"Homecoming": The Horrors of War
It makes sense: what could be more horrific than war? And yet, it's never been done. An anti-war horror film. I don't know about you, but I'm putting this flick on my "to see" list. It may turn out to be a dog, but, even so, I gotta give them points for their originality, their guts (no pun intended)--and their politics. Power to the anti-war movement!
"Hollywood has always been portrayed as a hotbed of liberal activism, so who would've imagined that its first full-blown anti-Iraq war movie would come not from a famous political loudmouth like Oliver Stone but from Joe Dante and Sam Hamm, a pair of horror-thriller aficionados?
Set during the final weeks of a fictional presidential reelection campaign, the story kicks into gear on a TV talk show when the president's political consultant fends off the distraught mother of a dead soldier by saying he only wished her son could come back to life to remind the country of the war's importance. Voila! Blood-encrusted soldiers killed in Iraq rise from their graves and head for the polls, voting against the president before they crumble back into dust....
Whether you see "Homecoming" as an irritant or an inspiration, it packs a punch. At a time when the Pentagon has banned photographs of dead soldiers' coffins, it's quite a jolt to finally see the haunting scene in a horror film, with this war's scarred warriors stumbling out of their flag-draped resting places. It makes you think that whoever coined the phrase "horror movie" knew what he was talking about." More
PHOTO: "Homecoming" director Joe Dante says his Showtime film -- what he calls "a grade Z zombie movie" -- is "the first movie to show the anger people have about the [Iraq] war."
(Mel Melcon / LAT)
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