Trivia / Coming Home

• Cast the Expert: The opening scene where the vets in the hospital are talking was totally unscripted. They were real Vietnam vets discussing their own views about the war. Jon Voight was supposed to have added to the dialog, but out of respect stayed silent and listened.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Jon Voight had been considered for the role of the husband, but after becoming involved with the film, he campaigned to play the paraplegic veteran.
• Creator Backlash: Nancy Dowd, who wrote the original script and received a "Story By" credit, disowned the movie, calling it a "male supremacist film: men choose between ideas and women choose between men."
• Dueling Movies: Came out the same year as The Deer Hunter, another film dealing with the after-effects of The Vietnam War.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Jon Voight, playing a Vietnam veteran, had participated in the anti-war movement.
• Playing Against Type: Bruce Dern isn't playing a villain or a psycho for once.
• Reality Subtext: Like Sally, her character, Jane Fonda had been under surveillance by the FBI.
• Real Song Theme Tune: "Out of Time", from The Rolling Stones' Aftermath album.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Jane Fonda had wanted John Schlesinger to direct, but he declined as he felt that the Vietnam experience should be filmed by an American director.
  • Warren Beatty, Al Pacino and Sylvester Stallone turned down the role of Luke Martin.
  • Fonda wanted Meryl Streep for Vi but Streep had already signed up to appear in a play.
  • Nancy Dowd's original script (called Buffalo Ghosts) would have focused more on Sally and Vi and how their lives were changed by the war. Fonda brought in Waldo Salt to rewrite the movie to emphasize the relationship between Sally and Luke.
• Musician Guthrie Thomas was originally cast as Bill, but he convinced Hal Ashby he should cast an actor who could play music, not a musician, so Robert Carradine was cast instead.

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