Going Home (1971 film)

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Going Home
Going Home 1971.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Herbert B. Leonard
Screenplay by Lawrence B. Marcus
Produced by Herbert B. Leonard
Starring Robert Mitchum
Brenda Vaccaro
CinematographyFred Jackman Jr.
Edited bySigmund Neufeld Jr.
Music by Bill Walker
Production
company
Release date
  • 1 December 1971 (1971-12-01)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Going Home is a 1971 drama film directed by Herbert B. Leonard and starring Robert Mitchum, Brenda Vaccaro and Jan-Michael Vincent, who was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor. [1] [2]

Contents

Plot

Harry Graham (Mitchum) is a lonely and beaten-down man who has recently been released from prison after serving time for murdering his wife 13 years earlier. His son, Jimmy (Vincent), who witnessed the slaying as a child, is still haunted by the crime and wants to confront his father about it. Jimmy tracks Harry to a run-down seashore community and finds him living in a trailer park with his girlfriend Jenny (Vaccaro). It's clear that Jimmy himself is dealing with serious psychological problems, and the father-son reunion leads to sometimes grim complications.

Cast

ActorRole
Robert Mitchum Harry K. Graham
Brenda Vaccaro Jenny Benson
Jan-Michael Vincent Jimmy Graham
Sally Kirkland Ann
Josh Mostel Mr. Bonelli
George Mathews Mr. Malloy
Mary Louise Wilson Mrs. Green

Critical reception

Vincent Canby of The New York Times did not care for the film although he praised its intelligence and some of the actors:

Going Home, which opened yesterday at the Victoria and other theaters around town, is an exceedingly nasty movie... Even worse is Mr. Marcus's explanation of why the father, played by Robert Mitchum as if he were a high school football coach, took the knife to his wife in the first place: He was drunk.... Going Home is more objectionable, more pernicious, than other, much dumber movies because it appears to have some surface intelligence... Mitchum has reached that point in his career where he doesn't seem to act as much as inhabit whatever film he's in,... I also liked Brenda Vaccaro as his mistress... Unfortunately, Jan-Michael Vincent is impossible as the son, admittedly an impossible role that requires the actor to be simultaneously appealing and psychotic. He's very handsome and very young and he has a lot to learn about acting, including how to hiccup with conviction. [3]

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times did not care for the film and gave it 2 out of 4 stars:

Going Home is a fairly awful melodrama that's worth seeing primarily for the presence of Robert Mitchum. Not that he's especially good. Mitchum can't be described as good or bad in most of his performances. It's just that he's there, the kind of screen presence that draws your attention.... And no mistake about it, Going Home is bad. [4]

See also

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References

  1. Golden Globes, USA (1972)
  2. "Golden Globes Winners and Nominees 1972 for work in 1971". Golden Globe Awards . United States: Hollywood Foreign Press Association. February 6, 1972. Retrieved March 10, 2019.
  3. Canby, Vincent (December 2, 1971). "Mitchum and Brenda Vaccaro Star in 'Going Home'". The New York Times . New York City . Retrieved April 3, 2011.
  4. "Going Home :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Rogerebert.suntimes.com. Retrieved 2011-04-08.