The War at Home (1996)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Emilio Estevez

Writers (WGA):

James Duff (play)
James Duff (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 November 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

There Is A Secret About To Explode.

Plot:

Jeremy Collier is a Vietnam veteran who has returned home and is struggling to cope with the war experiences that haunt him...

Plot Keywords:

Thanksgiving | Vietnam | Veteran | Thanksgiving Day | 1970s

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Emilio Estevez	...	Jeremy Collier
Kathy Bates	...	Maurine Collier
Martin Sheen	...	Bob Collier
Kimberly Williams-Paisley	...	Karen Collier (as Kimberly Williams)
Corin Nemec	...	Donald
Ann Hearn	...	Prof. Tracey
Carla Gugino	...	Melissa
Marcus H. Nelson	...	Pvt. Poe
Michael Wiseman	...	Lieutenant
Jena Kraus	...	Coffee House Singer
Chad Morgan	...	Bus Station Clerk
Penelope Allen	...	Marjoree (as Penny Allen)
Geoffrey Blake	...	David
Renée Estevez	...	Brenda
Tuan Tran	...	Viet Cong

MPAA:

Rated R for a war-related shooting, an intense sequence of violent threat, and for language.

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | USA:R | Singapore:PG | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA)

Trivia:

'Renee Estevez' is the younger sister of Emilio Estevez. She plays his cousin's wife in the film.

Quotes:

Maurine Collier: I wish they could would make Thanksgiving on a Sunday. Then everyone could go to a service before they eat with their families. It'd be more religious, like it was with the Pilgrims.
Jeremy Collier: What about the Indians?
Maurine Collier: Oh, Jeremy, there were no Indians at the first Thanksgiving.
Jeremy Collier: That's why they have it. The Indians saved the Pilgrims from starvin' to death, so the Pilgrims invited the Indians to share their first harvest feast.
Maurine Collier: Well, I'm sure the Indians were all Christians by then.
Jeremy Collier: Oh no, they weren't.

Movie Connections:

References "Have Gun - Will Travel" (1957)

Soundtrack:

The Ballad of Palladin

Rebel with a cause

The connection with James Dean?In a short plan ,we see Emilio Estevez toying with a teddy bear(remember the first scene of Ray's "rebel without a cause").Moreover,the main conflict is Estevez versus Sheen,father against son,as in "East of Eden".The soldier has come home,and nobody has been able to communicate with him, even his sister (a psychology student,what a derision).The mother,a crude matron (a superb Kathy Bates),gets bogged down in nougatine ,she 's not able to understand that her values (religion,family) have become a thing of the past,specially for someone like his son whose innocence was betrayed. The father ,an irresolute man ,under his wife's thumb,although he tries hard to play the macho,wanted to make up for the mediocrity of his life .So he saved his "honor" by forcing his son to do his duty.The scene in which Estevez's hatred for his father explodes is very intense.The actor-director gives a restrained performance,interiorized,as Lee Strasberg's students used to do,and his final burst of anger is increased tenfold so.