The American Spectator

Presswatch

Gold Star Movie

By James Taranto from the May 2009 issue

(Page 2 of 2)

To watch Coming Home three decades later is a distasteful experience. But the film was quite popular at the time, grossing some $32.7 million domestically, roughly 15 times the take of In the Valley of Elah after adjusting for inflation. One can see why it drew an audience. In 1978, there were a lot of educated men in their 20s who had avoided the draft and were vulnerable to accusations that they had shirked their patriotic duty. Coming Home flattered them by telling them that they were better than those who served—not only morally but sexually.

The Vietnam-era antiwar movement was politically potent because it was driven in large part by self-interest. Young men opposed the war because they didn’t want to be drafted; young women, because they didn’t want their men to be. The advent of the all-volunteer military redefined service as a supererogatory act rather than a duty.

Today only those with an ideological ax to grind—including many journalists and filmmakers— have an interest in perpetuating derogatory stereotypes of servicemen. As the Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial, “If Hollywood wants to make war movies that appeal to a broad audience, it could do worse than to take in ‘Taking Chance.’ The Americans who show Colonel Strobl such reverence as he makes his way west are the very audience Hollywood wishes it could reach.”  

Letter to the Editor