THE WAR AT HOME
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1996 Ben Hoffman
There have been a number of fine films about returning vets of the Vietnam war. One that comes immediately to mind is COMING HOME, that starred Jon Voight, Jane Fonda and Bruce Dern. In that one, the Voight role was that of a paralyzed vet. THE WAR AT HOME stars Emilio Estevez as a vet who cannot sleep because he unable for a moment to forget what he has been through. The object of his intense anger is his family.
Maurine (Kathy Bates) is his mother who, although well-meaning, is enough to drive her son, Jeremy, further up a wall. I was getting pretty nervous myself as Maurine kept bugging her son as she did not have the sense to lay off. When Jeremy attacks her verbally, she is unable to understand his fury.
Jeremy's father, is Bob Collier (Martin Sheen, Estevez's real-life father who actually introduced him to the film 's story.) Bob does his best to keep his family together unaware that he is partly to blame for Jeremy's hatred of him. It is not until the film is almost over that we discover the real reason.
Trying to help but always rebuffed, is Jeremy's sister, Karen (Kimberly Williams). In vain she pleads with him to forget the war and get on his with his family and life. But how could she know that he relives the war every moment?
As Jeremy, Estevez turns in a great performance. Indeed, Bates and Sheen are equally fantastic. It is great to see actors who know their craft and given a good role they give it all they have got. Further, as with films about the Holocaust when some wonder why there are so many films made about it, the devastating effects of the war in Vietnam has to be told over and over again so we do not again make such a horrible mistake.
In this, his first film as a director, Emilio Estevez can be proud.
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Ben Hoffman
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