all the bullshit Voight's been saying lately.
Can we get, like, Alexis Bledel or Naomi Watts to disparage Wells on a cable news show? I'd much rather see pictures and videos of them every day than Voight.
Voight also played a student radical in a film called "the Revolutionary". It would be interesting to hear what turned him. Was it playing Britney Spears' creepy dad?
Posted by R. Hunt at August 14, 2008 8:50 PM
comment #5
The Hoyk says ...
Credit and respect should be paid to the writers of this screenplay, particularly my personal heroine Nancy Dowd, who got the gold statue for this film. As well as Voight. Which makes his 180 turn all the more maddening, because it's as if he wants us to regard that moving piece of drama as, "Oh, that was me being duped by hippies - I'm much smarter now."
lazespud wrote:
What the hell happened to that guy? Didn't anything rub off on him?
Voight's a supporting actor in PRIDE AND GLORY and looks like he's actually giving a good performance from glimpses in the trailer. Of course, his politics are another matter entirely.
Saw the trailer for PRIDE AND GLORY today at a showing of HELL RIDE and I'm definitely upset with WB's Alan Horn hinting to Patrick Goldstein that P&G will likely be offloaded to another studio because Horn apparently wants to not release anything that's not big and tentpoley:
Here's Horn's lips to Goldstein's ears: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2008/08/warners-films-m.html
Despite Wells featuring this story daily for six months now, I have to confess I never realized the irony of Fox News rallying in support of someone who ate out Jane Fonda in an anti-Vietnam movie.
Posted by Sean at August 15, 2008 5:01 AM
comment #9
Mgmax says ...
Clearly Voight originally gave a pro-war rant, and Ashby created the antiwar one in the editing room! Damned Hollywood libs!
Posted by Mgmax at August 15, 2008 7:33 AM
comment #10
Griff says ...
I suspect what happened to Jon Voight was simply experience. Our experiences can change us. I mean, to use some examples from our beloved Gruver's life, when he was younger, the siren song of booze n' other pharmaceuticals sounded damned good. He had some experiences, however, that brought him to a different understanding.
Same thing for Voight, I imagine.
And yeah, the kids who are smoking their blunts and slammin' their 40s are looking at Gruver wondering WTF is his problem.
Posted by Griff at August 15, 2008 7:34 AM
comment #11
Mgmax says ...
The reality is, many of us do not become conservative, many of us become liberals who learn to see real-world merit in the conservative counterarguments-- for instance, that a people who get everything handed to them by government will eventually be spoiled, just like a child. And that alone is enough to have us branded as rightwing child-hating Nazi racist bastards, which is another learning experience about our own side.
Posted by Mgmax at August 15, 2008 8:05 AM
comment #12
George Prager says ...
And what was Voight's experience? Semi-retirement while he cared for his mom. A comeback, which mostly consists of making schlocky movies. Estrangement from his kids. He's just another sad, bitter, sentimental old man trying to regain some control over his life. (He's like Terry O'Quinn in THE STEPFATHER ranting and raving in his basement). These guys call themselves "conservative" because they think it validates their paranoia, makes them think they are fair-minded and intelligent. He supported Giuliani in the primaries, for chrissakes.
Posted by George Prager at August 15, 2008 8:15 AM
comment #13
Mgmax says ...
Like I said, it teaches you something about the fairmindedness and willingness to consider alternative points of views of your fellows.
Posted by Mgmax at August 15, 2008 8:22 AM
comment #14
JHRussell says ...
"These guys call themselves "conservative" because they think it validates their paranoia, makes them think they are fair-minded and intelligent."
You almost got it right...change "conservative" to "liberal" and you nailed it...and maybe tweak "paranoia" and call it "white guilt."
Posted by JHRussell at August 15, 2008 8:23 AM
comment #15
George Prager says ...
If you compared what the average Joe who calls themselves a "conservative" believes and what the late WIlliam F. Buckley believed, you would have two very different sets of core beliefs. The Voight conservative wants the government to give him a TUMS, Buckley wanted people to go to the store and buy the TUMS.
Posted by George Prager at August 15, 2008 8:50 AM
comment #16
JD says ...
The Hoyk, no disrespect to Nancy Dowd (I'm a big Coming Home fan and I respect her contribution), but word on the street is that this monologue was entirely improvised. It's also been said that many other writers did uncredited work on the Coming Home script. Again, this is covered by Easy Riders, Raging Bulls in some detail.
Posted by JD at August 15, 2008 9:13 AM
comment #17
George Prager says ...
Bruce Dern is a lifelong teetotaler, health and fitness nut and a Republican. (And judging from the making of doc on my COMING HOME DVD, an extremely warm and soft-hearted guy). Do you think that he agrees with Voight's editorial? Is Jim Leach suffering from "white guilt", JHRussell? (What does that mean, anyway? That you support Obama because Chuck Connors raped Kizzy?)
Posted by George Prager at August 15, 2008 9:25 AM
comment #18
Mgmax says ...
It always becomes sexual with a liberal. Not every issue involves your pants.
Posted by Mgmax at August 15, 2008 9:31 AM
comment #19
George Prager says ...
Rape is a violent crime, not a sexual one. When I wrote that comment, sex was never on the table.
(Conservatives have such dirty minds...what is THAT about?)
Posted by George Prager at August 15, 2008 9:46 AM
comment #20
Three says ...
Wow, powerful scene. I wonder if any contemporary films could pull that off without sounding cliche.
It also makes me wonder whether any film about war nowadays could be made outside of the prism of the (ridiculous) monickers, "liberal" or "conservative." I remember watching "Children of Men" and being floored by the ambition and vision of that film - only to read IMDB boards and discover the angry vitriole of self-described "conservatives" claiming it was the "worst movie ever" because it was sympathetic to the plight of refugees.
Posted by Three at August 15, 2008 10:03 AM
comment #21
CMAC says ...
I don't know what Voight's politics were at the time of making Coming Home but it seems to me making an anti-war film or pro-war film (for that matter) does not necessarily reflect one's personal politic's and one's actual life.
I don't agree with his recent comments or press, supporting John McBush but playing a role in a film does not or SHOULD not be construed as who you are as an individual.
It's supposed to be (you thought I was serious?!)ACTING!!
Further, if this IS the case, then Tom Hanks is a homosexual WITH aids, Anthony Hopkins EATS humans, Robert Downey Jr woke up one morning black, Stallone is a mass murderer and Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are holigrams ...cause their DEAD.
PS From my cheap seats? Jon Voight just sounds sorely crabbed.
Posted by CMAC at August 15, 2008 12:05 PM
comment #22
MilkMan says ...
haskell wexler's son is a creep
Posted by MilkMan at August 15, 2008 12:33 PM
comment #23
MDOC says ...
You can try to minimalize Voight all you want , but the bottom line is that if the guy wasn't a big deal George Constanza wouldn't have wanted his car so bad. Explain that Obama, if you can.
Posted by MDOC at August 15, 2008 12:59 PM
comment #24
George Prager says ...
Also sad to see that the best thing he's done since COMING HOME is U-TURN.
Posted by George Prager at August 15, 2008 1:11 PM
comment #25
arturobandini says ...
COMING HOME was Hal Ashby's next-to-last masterpiece and his best cameo since he appeared as a carnival hippie in HAROLD & MAUDE. In the posted clip, he checks out Jane Fonda from the passenger seat of the identical Speedster at around 3:07.
And speaking of old songs and people named Buckley, props to Ashby for ending the movie with Tim Buckley's "Once I Was." Younger folks might not know him today, but Tim sired Jeff Buckley, died equally young and tragically, but at least left behind a sizable catalog of diverse albums. Part of me wishes Ashby had cut the sex scene to Buckley's "Get on Top (of Me, Woman)."
Posted by arturobandini at August 15, 2008 6:02 PM
comment #26
BurmaShave says ...
Has any director ever had a run as good as Ashby's in the 70s?
Posted by BurmaShave at August 16, 2008 2:25 AM
comment #27
George Prager says ...
I saw Hal Ashby speak twice at the State University of Albany in the 80's, maybe a year before he died. He was funny, self-deprecating, said he couldn't work with "The Majors" anymore. He was delighted by the attention and answered all questions and would've sat around all day and answered even more if time had allowed it. They screened a bunch of his movies. I saw BEING THERE and then there was another Q&A afterwards. He's in the film for a split second, leaning against a file cabinet. I asked him why he appeared in that scene. "Just for fun," he said.
His first movie THE LANDLORD, is one of my favorites. It's not on DVD. I owned the tape for awhile and saw it screened the Film Forum a few years ago. The audience loved it. No YouTube clips, but here's Bobcat Goldthwait introducing a screening of it(?!)
comment #1
lazespud says ...
Man, I forgot how powerful that final scene was. The music is a bit dated, but Voight was so damn good. What the hell happened to that guy? Didn't anything rub off on him?
Posted by lazespud at August 14, 2008 8:29 PM
comment #2
JD says ...
There was a quote from Haskell Wexler's son -- who recorded sound for Coming Home -- in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls about this sequence. I don't have the book on me (and I may be thinking of another source as well), but I remember him saying that Jon Voight improved incoherently for hours when they shot this and they all thought the sequence would have to be re-shot... but then, master editor that he was, Hal Ashby salvaged it in the editing room. I think it's safe to say that this scene represents the sentiments of Ashby far more than those of Voight, who was basically bullshitting his way through the scene (the best moments clearly resonate, though). In any case, Ashby would have been devastated by all the bullshit Voight's been saying lately.
Posted by JD at August 14, 2008 8:34 PM
comment #3
Josh Massey says ...
Can we get, like, Alexis Bledel or Naomi Watts to disparage Wells on a cable news show? I'd much rather see pictures and videos of them every day than Voight.
Posted by Josh Massey at August 14, 2008 8:43 PM
comment #4
R. Hunt says ...
Voight also played a student radical in a film called "the Revolutionary". It would be interesting to hear what turned him. Was it playing Britney Spears' creepy dad?
Posted by R. Hunt at August 14, 2008 8:50 PM
comment #5
The Hoyk says ...
Credit and respect should be paid to the writers of this screenplay, particularly my personal heroine Nancy Dowd, who got the gold statue for this film. As well as Voight. Which makes his 180 turn all the more maddening, because it's as if he wants us to regard that moving piece of drama as, "Oh, that was me being duped by hippies - I'm much smarter now."
Posted by The Hoyk at August 14, 2008 9:26 PM
comment #6
D.Z. says ...
What did Bush say about appeasement again...?
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080815/D92IJQBG0.html
Posted by D.Z. at August 15, 2008 1:45 AM
comment #7
Terry McCarty says ...
lazespud wrote:
What the hell happened to that guy? Didn't anything rub off on him?
Voight's a supporting actor in PRIDE AND GLORY and looks like he's actually giving a good performance from glimpses in the trailer. Of course, his politics are another matter entirely.
Saw the trailer for PRIDE AND GLORY today at a showing of HELL RIDE and I'm definitely upset with WB's Alan Horn hinting to Patrick Goldstein that P&G will likely be offloaded to another studio because Horn apparently wants to not release anything that's not big and tentpoley:
Here's Horn's lips to Goldstein's ears:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2008/08/warners-films-m.html
Posted by Terry McCarty at August 15, 2008 1:56 AM
comment #8
Sean says ...
Despite Wells featuring this story daily for six months now, I have to confess I never realized the irony of Fox News rallying in support of someone who ate out Jane Fonda in an anti-Vietnam movie.
Posted by Sean at August 15, 2008 5:01 AM
comment #9
Mgmax says ...
Clearly Voight originally gave a pro-war rant, and Ashby created the antiwar one in the editing room! Damned Hollywood libs!
Posted by Mgmax at August 15, 2008 7:33 AM
comment #10
Griff says ...
I suspect what happened to Jon Voight was simply experience. Our experiences can change us. I mean, to use some examples from our beloved Gruver's life, when he was younger, the siren song of booze n' other pharmaceuticals sounded damned good. He had some experiences, however, that brought him to a different understanding.
Same thing for Voight, I imagine.
And yeah, the kids who are smoking their blunts and slammin' their 40s are looking at Gruver wondering WTF is his problem.
Posted by Griff at August 15, 2008 7:34 AM
comment #11
Mgmax says ...
The reality is, many of us do not become conservative, many of us become liberals who learn to see real-world merit in the conservative counterarguments-- for instance, that a people who get everything handed to them by government will eventually be spoiled, just like a child. And that alone is enough to have us branded as rightwing child-hating Nazi racist bastards, which is another learning experience about our own side.
Posted by Mgmax at August 15, 2008 8:05 AM
comment #12
George Prager says ...
And what was Voight's experience? Semi-retirement while he cared for his mom. A comeback, which mostly consists of making schlocky movies. Estrangement from his kids. He's just another sad, bitter, sentimental old man trying to regain some control over his life. (He's like Terry O'Quinn in THE STEPFATHER ranting and raving in his basement). These guys call themselves "conservative" because they think it validates their paranoia, makes them think they are fair-minded and intelligent. He supported Giuliani in the primaries, for chrissakes.
Posted by George Prager at August 15, 2008 8:15 AM
comment #13
Mgmax says ...
Like I said, it teaches you something about the fairmindedness and willingness to consider alternative points of views of your fellows.
Posted by Mgmax at August 15, 2008 8:22 AM
comment #14
JHRussell says ...
"These guys call themselves "conservative" because they think it validates their paranoia, makes them think they are fair-minded and intelligent."
You almost got it right...change "conservative" to "liberal" and you nailed it...and maybe tweak "paranoia" and call it "white guilt."
Posted by JHRussell at August 15, 2008 8:23 AM
comment #15
George Prager says ...
If you compared what the average Joe who calls themselves a "conservative" believes and what the late WIlliam F. Buckley believed, you would have two very different sets of core beliefs. The Voight conservative wants the government to give him a TUMS, Buckley wanted people to go to the store and buy the TUMS.
Posted by George Prager at August 15, 2008 8:50 AM
comment #16
JD says ...
The Hoyk, no disrespect to Nancy Dowd (I'm a big Coming Home fan and I respect her contribution), but word on the street is that this monologue was entirely improvised. It's also been said that many other writers did uncredited work on the Coming Home script. Again, this is covered by Easy Riders, Raging Bulls in some detail.
Posted by JD at August 15, 2008 9:13 AM
comment #17
George Prager says ...
Bruce Dern is a lifelong teetotaler, health and fitness nut and a Republican. (And judging from the making of doc on my COMING HOME DVD, an extremely warm and soft-hearted guy). Do you think that he agrees with Voight's editorial? Is Jim Leach suffering from "white guilt", JHRussell? (What does that mean, anyway? That you support Obama because Chuck Connors raped Kizzy?)
Posted by George Prager at August 15, 2008 9:25 AM
comment #18
Mgmax says ...
It always becomes sexual with a liberal. Not every issue involves your pants.
Posted by Mgmax at August 15, 2008 9:31 AM
comment #19
George Prager says ...
Rape is a violent crime, not a sexual one. When I wrote that comment, sex was never on the table.
(Conservatives have such dirty minds...what is THAT about?)
Posted by George Prager at August 15, 2008 9:46 AM
comment #20
Three says ...
Wow, powerful scene. I wonder if any contemporary films could pull that off without sounding cliche.
It also makes me wonder whether any film about war nowadays could be made outside of the prism of the (ridiculous) monickers, "liberal" or "conservative." I remember watching "Children of Men" and being floored by the ambition and vision of that film - only to read IMDB boards and discover the angry vitriole of self-described "conservatives" claiming it was the "worst movie ever" because it was sympathetic to the plight of refugees.
Posted by Three at August 15, 2008 10:03 AM
comment #21
CMAC says ...
I don't know what Voight's politics were at the time of making Coming Home but it seems to me making an anti-war film or pro-war film (for that matter) does not necessarily reflect one's personal politic's and one's actual life.
I don't agree with his recent comments or press, supporting John McBush but playing a role in a film does not or SHOULD not be construed as who you are as an individual.
It's supposed to be (you thought I was serious?!)ACTING!!
Further, if this IS the case, then Tom Hanks is a homosexual WITH aids, Anthony Hopkins EATS humans, Robert Downey Jr woke up one morning black, Stallone is a mass murderer and Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are holigrams ...cause their DEAD.
PS From my cheap seats? Jon Voight just sounds sorely crabbed.
Posted by CMAC at August 15, 2008 12:05 PM
comment #22
MilkMan says ...
haskell wexler's son is a creep
Posted by MilkMan at August 15, 2008 12:33 PM
comment #23
MDOC says ...
You can try to minimalize Voight all you want , but the bottom line is that if the guy wasn't a big deal George Constanza wouldn't have wanted his car so bad. Explain that Obama, if you can.
Posted by MDOC at August 15, 2008 12:59 PM
comment #24
George Prager says ...
Also sad to see that the best thing he's done since COMING HOME is U-TURN.
Posted by George Prager at August 15, 2008 1:11 PM
comment #25
arturobandini says ...
COMING HOME was Hal Ashby's next-to-last masterpiece and his best cameo since he appeared as a carnival hippie in HAROLD & MAUDE. In the posted clip, he checks out Jane Fonda from the passenger seat of the identical Speedster at around 3:07.
And speaking of old songs and people named Buckley, props to Ashby for ending the movie with Tim Buckley's "Once I Was." Younger folks might not know him today, but Tim sired Jeff Buckley, died equally young and tragically, but at least left behind a sizable catalog of diverse albums. Part of me wishes Ashby had cut the sex scene to Buckley's "Get on Top (of Me, Woman)."
Posted by arturobandini at August 15, 2008 6:02 PM
comment #26
BurmaShave says ...
Has any director ever had a run as good as Ashby's in the 70s?
Posted by BurmaShave at August 16, 2008 2:25 AM
comment #27
George Prager says ...
I saw Hal Ashby speak twice at the State University of Albany in the 80's, maybe a year before he died. He was funny, self-deprecating, said he couldn't work with "The Majors" anymore. He was delighted by the attention and answered all questions and would've sat around all day and answered even more if time had allowed it. They screened a bunch of his movies. I saw BEING THERE and then there was another Q&A afterwards. He's in the film for a split second, leaning against a file cabinet. I asked him why he appeared in that scene. "Just for fun," he said.
His first movie THE LANDLORD, is one of my favorites. It's not on DVD. I owned the tape for awhile and saw it screened the Film Forum a few years ago. The audience loved it. No YouTube clips, but here's Bobcat Goldthwait introducing a screening of it(?!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJf8sNoTR_E
Posted by George Prager at August 16, 2008 8:52 AM