L'affrontement

Awkwardly directed throughout, with crappy TV music, this movie's clumsy editing brings down a wonderfully nuanced performance from Robert Mitchum. In fact, some of the acting by all the actors is solid but undermined by a lifeless atmosphere, almost stagey at times.

"Going Home" explores a potentially interesting premise: a child who witnessed his mother's murder at the hands of his father grows up and confronts his parolee father. Where this movie fails is in its execution, which becomes progressively more confused and convoluted often leaving the viewer unsure as to where a scene is actually taking place. Frustratingly, most of the lead characters, especially Jimmy, come across as erratic. Their behavior at times seems entirely unrealistic and whatever motivations they might have are never really explored.

About the only thing that saves this movie from a lower rating is Mitchum's characteristically strong performance considering the confused story and direction he has to contend with.

After Ryan's Daughter Robert Mitchum retired from the screen and found he was bored with retirement and with writers sending him scripts as they always do, he picked Going Home as a comeback vehicle. I don't think Mitchum was gone even a year so it wasn't like he was missed.

What could have been a classic settles into the ordinary as Mitchum plays a father just released on parole from prison. What he did back in the day was kill his wife in a drunken rage. It was a manslaughter count that he would have plead guilty to. But also his young son witnessed his father do the deed.

The kid grows up to be Jan-Michael Vincent who started his career playing sensitive youths. Vincent of course is barely concealing his anger and he takes it out on Mitchum in a not too subtle way.

With that murderous act creating a gulf between them there was no hope of reconciliation and both would have been better off to have left sleeping dogs lie.

The third person in the mix here is Brenda Vaccaro who was coming off a great performance in Midnight Cowboy. She plays Mitchum's girlfriend and her in the picture isn't guaranteeing anything but sexual tension all around.

Going Home is an interesting film, but just doesn't quite get its message across. All these people had some great work ahead, Mitchum and Vincent would be together in The Winds Of War which is far superior to Going Home and they would be father and son again.

Going Home is a pretty upsetting movie, so I caution only those who can handle it to rent it. I thought it was going to be one of those "ex-con makes good" stories, but it wasn't at all. Robert Mitchum does start the movie getting out of prison, and he does try for a fresh start in life, but there's a lot more to the story. His teenage son, Jan-Michael Vincent, has a whole mass of problems because of what Bob did. We never learn why, or even if he did it, but he went to prison for murdering his wife. As a little boy, Jan-Michael witnessed the tail end of the crime. Understandably, he doesn't want anything to do with his father upon his release.

Except, he does. He tracks his dad down to the trailer park where he's living and tries to get to know him as an adult. Full of angst and feelings he doesn't even understand, Jan-Michael is an absolute mess. Bob tries to be friendly, but he knows they can't have a normal relationship. Bob's girlfriend, Brenda Vaccaro, also tries to be friendly. She's closer to the son's age than the father's, and since she doesn't know or understand the whole story, she thinks a few family dinners will mend everything. Unfortunately, she learns the terrible lesson that no good deed goes unpunished. I really like her performance in this movie. I believed her at every moment, from blending into her trailer park surroundings, to trying to make a go of a relationship with a broken man because she knows they're on the same level, and finally, fear and disbelief when Jan-Michael shows his true colors.

This story is so interesting because obviously Bob is the villain in the story, but he doesn't really act like it. Jan-Michael is far meaner, inconsistent, and out for revenge. Bob is merely trying to get by the best he can after fifteen years in prison and forfeiting any relationship with his only child. In fact, I found Jan-Michael so horrible, every time I've seen him in another movie I shrink back behind my pillow and say, "Oh no, the rapist!" Bob does have a chill that washes over his entire performance, which is very effective. He has lived through so much, there just isn't room for regular, raw feelings anymore.

Part of the reason why this movie is so hard to watch is because of the flashbacks. Not only do we have to watch the murder over and over, but we see some very touching flashbacks of their relationship before Bob went to prison. It's sad to see him in a different stage in his life, contrasted with the way he is at the present timeline. If you can handle this extremely dark, adult movie, you'll see some very good acting and a realistic storyline.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to violence and an upsetting scene involving a child, I wouldn't let my kids watch it. Also, there may or may not be a rape scene.

Going Home (1971)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This rather bizarre drama features Robert Mitchum playing a man who gets released from prison after thirteen years for killing his wife in cold blood. His now adult son (Jan-Michael Vincent) comes to stay with him in hopes of reconnecting as well as finding out what happened that night. GOING HOME seems to be trying to be one of those dark dramas that were starting to take over the decade. Think FIVE EASY PIECES but in this case the movie was serving as a comeback for star Mitchum who ended his brief retirement for this picture. This is an extremely bizarre film and from what I've read it was one of several pictures that MGM cut and re-arranged so that they could avoid an R-rating. I'm not sure what the complete history is and there are some really strange plot points but the film is still worth seeing for the performance of Mitchum. It's really a shame that the film didn't match the excellent performance because we're given an interesting story but very little is done with it. The thought of a kid witnessing his dad kill his mom and then trying to reconnect with him was something that should have worked but the film never makes too much sense in what it's trying to do. You'd think that we'd have sympathy for the kid but we don't because he's a complete weirdo and a creepy. You'd think we could understand this because of what happened to him as a child but the movie doesn't even try to play that angle and instead he's just shown as a very bad person and especially after a plot twist that happens towards the end. Again, I've read that in the original version this made more sense but by cutting the picture it really does seem that the studio hurt not only the film but whatever they were going for with the character. Again, Mitchum is excellent in his role and you could say it's one of his more memorable performances from the later part of his career. He was quite believable in the role of the father and made you care for the guy and want to see him get his life in order. Brenda Vaccaro is excellent as his girlfriend and she certainly helped carry the film. Vincent is good in his part but I just wonder what else the film had to offer his part. GOING HOME is still worth seeing for the Mitchum performance but there are just so many unanswered questions remaining.