Word: voight
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CONRACK. Novelist Pat Conroy (Prince of Tides) has helped turn his autobiographical tale, The Water Is Wide, about a young white teacher and rural black pupils, into a sweet Jon Voight movie and, now, a poignant musical at Washington's Ford's Theater...
Trouble was, most of these films were not about Viet Nam. Coming Home was a disabled-vet love story -- The Best Years of Our Lives with Jon Voight in the Harold Russell role. The Deer Hunter was . . . well, what was it? An incoherent parable about male bonding through Russian roulette. Bats and beautiful, it stood like Ishmael on the prow of its pretensions and declared, "Call me masterpiece." Apocalypse Now was fine as long as it accompanied its doomed, questing hero (played by Martin Sheen, Charlie's father) upstream on the River Styx; then it fogged off into fantasyland with...
Rose's parents, on the other hand, give the movie what little panache it has. Playing Rose's often drunken step-father, Jon Voight gives a touching performance as a World War II veteran having difficulty adjusting to civilian life, and fascinated by the secret workings of the military and their weaponry. Voight drinks to escape the memories, but everywhere around him are reminders of the military life. To compensate, Voight takes it out on the awkward Rose, going into a frenzy when he can't find his booze and then attacking her for leaving unwashed dishes...
JoBeth Williams delivers a convincing performance as Rose's mother who tries to see only the best in people and ignore the animosity between her husband and daughter. After Williams discovers that her beautiful sister, Star, has engaged in some drunken flirtation with Voight, she flies into a righteous rage that is a wonder to watch. Somehow, beneath all the creampuffiness of her performance, Williams convinces us that Rose's mother has the spunk her daughter doesn...
While Gish's lackluster performance is disappointing, at least it provides a backdrop for those of her parents. Williams and Voight pick up where Gish left off and go one step further. Along with Star, they provide the film with what interest it has. In fact, one ends up wishing the movie would spend less time with Rose and more on her much more fascinating and complex parents, who are each grappling with somewhat more real problems...