‘Besides entertaining, movies can inspire and teach’: Jane Fonda

Throughout her long career, Fonda has used her platform to raise awareness about marginalised groups

Jane Fonda, Oscars, Hollywood movie, Vietnam war movie, activism, celebrity activism, Hollywood activism, life positive, indian express news

Even at the age of 82, Fonda believes she has a lot more work to do.

In 1979, American acting legend Jane Fonda won the Oscar for her outstanding performance in the 1978 movie Coming Home. In her acceptance speech, she decided to use sign language. “While we were making the movie, we all became more aware of the problems of the handicapped. Over 14 million people are deaf. They are the invisible handicapped and can’t share this evening, so this is my way of acknowledging them.”

It is said that Fonda was way ahead of her time and used sign language because the Academy couldn’t offer closed captions. From a very young age, she continued with her political and social activism, showing support for civil rights, anti-war protests, women’s rights, environmentalism; she remains as committed as ever.

Coming Home is a romantic drama war film surrounding the life of an American military couple in Vietnam. The movie, apart from its complex emotional and romantic discourses, touches on the conflicting attitudes towards the Vietnam war.

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Recalling how the movie came about, Fonda said, “Coming Home was born in Santa Monica where we live, in the cramped offices of the Indochina Peace Campaign, as a lot of us whose lives have been bound up with the war sat on the floor. And some of them were veterans. I thank, I thank all of them.”

The movie’s budget was only $3 million but it went on to gross $36 million worldwide and won the Oscar and other awards. Fonda thanked everyone who believed in the movie and made it happen. Screenwriter Waldo Salt worked on it for free for the first two years because he knew it would be a success. Fonda also thanked everyone who gathered the funds for production.

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