Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1979
The War at Home (1979 film)
Buy The War at Home (1979 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'The War at Home' is a documentary film about the anti-war movement in the Madison, Wisconsin area during the time of the Vietnam War.[https://www.indiecollect.org/initiatives_film_restoration.shtml Film Restoration Initiative] It combines archival footage and interviews with participants that explore the events of the period on the University of WisconsinMadison campus. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Synopsis
The film focuses on student protests of government policies in the Vietnam War, clashes between students and police, and the responses of politicians and the public to the turmoil.[https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-war-at-home-review-20181101-story.html Review: Restored version of 1979 documentary The War at Home shows necessity of protest - Los Angeles Times] Among the major events included is the Sterling Hall bombing. Intended to destroy the Army Math Research Center in the building, the bombing also caused massive destruction to other parts of the building, resulting in the death of a physics researcher, Robert Fassnacht, who was not involved in the Army Math Research Center. Bomber Karleton Armstrong, brother of Dwight Armstrong, is interviewed for the film, as is Paul Soglin, an antiwar leader who went on to be mayor of Madison.
Reception and legacy
It earned an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature nomination.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwbLZNpaSjg William Shatner and Persis Khambatta present Documentary Oscars in 1980-Oscars on YouTube]
Dialogue from 'The War at Home' was used as samples in the song Thieves by the band Ministry[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMTY42v1Re4 Thieves by Ministry - Topic on YouTube] on the 1989 album 'The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste'.
Viewing the film after its recent restoration, Peter Canby writes in 'The New Yorker':
The film covers the period from 1963when the earliest demonstrators wore jackets and ties, in some cases smoked pipes, and attended teach-insto 1973. Along the way, there is extensive footage from dramatic Madison developments, including a police attack on antiwar demonstrators who had seized a campus building to protest the visit of Dow Chemical recruiters to campus. (Dow was the maker of napalm.) In that episode, the police clubbedpretty much unprovokedanyone they could get their hands on. In an unintentionally humorous moment, captured on film, a sociology professor named Maurice Zeitlin remembers students rushing in and asking him to talk sense to the police. Zeitlin runs out of his office, only to be clubbed from behind.Bill Siegel, director of 'The Trials of Muhammad Ali', was inspired to become a filmmaker after seeing the film.
Availability
In 2018, the film was restored in 4K by IndieCollect and re-released.
References
Buy The War at Home (1979 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1979