Directed by George McCowan Written by Stanley R. Greenberg Cinematography Russell Morrison | Produced by Arthur Katz Music by Lalo Schiffrin | |
Starring Martin Landau
Jane Alexander
Brock Peters
Martin Sheen
Pat O'Brien
Forrest Tucker | ||
Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol is a 1972 television movie, starring Martin Landau and Jane Alexander. A soldier returning from Vietnam, where he was a POW finds his home town missing. This is one of the earliest films to depict post traumatic stress disorder, preceded only by The Forgotten Man, four months earlier.
Contents
Plot
Johnny Bristol, is a Vietnam veteran who, as a prisoner, kept his sanity by remembering his home town of Charles, Vermont. He recalls a happy town with picnics and band concerts in a small town atmosphere. All the while suffering in a cage from abuse, poor food and neglect. Bizarre, psychedelic effects in his memories seen to suggest to the viewer that something isn't right. After he is rescued, he is sent to a VA hospital to recuperate. During therapy he and his nurse, Anne Palmer become engaged. The couple want to go to his home town, but when he tries to go there, he is told there is no such place as Charles, Vermont! When he insists there is such a place, he is treated as a crazy vet. Anne tries to help him find an explanation. Bristol becomes convinced that somehow the government is responsible for his home town's disappearance.
Legacy
From the outset Bristol is depicted as unwell, and his suspicions of a government conspiracy are considered preposterous and later proven untrue. Later films, especially in the 1980s, cynically, presented stories in which the characters who make such claims are credible and proven true.