The War at Home (1996 film)
- This is about the movie. For the other uses, see The War at Home.
The War at Home | |
---|---|
Directed by | Emilio Estevez |
Written by | James Duff |
Starring | Emilio Estevez Kathy Bates Martin Sheen Kimberly Williams |
Music by | Basil Poledouris |
Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
Release date | 20 November 1996 |
Running time | 119 min. |
Country | U.S.A. |
Language | English |
Budget | $3 million |
The War at Home is a 1996 motion picture starring Emilio Estevez, Kathy Bates, and Martin Sheen. Estevez also directed the film and also served as co-producer.
Estevez plays Jeremy Collier, a returning Vietnam War hero whose haunting experiences leave him unable to adjust to the quiet realities of small town life. The film lays bare the hidden costs of war on the soldiers who fight, and kill, not for rightness, but simply to survive.
Sheen plays Bob Collier, Jeremy's father. He expects his son to go back to the way his life was, despite the possibility of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Kathy Bates plays Estevez's mother, Maurine, who treats Jeremy 'like he's a 10-year-old', and also seems to think he should forget about his war experiences.
His sister Karen, played by actress Kimberly Williams, is a little more understanding of his "adjustment problems", but her father doesn't want her to try helping her brother.
This is most notably portrayed in the movie when the familys thanks giving celebration occurs and jeremy refuses to put his nice clothes on and instead decides to wear his combat uniform and medals, this all climaxes at the conclusion of the thanks giving celebration when jeremy pulls his semi-automatic handgun on his father and his family and explains how he hates his father because he wouldn't lend him money to leave the country to escape the draft.
He also explains how he was only able to execute a Vietcong prisoner only because he saw his fathers face intead of the enemy soldiers face.
The film was made for $3 million, and was distributed by Touchstone Pictures. But Disney didn't advertise the film very much, and it grossed only $43,000. [citation needed] The film was released on DVD in September 2002.
The film is faithful to the time period, using music from legends such as Buffalo Springfield, but mostly Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.
Jeremy's door has a "God's eye" on it. Bob drives a Chevrolet from the period.