1979 | Jane Fonda Wins Best Actress for Coming Home

Jane have to talk about of Academy Awards what do you think your chances are pretty good I hope I win I'm so glad to hear you say that you know normally people say oh well who knows and blah blah blah but see that's what I love about interviewing you Jane kinda speaks up in 1979 Jane Fonda won her second Best Actress Academy Award for her role as Sally Hyde in coming home this win came after almost four years away from Hollywood when Jane's political activities threatened to subvert her career altogether in this video I review the infamous Hanoi Jane incident and how Jane rehabilitated her image by embedding her political ideology in mainstream projects but before that 1978 actually yielded some incredible roles for women a couple of my personal favorites in fact so let's give Jane's fellow nominees the attention they very much deserve out front first Ingrid Bergman in autumn Sonata as a classical pianist revisiting the unhealthy relationship she has with her daughter a three-time winner already autumn Sonata marked Ingrid's seventh Oscar nomination and her only collaboration with fellow Swede Ingmar Bergman this deeply intense film was her last her retirement announced shortly thereafter due to her health and Ingrid is riveting giving a sophisticated modern performance that most certainly cements her as one of the greats next up Geraldine page in interiors Woody Allen's best attempt at an Ingmar Bergman movie as a woman whose husband asks for a divorce after decades of marriage if you think Leo had to wait too long for his Oscar or are incensed that Amy Adams has gone unrecognized for too long well they have nothing on Geraldine anteriors was her sixth Oscar nomination and sixth loss she wouldn't win until a trip to bountiful in 1986 her eighth nomination Ellen Burstyn in same time next year as a housewife who meets up with the same man the same weekend every year to have an affair originally a play burst in one atony for originating this role on Broadway defeating Maggie Smith leave Ullman and diana rigg in 1974 the same year she won her Oscar for Alice doesn't live here anymore critics generally concluded that while Burton's performance was great that apt a chenille to achieve the magic of the stage production next Jill Clayburgh in an unmarried woman as an art gallery worker who soldiers on after her husband reveals he's leaving her for another woman if you haven't caught on yet troubled marriages were kind of a theme this year and that's not an accident it reflected the zeitgeist the restlessness of women in the late 70s an unmarried woman best tapped into the everyday disappointments and difficult questions facing the average white woman her reviews were spectacular I'd like to make a flat prediction Jill Clayburgh will win this year's Academy Award as Best Actress write that down Vincent Canby of the New York Times wrote Miss Clayburgh is nothing less than extraordinary in what is the performance of the year to date then mostly known for her stage work Jill tied with Isabel Hooper at con for Best Actress for this performance but it was Jane Fonda who won for coming home playing a woman who falls in love with a veteran who suffered paralyzing injuries in Vietnam just as her husband leaves to join the war 1972 was a roller coaster of a year for Jane Fonda she had evolved from light rom-com space sex symbol to politically active serious actress so she was making headlines not only for her work with the Black Panthers and the anti-war movement but also for her incredible leap into dramatic roles on the one hand she agitated the Nixon administration to the point that they arranged to have her arrested on a bogus drug charge which is where we got this mugshot otherwise known as Lily Tomlin's clutch on the other hand she delivered performances like those in they shoot horses don't they and Clute prompting pauline kael to write quote Jane Fonda stands a good chance of personifying American tensions and dominating our movies in the 70 as Betty Davis did in the 30s and quote there was a tension between the on and off screen Jane and a palpable worry that her real-life identity would sabotage her career opportunities do you think that this new interest of yours in civil rights is going to damage your career as an actress no I don't think so this this isn't the McCarthy period I don't think that my career is gonna be heard we may all end up in jail one day with that April Jane won her first Oscar for her performance in Clute and it seemed like Hollywood could accept a skilled performer with radicalized politics and then later that summer this happened that July Jane went on a two-week fact-finding mission to North Vietnam to observe the effects of America's bombing campaign but on her last day in Hanoi her host took her to see an anti-aircraft installation when someone suggested that she sit in the Gunners seat she did she sat there for about a minute but that was more than enough time to capture the moment for all eternity the second Jane got up she knew she was in trouble there she was sitting and laughing behind a gun literally used to shoot down Americans no matter what her intention it looks like she supported the North Vietnamese it was really bad Jane has subsequently apologized for this a million times you've apologized I'm still here you've apologized for it and for that photo right [Applause] there is so much wrapped up in America's reaction to this moment questions of privilege gender fame and the fact that it's kind of become right-wing shorthand for vilifying the left remember that time Bush supporters tried to paint John Kerry as a traitor during the 2004 election by doctoring a photo so it looks like he was protesting Vietnam with Jane yeah this video can't cover all of that or we'd be here for another two hours and do your best to avoid arbitrating it in the comments too but the fact that Jane is still apologizing for this in 2018 and I will go to my grave regretting that should suggest to you that it did not do wonders for her reputation in 1972 once the footage got out the effects were relatively immediate the press dismissed her as at best an easily manipulated idiot and at worst a traitor congressman called for a boycott of her films even the anti-war movement abandoned her in Hollywood she was as she put it grey listed her projects were marginalized steelyard blues filmed before Hanoi received almost no promotion a doll's house filmed after failed to find a distributor in the US Jane did not appear in a Hollywood film for four years she did however find independent and foreign projects including FTA a documentary about her USO s anti-war Roadshow and to Bob Young as jean-luc Godard film about class struggle in France but even that went awry Godard then a Maoist tacked on a feature at called letter to Jane that basically spent an hour calling her a poser the facial expression of the militant in this photograph is in fact that of a tragic actress unsurprisingly this era is now recognized as the least mainstream of her career the fact is the Hanoi Jane incident was not the easiest thing in the world to bounce back from but she had to because probably the lowest bar to winning an Academy Award is that you need to a work and be not be considered a traitor to your country and while Jane didn't do it overnight she did do it over the course of the mid to late 70s two factors contributed to the rehabilitation of Jane's image first as Jam Rafferty noted in his study politicizing stardom Jayne quote actively demonstrated a willingness to adapt herself for maximum appeal end quote Jane's publicity throughout 1977 characterized her as a reformed radical it emphasized her ordinariness and portrayed her as a relatable 70s woman juggling marriage motherhood and a career she openly reom braced makeup and grew out her hair Jane also reimbursed on-screen initially in conventional ways the New York Times called 1977's fun with Dick and Jane her homecoming vehicle Janet Maslin wrote a Newsweek that it quote may win over those turned over by her politics her next film Julia although an overtly political story never depicted her as a radical and in fact it specifically contrasts her with her radical peers Julia earned her a Best Actress nomination as well the second factor was the political climate which swung drastically in her favor after Watergate Jane was one of President Nixon's most outspoken political opponents and a proud member of his political enemies list his downfall and proven duplicity vindicated her when her career was at its lowest point the country moved toward her politically funny thing about people who were called radicals at the time now are considered people who a lot of them who were right on Jimmy Carter was elected president films like all the president's men a network signaled that anti Nixonian values could perform well in Hollywood critically and financially Vietnam was a fresh wound that Hollywood was only beginning to explore in 1979 two films dominated this discourse coming home and The Deer Hunter which received eight and nine nominations respectively other films an unmarried woman for example may have also addressed timely societal issues but as Peter Biskind of Vanity Fair put it these were the Vietnam Oscar the war loomed larger Best Picture winner The Deer Hunter offered a more violent view of Vietnam which prompted protests and accusations of racism although Jane had mainstreamed her image it wasn't a rejection of her progressivism but rather a maturation of it coming home marks the development of a new approach produced challenging political films for herself that were palatable enough to reach and thus mobilize wider audiences she intended to appeal especially to people who thought of her as scary and unpatriotic she told Rolling Stone quote I want them to like me I know I'm viewed as a symbol of the movement as someone to these peoples left thus if I can be accepted by them I think my ideas will become more acceptable end quote Jane had been thinking about crafting socially conscious cinema for years quote I think all of us are trying to figure it out what is a progressive movie what is a revolutionary movie is it really possible to make a movie that's a weapon for political change end quote this question led her to reject roles she didn't feel were meaningful enough but it also caused her to form her own production company IPC films their mission to make socially relevant commercially viable films later manifested in stories that placed ordinary women in extraordinary situations women who like Jane came to political or social consciousness through significant events in their everyday lives coming home a decidedly anti warped IPC film was the logical extension of Jane's activism and owed its success in part to this formula it point Lee touched on issues without condescension or preaching it spoke to veterans interrogating their service and two women questioning their roles in society in marriage sally is relatively moderate the kind of woman who moisturizes during the news and is equally capable of evolution and unafraid to find pleasure her political and sexual awakening fused progressivism Americanists and relatability which gives resonance and power to both the character and Janes ideals all of this gave Jane her second win on stage she gave her speech in sign language because while we were making the movie we all became more aware of the problems of the handicapped which is possibly the most Jane Fonda thing ever Jane Fonda describes her life in acts which i think is an apt way to present her story her celebrity has potency and longevity because more so than any other actor I can think of Jane has consistently reflected her personal experience of the zeitgeist in her filmography there isn't one pop-culture image of Jane Fonda there are at least three you could credibly name eight each era is iterative and indicates Jane's agency in forming and sustaining these identities Jane tempered her activist persona to reach maximum appeal but still managed to address contemporary societal concerns and she hasn't stopped since now that is an award-winning persona [Music]

Channel: Be Kind Rewind

Views: 173,808

Rating: 4.9032626 out of 5

Keywords: jane fonda, jane fonda interview, jane fonda best actress, oscar, academy awards, best actress oscar, coming home, 1979, 1972, klute, they shoot horses don't they, hbo, barbarella, hanoi jane, vietnam, richard nixon, the deer hunter, geraldine page, ellen burstyn, ingrid bergman, jill clayburgh, an unmarried woman, autumn sonata, interiors, henry fonda

Id: VDexnoeGEr4

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 23 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Griffs-Loss]

Imagine standing on the right side of the war on Vietnam when it was actually happening, long live Hanoi Jane

[u/BreadTubeForever]

More info on the attempted deplatforming of Fonda here.

Click here for info on her current Fire Drill Fridays climate protest movement (which has seen her arrested multiple times so far because she's a fucking legend and she won't stop even at age 82).