An old friend in England sent me this video last week. It's one of those musical surprise interludes, this one happened in a school lunch hall in the south of England-
The movie? A 1996 film I'd never heard of but, attracted by its cast, had picked up the DVD in a thrift store: The War at Home: Martin Sheen, Kathy Bates, Emilio Estevez. It's a story set somewhere in Texas, or maybe Oklahoma in the early 1970s, around Thanksgiving time. The Collier family had recently welcomed their son home from two years' service in Vietnam. Martin Sheen and Kathy Bates are superbly and uncomfortbly just so believable as a trying to be helpful and fair father pushed to his limit, and a niggling nagging won't shut-up God-fearing mom. Emilio Estevez is the former soldier son, physically fine but mentally damaged by his experiences in Vietnam. There's a sister, too, played by Kimberly Williams. The story wouldn't have been uncommon in real life, in 1970s USA, I feel sure. We found the film uncomfortable to watch at times, but so well acted it'd have been churlish to ditch it. Some of the background music was a bright point - Songs from that era, such as these from Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young:
The movie? A 1996 film I'd never heard of but, attracted by its cast, had picked up the DVD in a thrift store: The War at Home: Martin Sheen, Kathy Bates, Emilio Estevez. It's a story set somewhere in Texas, or maybe Oklahoma in the early 1970s, around Thanksgiving time. The Collier family had recently welcomed their son home from two years' service in Vietnam. Martin Sheen and Kathy Bates are superbly and uncomfortbly just so believable as a trying to be helpful and fair father pushed to his limit, and a niggling nagging won't shut-up God-fearing mom. Emilio Estevez is the former soldier son, physically fine but mentally damaged by his experiences in Vietnam. There's a sister, too, played by Kimberly Williams. The story wouldn't have been uncommon in real life, in 1970s USA, I feel sure. We found the film uncomfortable to watch at times, but so well acted it'd have been churlish to ditch it. Some of the background music was a bright point - Songs from that era, such as these from Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young:
