Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 226-227: Growing Quite Fonda Jane

Continuing our retrospective on stars who have more than one film nominated for Oscar in the 1970s, we come to one Jane Fonda. Jane, daughter of Henry Fonda, had come to prominence in the 1960s and at the 1972 Oscar Ceremony won her first Best Actress Oscar for playing a high-class call girl in the movie Klute. By the late 1970s, a period in which both these nominated films were released, Fonda was only making films relating to serious issues and here we saw her try to evade the Nazis and care for soldiers who'd be wounded in Vietnam. It was interesting for me to go back and watch these films as I'm only aware of Fonda through her exercise videos and her comeback in ropey movies such as Monster-in-Law and Georgia Rule. What I found was an actress who gave extremely big performances that weren't necessarily suitable for the roles she was playing.

First up we have Fonda portraying playwright Lillian Hellman, in a film based on a chapter in the author's book Pentimento, in which we see her tortured relationship with childhood friend and titular character Julia. The film sees Lillian and Julia take different paths in life with the latter journeying to Vienna to complete a medical degree while the former attempting to write a play at the same time as living with famed author Dashiell Hammett. After serving some time in Europe, Julia become involved in the battle against the Nazis and is injured in a blast at an apartment building. Lillian, having arrived in Paris, attempts to make contact with her friend but finds the task difficult. Eventually, Lillian hears from Julia, who wants to meet her in Berlin and asks for her help carrying an item across the border. The two eventually meet in a cafe, however their meeting is tense due to Lillian's nervousness surrounding the mission she's been given. Lillian later discovers Julia has had a daughter and sets out to find the child in order to give it a better home.

Interestingly the story of Julia is one that has been criticised as pure fiction and many have claimed that Hellman never had a childhood friend nor did she have to endure the tricky ride from Paris to Berlin that she did here. I found the majority of the film to be fairly melodramatic and lacking in any really compelling form of storytelling. I thought that Fonda's performance as Lillian was completely over-the-top and I didn't really find her that believable, or indeed likeable. I found that the scene on the train took far too long and I was really bored by the time that Lillian had to execute the mission she has been given. When she was on screen, I felt that Vanessa Redgrave's Julia was the complete antithesis of Fonda's character in that she was calm and reasonable. In fact I would've liked to have seen a lot more from Julia, though in fact Redgrave only appears in a handful of scenes which is a shame. I'm surprised then to learn that Redgrave won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in Julia, as she didn't make much of an impression on me at all. Similarly Jason Robards, as Hammett, won the Best Supporting Actor award with his role being confined to a couple of scenes in which he attempted to calm down the hysterical Lillian. What I did enjoy was the style of the whole piece, it was well-shot and Georges Delerue's score was fairly memorable. The problem was that the lead character was neither that compelling nor particularly likeable and part of me would attribute that to the fact that director Fred Zinneman felt utter hatred towards Hellman by the end of their working relationship together. One fun Oscar-related fact is that Julia saw the film debut of a woman by the name of Meryl Streep, who we'll be talking a lot more about from here on in.

One year later, Fonda starred in Coming Home a film in which she played Sally Hyde, loyal wife to Marine Captain Bob. As Bob journeys to Vietnam, Sally changes aspects about her life - she buys a new car, stops straightening her hair and gets a new apartment near the beach. Sally also starts working as a volunteer at the VA Hospital where she meets an old school acquaintance in Luke Martin, who lost the use of his legs in Vietnam. Luke has since become a depressive who lashes out at everyone around him, but Sally's presence in his life sees him being lifted from his depression. As their relationship grows, Sally and Luke find themselves attracted to one another but Sally is forced to meet up with Bob in Hong Kong. However, on her return, she finds out that Luke has been released from hospital and now has his own apartment. But the death of one of the hospital's patients has a profound effect on Luke who decides to start protesting the war. Sally tries to stand by him, but Bob's return from the war sees her torn between the men in her life.

I have to say I really enjoyed Coming Home however, once again, I felt that Jane Fonda overplayed her role as Sally, for which she won the Best Actress Oscar at that year's ceremony. In fact, her performance was really the only negative in a film that had a lot to say about the Vietnam War and why people were protesting it. While Hal Ashby's political views were somewhat overtly portrayed, I never found the film to be particularly preachy and the fact that the film's hero was incredibly flawed was a good move. Best Actor winner Jon Voight was absolutely excellent in his role as the depressive Luke with the actor successfully portraying Luke's transition from angry cripple to inspiring public speaker. The supporting performances were equally as good with Bruce Dern giving a great turn as Bob, the archetypal military man and the complete opposite of Luke. I also enjoyed Penelope Milford as Sally's friend Vi, who was portrayed as a freeing influence on Sally but at the same time had moments of drama due to her brother's death. One of the reviews I read of Coming Home said that the soundtrack was overly explicit, but I personally felt every track added to the mood of the film. From 'Hey Jude' and 'Ruby Tuesday'  to 'Born to Be Wild' and the excellent 'Just Like a Woman' this was a bumper collection of 1960s rock classics and I enjoyed every one of them. On the whole Hal Ashby's film had a lot of great moments, performances and songs but again was let down by an OTT performance from Fonda.

After watching these two films, I have to say I'm not overly taken by Fonda's style, but at the same time I feel it's quite harsh to judge an actress by two films alone. Fonda will pop up again in the 1980s and I'm willing to give her acting another chance but these two films led be to believe that her acting style was often melodramatic and didn't really lend itself to the tone of the film in which she appeared.

Up next we journey abroad to watch an alternative style of film to the mainstream American movies we've been watching up to this point.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 180: Judgment Call

One of the interesting things about doing this Oscar challenge is seeing how the stars of the 1930s have changed when we get to the 1960s. Spencer Tracy for example, whose final film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner has already been talked about here, had his initial success in the 1930s however had a career resurface in his final decade. An example of this is Judgment at Nuremberg where Tracey plays a small town judge Dan Heywood who has been recruited to sit as the chief justice at one of the many military tribunals of German judges accused of committing crimes against humanity by sending people of different religious beliefs to Concentration Camps. One judge in particular is the quiet and reserved Ernst Janning, played by an almost unrecognisable Burt Lancaster, who feels that he shouldn't be tried alongside the crueller judges who seemingly knew what the Nazis were doing. The sides are argued by the forthright American Colonel Tad Lawson, played by Richard Widmark, and the passionate defence council Hans Rolfe played by Maximilian Schell who went onto win the Best Actor Oscar for his role. While in Nuremberg Dan meets Marlene Dietrich's Frau Bertholt a wife of one of the judges who was previously put on trial and one that he almost romances however he realises that she is trying to manipulate his feelings to give a different verdict at the trial. Most of the film is set during the trial but is still incredibly gripping as Stanley Kramer attempts to make us question if doing something when you don't know the full consequence is as bad as what the Nazis were doing at the concentration camps and I have to say it was a fascinating watch.

Despite its three hour run time Judgment at Nuremberg flew by thanks mainly to Tracy's great performance as the conflicted Dan who comes off as an ordinary guy who has to make an extraordinary decision. Dan's almost-romance with Frau Bertholt perfectly exemplifies his tough decision as she is one of the many characters who try to influence him in some way. The film is basically about accountability and how much each of these judges actually knew about the sentence they were giving to those who received them. Schell's Oscar winning performance was incredibly heartfelt as he is able to convey someone who is sticking up for the bad guys but can still justify it because he is 'doing his job' and his final words to Dan perfectly encapsulate his feelings on the matter. It's not just Schell though as I thought Tracy's performance here was just captivating and better in fact than his two Oscar wining turns back in the 1930s. He's one of those screen presences who can mesmerise you without saying anything at all and for that reason I feel in a way he should've won Best Actor over Schell. I also enjoyed Burt Lancaster, who is silent for the majority of his time on screen, as his final testimony is one of the highlights of the picture and once again adds to the moral ambiguity of the plot. While Judgment at Nuremberg may not be particularly cinematic it as at the same time an enthralling tale that I was never bored at and for that reason alone it deserved its place as one of the five Best Picture Nominees.