Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol

I saw it when it was first on in 1972, and it made a huge impression on me - if I'd never seen it again, the name "Charles, Vermont" would still have stayed with me, and the ending (which I'm not about to give away here). As one person here said, it was one of a wave of weird TV movies from those years, which I made a point of seeing. Any weird TV production from the early ' 70s seems to make me think of "Night Gallery" because of my attachment to that show, but almost none as much as this one. You'd think that it was made by Rod Serling and Jack Laird (or at least one of them), especially that ending. It was like the endings of some apparent fantasy stories (including a few of the Twilight Zones) that explain away the fantasy, but DON'T make you feel CHEATED by their doing that. Martin Landau deserved an Emmy award for his part in it, especially in those last few scenes, with "Virginia" and "Dr. Birdall." And one of the best actors in it was Brock Peters, who (as far as I know) is remembered in a lopsided way, as the defendant in To Kill A Mockingbird. He was very believable as Birdall the psychiatrist, who tries to convince Johnny that he's deluded (withuut being sure of that HIMSELF, since it's partly a "conspiracy story"). And everyone else in it was fine - Jane Alexander, Martin Sheen, Forrest Tucker (another underrated actor, as far as I know).

"Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol" is a powerful film, but it never received the acclaim it deserved. The script and the acting are both excellent. Johnny Bristol, an American serviceman finally released from North Vietnamese POW camp, comes home to a VA hospital with the goal of finding his original home.

The story line is built around John's attempts to find his boyhood home and family. Like an amnesia victim, he has been so "brainwashed" through torture that he has few memories of his life before his imprisonment. Martin Landau did an extraordinary job in this film, as we see him slowly recover from a total nervous "cripple" to his true human self. He is aided in his quest by his nurse, Anne (Jane Alexander) who falls in love with him while going above and beyond even her high call to duty as a VA nurse.

At first the only thing John can remember is that he was born and raised in the small town of Charles, Vermont. Early in the film John is still traumatized from his imprisonment and torture. In one memorable scene, he wakes up screaming in total panic. As Anne comes to his rescue, we see that the curtains closed completely around his hospital bed made him think he was back in his cell. It takes all her skill to calm him back down.

As John and Anne's love deepens, they undertake to locate his forgotten youth. A series of talks with other veterans and even a trip to Vermont reveal nothing. John and Anne are quite surprised when they drive to Vermont and find out that there is no town called Charles. In one touching scene, John finds the elderly retired recruiting sergeant who signed him into the Army. Played by Pat O'Brien, John fears he could become just like this lonely old man with no family and no memories of anything but the Army.

Only deep psychiatric treatments bring back the story of Johnny's life. He finally locates his true roots, which are very different than what he thought he remembered. You are left with the hope that John will build a new life with Anne. I won't give away the ending, but it is a surprise on the order of the famous "Rosebud" from "Citizen Kane."

This outstanding movie was not appreciated at the time, just as our Vietnam Veterans were not appreciated. It was shown in the summer of 1972, not long before the end of the Vietnam War. Public sentiment had turned against the war, and sadly, most Americans turned their back on the many returning GI's. The general public had heard stories that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese tortured any captured Americans, but the Government had not yet released the full story of the extent of the cruelty suffered by the POWs. Perhaps the Government felt that revealing the whole truth would have brought even more outcries against the war. Veterans came home to high unemployment and a general public who did not wish to acknowledge them. Whether or not you think the War was right, it is a sad commentary that it took this country many years to honor the forgotten veterans of that tragic war.

I do not think this movie is "dated" and I believe that if it were shown on TV again that more people would appreciate it.

WELCOME HOME, JOHNNY BRISTOL was one of a wave of creepy movies (e.g., YOU'LL LIKE MY MOTHER, DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, DYING ROOM ONLY) that were made for U.S. television during the Vietnam war. (Remember the ABC Movie of the Week?) As a genre, the horror in these movies, though at times allegorical, nevertheless was a direct reflection of the evil being perpetrated in Asia by our government. These movies hold up exceedingly well today, but you are not likely to see them, because it seems we are blinded by a forest of waving American flags.

This is one of the many features made after War in Nam speaking not of the war itself but on the post war issues that the ex GI's had to encounter once they got back home. I don't know if it is the worst ever on this subject, Lenny Maltin in his dictionary says it is below average, but at least it is not the best. The story is not that convincing, I don't knwo why, maybe the directing. This ex soldier losing his memory topic is however interesting to explore, but, I repeat, something seems superficial in this tale, ankward. George Mc Cowan was a prolific TV director in the seventies : movies and TV episodes too. He also gave us FROGS and a MAGNIFICENT SEVEN rip-off. The first was excellent to me and the second just a good time waster.

WELCOME HOME JOHNNY BRISTOL is a sorely underrated and mostly forgotten little gem of Vietnam War-related horror. MARTIN LANDAU is outstanding in the title role of a U.S. Army Captain rescued from captivity in North Vietnam and returned to the States to convalesce at an Army Hospital. He falls in love with his attending nurse Ann Palmer(JANE Alexander)and wants to marry her in his hometown of Charles, Vermont- a bucolic little hamlet he grew up in of which he has fond and wonderful memories. When they make the trip, they discover that the town is not there- and there's no official record of any town by that name ever existing in Vermont. And this is where the horror begins, for LANDAU is convinced that a Government conspiracy is at work- that a top-secret calamity occurred there and that the Army is covering it up. This thesis fits in very nicely with what was happening in the country at the time- the general distrust of the Government and all the revelations related to our debacle in Vietnam that Washington tried to hide. For those who haven't yet seen this minor masterpiece, I won't give away the denouement except to say that when the truth is finally revealed, it will be as jolting to the viewer as it was to the Captain.