Jane Fonda in Five Acts

The documentary let us know her: her honesty, grit, and courage to accept her shadows. Fonda is, for me, a teacher and her course is life.

GRADE: B

THIS FILM IS RECOMMENDED.

IN BRIEF: A meditative documentary on the life of Jane Fonda: actress, activist, health guru, and entrepreneur.

JIM'S REVIEW: Talented documentarian Susan Lacy (Spielberg) has once again set her sights on a show biz icon. With her most recent film, she captures Jane Fonda's complex and mercurial life: Jane Fonda: In Five Acts. She structures her film into five stages in Ms. Fonda's life. With title cards titled Henry, her childhood and early times with her father; Vadim (Roger), Tom (Hayden), and Ted (Turner), life with her ex-husbands, and the final chapter named Jane, her later years, the film explores her life as actress, activist, health guru and entrepreneur.

There is much to learn about Ms. Fonda's career by hearing some surprising details about her backstory: her fractured relationship with her unloving father and troubled bonding with her mother, her early start on Broadway and film, her romances with the men in her life who molded her into various roles, her rise to activist causes, her interest in wellness, and her subsequent ventures into producing and mass-marketing herself. Interviews, archival photos and videos, and film clips fill out her story very well.

The film is well researched and the actress is open and honest with her facts and opinions. ("I grew up in the shadows of a national monument...my dad!") But at times, some scenes seem manipulative and staged for empathic effect. Later portions of the film are a direct mea culpa to her neglected daughter, Vanessa, and a plea for forgiveness for some (not all) of her statements and behavior during the Vietnam War when many Americans considered her to be a traitor and nicknaming her "Hanoi Jane". One also wishes more film clips of her earlier films were shown.

What we see on the screen is a larger-than-life profile of a woman fulfilling her life journey...waiting for Act 6 to begin. An insightful film worthy of your time.

When the Bible talks about the sins of the father being visited on the children to the third and fourth generation, that is probably not God being vindictive so much as it is a statement of fact, and it certainly applies here, at least to the second generation.

Jane Fonda is a little girl lost. She accomplished a lot in life for a little girl lost, and made one - even by her admission now - big mistake in her visit to Hanoi. My dad called her "Hanoi Jane" up until his death earlier this year, and he was 92 and didn't even fight in Vietnam. It is telling that the acts of her life are named after other people - Henry, Vadim, Tom, Ted - I didn't see the fifth act named. Even now, at eighty, Jane Fonda seems like a person in search of herself.

Let's start at the first act, the root of all of her problems - Henry - as in Henry Fonda, her father. She said he was distant, without emotion, that she felt she always had to act like they were the perfect family even though dad was absent emotionally and could only show emotion in terms of a role in a film and mom was continually depressed at least in part because dad was having affairs with much younger women.

So Jane Fonda grows up pretty much without a personality. Even her first acting teacher admitted to her that when he first met her he had never met such a conventional and boring young woman. But she had acting talent - so much talent that she won two Best Actress Oscars while dad was waiting to win his first Best Actor Oscar.

I just couldn't stop being impressed by the irony of her life. Growing up as she did, the personalities of those around her were impressed strongly upon her own, this being particularly true of her first two husbands and of Simone Signoret, a famous French actress that she befriended while married to Roger Vadim. Also, her children now complain about some of the same things that she complained about concerning her dad. Her son by Tom Hayden, Troy, said that they lived in communal housing, that their vacations were wherever his parents were doing protests or events, that he took a backseat to their activism. Jane herself said she would look into the eyes of her daughter by Roger Vadim when she was a toddler and she would see her looking at her as though asking "Why don't you check in? Where are you emotionally?". The curse of Hank Fonda.

This is an encyclopedic work by HBO on Fonda, with her doing the bulk of the talking. If you want to learn about a subject, after all, first ask the subject!

Just one more thing. The documentary opens on Richard Nixon, in one of his famous tapes, talking in 1971 about "What is wrong with Jane Fonda?" and how Henry Fonda seems like such a nice man. What is up with a guy, an American President, who documents every word he ever said on tape, tells everybody that there are tapes, and then dares the courts to take them? A subject for another time and another documentary.

The stage curtains open ...

Jane Fonda has lived a life seeking validation. As a daughter, as a mother, as a woman ... as a person. She grew up unhappy with herself, her body, her looks - she sat in the back of acting class hoping she wouldn't have to be up front and center. Losing her mother at a young age, and losing her father on an emotional level. But when Lee Strasberg told her she had talent, real talent, she received her first real validation. This was a major turning point for her and set her on a life path for more.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the photo of her sitting/smiling on the NVA anti-aircraft gun. So many have asked, how could she possibly not have noticed what she was sitting on (her stating that she had been "fooled" into being placed there)? The obvious answer is that she knew. She was bright, intelligent, outspoken, observant. She was an activist. There is no way she didn't know what was happening at that moment. Do I feel it was a betrayal? No. And I'll tell you why. Whether she realizes it or not to this day, she was seeking validation ... as a voice and a moral choice. She was trying to end the war showing the senselessness behind the bombings, the POW situation, and the frightening possibility of the dikes being destroyed which would lead to thousands of deaths. I am one who believes she wasn't against her own country. She was against the war. So when she sat down on that gun that day, her voice was being validated by those immediately around her, and she was desperately hoping for the same reaction from her own countrymen, to look at the overall picture and make a sound moral choice. It drastically backfired. I'm not defending her actions, I am just trying my best to understand them. She has apologized numerous times on numerous occasions. It's her biggest regret. Funny, considering that she stated in the documentary that her regrets were not from things that she had done, but rather from things she had not done. Except in this case.

The documentary showcases her three marriages, the reasons for their divorces all three times - all three VERY different relationships. Again, her seeking validation in very different ways.

Finally, she reached a point where validation was no longer important. Acceptance was. Not being accepted by others around her, but being ABLE to accept things as they are. Finding and being happy with herself, and then moving forward. Her son expressed in the film that he would not change her in any way. She is who she is, and now that she knows who she is, she is doing her best to helps others who have lost their way, such as the adoption of Lulu. She was able to reconcile things with her mother, visiting her grave site over 60 years after the fact.

I really wasn't interested in what she accomplished on the silver screen. Her awards speak for themselves, her acting abilities are clearly seen. She is very good in front of the camera. It is what was behind the camera that I watch these documentaries for, and as such, this one delivers. I enjoyed hearing her own thoughts reminiscent of days gone by, her life's journey and the life yet ahead for her. This was presented through her eyes and mouth, an auto-documentary if you will. I felt it was honest, fair and unbiased - and would recommend it without hesitation.

After watching this all I can think is, wow, Jane Fonda is extraordinary. I had no idea that Jane Fonda had experienced so many trials, tribulations, and controversy. From living in France, being a housewife, her involvement in the Black Panther movement, her controversy with the Vietnam War, and all of her political activism all while being under the microscope of Hollywood, yet she remains grounded, humble, poised, and confident. I think that in this day in age there is so much pressure from society that depicts how a person should look, how to live the 'perfect' life, and to live up to society's expectations. After watching this and seeing that Jane wasn't sure who she was and questioned whether she was normal when it came to her emotions, her body, her family, and her beliefs, it makes me feel that it's okay that everything in life isn't planned or figured out. Life doesn't have to be perfect & full of rainbows, and a person doesn't have to be 100% certain of who they are and it's okay to evolve, even if society doesn't agree. Jane really is an inspiration, I'm glad this documentary was done and I'm grateful that she gave me the opportunity to see a glimpse into her life. I'm in awe.