User Reviews

Made in 1971 for MGM, Herbert Leonard's film "Going Home" made little impression at the American box office and consequently was barely (or never) released in other countries. Since then, it has vanished even further into obscurity. One would assume that for a film to be so completely forgotten and overlooked, it must be pretty terrible (perhaps something like The Magus or Inchon, two long-lost atrocities which, through a combination of actor-power and public indifference, have become almost impossible to track down). Surprisingly, "Going Home" is not bad at all, and features some strong performances and memorable scenes. There seems to be no rational explanation for the disappearance of this film other than the fact that it was a flop during its initial run. If you are fortunate enough to come by it, it is a film worth catching.

The story begins with a powerful sequence in which an injured, bleeding woman stumbles downstairs while reaching desperately for her young son, who stands terrified at the foot of the steps. She is trying to give him one final embrace before she dies. However, the boy is so horrified at the sight of his blood-drenched mother that he dodges her and she eventually collapses dead on the floor. A few moments later, the boys drunken and dishevelled father comes down and stands ruefully over the corpse. We gradually realise that in a fit of drunken rage, the man has beaten his wife to death. The story cuts forward to show the young boy now a 19-year-old who has spent his youth in and out of various boys' care homes. Young Jimmy (played, as a 19-year-old, by Jan-Michael Vincent) decides the time has come to renew a relationship with his father Harry (Robert Mitchum). Initially expecting his father to be in jail, Jimmy discovers that Harry is out on parole, and eventually tracks him down to his home at a rather unglamorous trailer park. Here Jimmy awkwardly reunites with his dad, and the pair of them begin an uneasy relationship under the constant cloud of what Harry did to Jimmy's mom.... as well as the presence of Harry's new girlfriend, Jenny (Brenda Vaccaro), which further heightens the tension between them.

"Going Home" is basically a character study revolving around the three principal players, particularly Harry and Jimmy. Mitchum gives a strong performance as the father, and Vincent (in only his 8th film) is really good as his secretive, smouldering son. There are some great, understated touches of irony in the film too (e.g. Mitchum killed his wife by striking her with a ten-pin bowling trophy; later in the film he nonchalantly starts a conversation with his son about ten-pin bowling, barely realising the terrible memories it might trigger in the boy). It is definitely a slow-burning story and quite often it's hard to figure out what drives the characters to act as they do (in particular, many of Jimmy's silent, moody moments are frustratingly hard to fathom). However, in its quiet and downbeat little way this is an interesting, well-acted and thoughtful character piece.

***SPOILERS** A story of both revenge and redemption with a very confused and bitter Jimmy Graham, Jan-Michael Vincent,not knowing if to make up with his just released from the slammer or prison dad, Harry, Robert Mitchum, or beat his brains out! That in Harry screwing up his life as well as his own by murdering, in a drunken rage, his mom right in front of him when he was six years old.

Tracking down his dad to the seaside New Jersey town of Wildwood where he works as a car mechanic it takes a few days for Jimmy to introduce himself to Harry who at first, by sitting outside his trailer park camper, thought he was just a local hippie high on pot. Harry not at all wanting anything to do with his long lost son who's testimony at his murder trial convicted him, in Harry being drunk and out of his mind, of 2nd degree murder he later takes a shine to him and invites Jimmy to stay in his camper along with his live in girlfriend Jenny Benson, Brenda Vaccaro.

Not knowing if to strike back or not at his dad from killing his mom and ruining his life, Jimmy spent the last 12 years in and out of orphanages, Jimmy soon targets the innocent,in him mom's murder, Jenny in order to get back at his dad. Drunk like he old man was when he murdered his mom Jimmy tricks Jenny into seeing him at a local chicken coop, where they illegally train rosters in the art of cock-fighting, and brutally attacks and rapes her. Now feeling guilty at what he did Jimmy takes off to Pennsylvania to the house where he once lived in, that's now a bar and bordello, where his mom was murdered. Calling up his dad and confessing his crime,raping Jenny, Harry comes shooting out to the place in his battered Dodge pick-up to give him the beating he should have gave him when Jimmy testified against him in open court!

***SPOILERS**** A bit confusing, like Jimmy Graham, to say the least the film "Coming Home" is never boring in that Robert Mitchum is staring in it. You like Jimmy get to like Robert Mitchum's character Harry Graham despite him being a very unlikable and uncouth, especially with his off-color and bathroom jokes, guy in the movie. Yes Harry never makes excuses in what he did and tries to get his life back together after serving 13 years behind for doing it. It in fact takes Jimmy a lot longer to get over his dislike and hatred of his dad and even goes over the edge,by raping Jenny,when he eventually loses control of himself. It's in the final few minutes of the movie that both Harry and Jimmy, who almost got killed by him, came to a mutual understanding. In that by putting the past behind them will finally put an end all this resentment as well as violence that may very well, if it continues, end up killing both of them!

Jimmy Graham (Jan-Michael Vincent) is rejected from enlisting in the Army. As a boy, he testified about his mother's death which put his father Harry K. Graham (Robert Mitchum) in prison. He had a tough upbringing. He tries to visit Harry in prison but is told that he's been released. Harry is living in a trailer. Jenny Benson is his girlfriend. Jimmy is still angry at his father and wants him back in prison despite spending time with him.

The rape comes out of nowhere. It needs a better setup. The movie is going along great up to Harry smashing the car windows. I was assuming that Harry was innocent at that point and expected a reconciliation story. After Harry confesses, I don't see reconciliation as a good story path. I would prefer more anger from Jimmy. If he becomes more volatile, the rape becomes less abrupt outlier. There is also another problem. Jenny becomes less as a character and more as an object. The movie treats it as a conflict between the men when the crime has been committed against the woman. It's an awkward turn. There is some value in the complicated family conflict in the movie. I like the turn and the resolution much less.

Its hard to like a character, no matter how well they act in the latter part of a film, when the first scene you see is a graphic murder of a mother by the father, witnessed by a small child. It reminds me of film openings of various horror films. Then we see the films credits roll over some cutsie 70's song. This film is unrelentingly mean-spirited and confused in its message. The adult child reunites with his father 13 years later,after the father is released from prison, only to provoke his father and wallow in violent fantasies of his father attacking him. Why, perhaps he wants his fathers attention? Who knows. We are also witness to a graphic rape of the only likable person in the film, an ugly harassment in a boardwalk arcade of the same woman by a bunch of sailors, a repulsive stag party, beatings, a sadistic parole officer, and a psychopathic hen farmer. This might be o.k. if it had a point, but it doesn't. The movie, which is blue-collar in its location and tone, seems to hate and condescend to these people. The only redeeming quality of the film is the great New Jersey shore location shooting.

The film is slow paced and we never really know why the Bob Mitchum character killed his wife. We saw her fall at the end of stairs on the floor and dead. Their young son witnessed this and was called on to be a witness for the prosecution at the trial.

The boy grows up in orphanages and comes of age and goes to visit his dad in prison while picturing certain scenarios after meeting his dad. He then finds out that dad was paroled and is living with Brenda Vaccaro in some trailer.

As the son, John Michael-Vincent has many emotional problems including extreme sexual attractions to women including Vaccaro who is molested by him. Mitchum almost strangles the boy but his fatherly instincts kick him, the two talk about life and he tells his son that he will one day be 20 and rides away. We're bewildered by all this as Vincent walks away.

Note: This film shows a rather vivid rape scene. You might want to consider this before you watch the movie...particularly if you have been a victim of such an assault.

Long ago, Harry Graham (Robert Mitchum) killed his wife. His young son, Jimmy (Jan-Michael Vincent), witnessed her death and spend his childhood in the Boys' Home in Oakdale, Pennsylvania*....and the father spent a long stretch in prison. After many years, Jimmy comes looking for his father...though it's not certain whether he wants to re-connect with him or kill him! And, not surprisingly, it results in some very awkward moments between the two when they meet.

This is a very slow paced film. This doesn't necessarily mean it's bad....but that it's just very deliberate and slowly unfolds. Some might balk at this. I think it was done mostly to show Jimmy's own ambivalence towards his father...as if he isn't really sure what to do or make of the man. What he eventually does...well, that DID come as a surprise.

Overall, while the film had many excellent moments and scenes, I was so taken aback by the rape that I am hesitant to recommend the film. It could have been done much less candidly and I worry that person some weird folks might actually enjoy seeing it.





*I looked it up and this place actually DOES exist.

This film is what is wrong with the world or should I say USA. The film is about the character played by Robert Mitchum who has committed a serious crime at an earlier point in his life. And how after his release from prison on parole he is trying to make good while living in a trailer..

The female lead is excellent, and Robert Mitchum's acting is good and understated. The film turns on the issue of Robert Mitchum's character's grown son re-entering his life.

The son presents to us as a good-for-nothing aimless sort. And by the end of the film we find out why he has returned to Mitchum's character. Basically to get back at his father for the crime against his mother.

The son instead of wanting to create a clean life for himself comes back to avenge the crime against his mother. This is what I meant when I referred to what's wrong with the world or USA. Some of us want to make sure that the pain we experience is experienced by others no matter what it costs us or anyone else.

A truly sad portrayal of the human condition. Why would ANYONE want to go see a pointless film of futility such as this one. It has no redeeming message except that Robert Mitchum's character faces upto his demons and still tries to make good.

Leaving the past behind is critical instead of digging up buried skeletons. If you want to do that it needs to be done as inner work in therapy and not in seeking revenge in the external world. Because all you are doing is adding to the misery of the world, of which there is more than enough.

Found this rare movie through an online rare movie collector (www.subcin.com). JMV plays Jimmy Graham, a 19 year old who goes in search of his father Harry K Graham (Robert Mitchum). Jimmy was a witness to his father murdering his mother when he was a child. He lingers around Harry's trailer and Harry's new girlfriend Jenny (played splendidly by Brenda Vaccaro), seemingly awaiting his father's explanation of this hideous act. There is great Oedipal tension with JMV and Brenda Vaccaro as Jimmy seems to think of her as his lost mother. He wants to protect her from lewd sailors in the arcade in which she works, and at the same time her feels anger and jealously towards her. There is a very well-acted rape scene (in a suggestive cock-fighting chicken coop)in which Jimmy attacks Jenny. Jimmy also broods when he's with his father. He seems to want to provoke his father's anger towards himself. There's a great scene at a gas station where Jimmy 'dreams' of his father attacking him. Also, the rape itself was also meant to provoke his father's anger. The ending is very interesting - no true resolution is made, and Harry Graham finally admits (rather coldly) that there was no reason he killed Jimmy's mother. It was murder born out of simple anger. The son has his answer. Then, the father drives away, leaving Jimmy on his own.

The story has a very blue-collar setting- trailer parks, bowling alleys, etc. Jan Michael Vincent is excellent in this movie. It's one of his earliest roles. He would later play Robert Mitchum's son again in the TV series WINDS OF WAR. It's a very quiet, simmering performance with a James Dean angst to it. You can tell JMV has a great intensity about him, even at this young stage of his career. Robert Mitchum is also very good as Harry Graham. He has a very non-chalant, intimidating quality to him. Brenda Vaccaro gives a truly moving performance.