Lembranças Vivas

The one thing that struck me most about this simple movie was how the characters could not relate to the feelings that the principal character Jeremy felt. An isolation, a feeling of despair, a sudden irrational fear of circumstances, a guilt feeling of "Why me?" This movie was not a financial success and could not be. It gives an all too true expression of the mixed psychological emotions felt by those who know the Nam experience.

My one thought for you is to watch this movie and try to understand these feelings that too many of us experience in life and our dreams continually. Perhaps this can help heal us all.

The cast is beautiful and I was quite shocked to learn that Martin Sheen's son had directed it. The biggest shock to watching this movie is to learn that it is not entertaining. That is not a condemnation but rather a description.

The only unreal part were the scenes of war.

Emilio Estevez actually directed a good movie--who woulda thought? I sat through two previous films Estevez directed--"Wisdom" (with then girlfriend Demi Moore) and "Men at Work" (with brother Charlie Sheen). They are lousy films---badly acted, directed, stupid and offensive. Estevez is a good actor but lousy as a director. I turned this on in pure curiousity--it has a great cast and I had nothing else to do. Damned if it didn't pull me in.

It concerns Estevez coming home from Vietnam permanently scarred by what happened over there. His parents (Kathy Bates, Martin Sheen) and sister (Kimberly Williams) try to reach him but can't. Something in Vietnam has affected him deeply...and he's about to explode...

A bit overlong but still very good. A lot of the material is familar but the cast is so good that they make it seem new. Estevez is good, Sheen is terrific (and Estevezs' real life father), Williams is touching and Bates is just extraordinary--trying to hold the family together. It all leads up to a powerful ending which REALLY surprised me.

Well worth catching.

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.

Not being a movie aficionado, I am not familiar with the names of leading Directors, Scriptwriters, Producers and the like, but I can tell an outstanding movie when I see one.

The makers of this fine movie could well be now at the top of their fields, or may well get there pretty soon. I know that the actors are already there.

It takes talent closer to genius to show with such realism how a national tragedy like Vietnam has impacted the everyday life of a typically average American family, and make us see at close range why there are so many homeless Vietnam veterans.

Without getting into gratuitous scenes of gore and bloodshed, it makes us understand why so many youg men had flashbacks of what they had been thru.

The dialog is particularly gripping, and gives us an idea of what went on in so many families in the aftermath of Vietnam.

I wish there were more good movies like this one, not just about Vietnam, but about other social conditions as well.

I have seen only a few films which I thought were powerful. The War at Home is at the top of the list. Emilio Estevez (The Breakfast Club, Young Guns) stars as a Vietnam vet who just recently returned home. He is haunted by his memories. Added to this is a family that can't understand why he doesn't just forget about it and continue living. Besides this they each have their own problems which they sort of take out on him to add to his grief. His mom played by Kathy Bates (Misery, Dolores Claiborne) is always trying to be extra cheerful, but she doesn't understand why he doesn't want to talk to her or play the piano. His dad played by Estevez's real life dad Martin Sheen (The American President, Wall Street) is very dominant demanding that everyone stay by his rules in his house. Finally his younger sister played by Kimberly Williams (Father of the Bride 1 & 2) doesn't see what the big deal about Vietnam was and doesn't like spending time with the family. All of this pushes Estevez farther and farther towards losing it. Kimberly Williams is good as the sister. Kathy Bates and Martin Sheen are both excellent as the parents. Finally Emilio Estevez gives an extremely powerful performance that should have received a lot more attention and praise. This film was great. It was one of the best movies I've seen in a while, which makes me wonder why it didn't get much of a release. I highly recommend it.