Heroes 1977 Directed by Jeremy Kagan
A Vietnam veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder breaks out of a VA hospital and goes on a road trip with a sympathetic traveler to find out what became of the other men in his unit.
It is hard to imagine nowadays, but there was a time when Henry Winkler was the most popular entertainer on TV. As the Fonz he basically ruled the airwaves and was the epitome of cool, but he truly struggled to translate his success beyond that character. I can see why he chose HEROES as a chance to do something different, perhaps to be viewed as a more rounded actor than his "Happy Days" role would allow. It proved to be a misstep.
It is not that his performance is bad, although at times he does seem to be straining, he is just woefully miscast as a Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD. There is something inherently decent and nebbishy about Winkler…
I literally only consumed this media to see a snippet of john cassavetes face.
Watched the last half but don’t really think I need to see the rest. It’s heart is in the right place but it just doesn’t ever break through that C-movie level of filmmaking. Genuinely great ending, though. Recommend checking that out instead of whole thing. I love the zeitgeist of the 70s but people from the 70s didn’t like this one. LOL.
HEREOES (1977) USA, colour, 108m.
Directed by Jeremy Kagan.
Another uncompromising road movie from the GLORIOUS 1970's, this time with an early Vietnam post traumatic stress syndrome.
Henry Winkler is an ex-soldier who escapes from an asylum, to go to one of his former war buddies, played by Harrison Ford.
On the way there he accidentally and reluctantly get in cohorts with Sally Field, who is on the run from her own upcoming wedding.
There is much road moving, some car racing, and much bickering during this odyssey.
I think this was really worth watching.
And, remember; you don't fuck with the FONZ!
The theme song is "Carry on wayward son" by Kansas.
1977 was a good year for Henry Winkler. He was the most popular television star playing what would become an iconic sitcom character.
It was a good year for Sally Field, another TV star, who finally broke the Gidget and Flying Nun images with a funny, sexy turn in Smokey and the Bandit (the #2 highest grossing movie of the year). This led to a successful big-screen career that, in just the following two years, would earn her her first Oscar.
And it was a good year for Harrison Ford. He found his breakthrough role in a little film called Star Wars (the #1 highest grossing movie of the year).
In 1977, Henry Winkler seized the big-screen opportunity of Heroes…
This film seemed a little over the top at times, but was not a bad movie for Henry.
Apparently this is the second movie Sally Field made in 1977 in which she doesn't want to get married and goes on a cross-country road trip with a man she just met.
Have you ever stumbled upon a movie you never even knew existed and it ended up really moving you? I came across Heroes that way. I must say that i am grateful for it.
Heroes is the story of Vietnam vet Jack Dunne (Henry "the Fonz" Winkler), who escapes from a Veteran's Hospital with a crazy plan to start up his own business using money from his fellow inpatients. Jack sets out on a cross country bus ride to visit three of his buddies from 'Nam, who are also prospective partners in Jack's new business venture. On the way he meets Carol (Sally Field), a runaway bride who can't decide whether she should go back to her fiance or tag…
Herkeken, voor het eerst in decennia, en volgens mij ontbrak het eerste kwartier vroeger op mijn videoband, want dat was vandaag volstrekt nieuw voor me.
Ik vind Henry Winkler een sympathieke acteur, zowel in Happy Days als in Night Shift, maar de rol van getroebleerde Vietnamveteraan is misschien iets te hoog gegrepen, en het wat stuurloze script helpt niet. Gelukkig is Sally Field zijn tegenspeelster; ik zie weer wat ik vroeger zo leuk aan haar vond.
Heroes, mogelijk de eerste film die een beeld schetste van hoe het Vietnamveteranen bij thuiskomst verging, past weer in het It Happened One Night-genre (twee tegenpolen reizen samen door Amerika en kunnen het beter met elkaar vinden dan ze hadden gedacht), maar nu met wat One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-echo's, een bijrol van Harrison Ford en een oorlogsflashback.
I had never heard of ‘Heroes’ before it’s recent Blu-ray release. Apparently it played in theaters the year after I was born. It was Harrison Ford‘s first post Star Wars film.
Henry Winkler is an escaped mental patient with PTSD from his time in Vietnam. He’s traveling cross country to reconnect with friends from the war. Sally Field is an engaged woman having second thoughts about her upcoming marriage who ends up on this cross country adventure along with Winkler.
This isn’t a perfect film, but it’s quite good. Excellent performance from Henry Winkler.
Starring the Fonz during the peak of Happy Days, Sally Field, and a post Star Wars Harrison Ford one, this one is a head scratcher. Winkler plays a Vietnam vet with PTSD who escapes a mental hospital and wants to reunite with his old troops and raise a worm farm. There’s a lot of time spent on worms, farming them, and their value. It appears to be trying to show what happened after people returned home from Vietnam and that were traumatized, but it feels so disjointed and oddly paced. There’s a late sequence that feels incredibly out of place with the rest of the film and there’s no real resolution, which is maybe the point but it feels like only half an ending and like the film could’ve used a few more hours in the oven figuring out what it wanted to be.
I literally only consumed this media to see a snippet of john cassavetes face.
When it lands, it lands gracefully. It's "Coming Home" with the lightest of touches. The PTS moments work well, but when Winkler goes to 11 he stops feeling believable. Field does a lot of the heavy lifting here, and unfortunately has to fill out a character who on the page is the most 2D in the whole film.
Just a fantastic film!
Winkler and Sally Fields play off of each other so well in this. Vietnam Jack Dunne (Henry Winkler) is suffering from PTSD after the Vietnam war and is attempting to connect with old friends to start a business. He happens to run across Sally Fields character (Carol Bell) on a bus trip to meet his friends.
A film that still holds up pretty well for me.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Last Updated: November 6, 2020
