Fantastic Fonda

When Jane Fonda believes in something, you believe she believes. It's true in her own eventual real life, which has often led to controversy (and "feel the burn" aerobic routines), and it's certainly true of her film performances, which make her one of the most remarkable actresses in movie history. Blessed with gorgeous but intelligent blue-blood looks inherited from her famous father, Henry, a frank speaking, well-educated voice and rare mixture of indomitable strength and sometimes, melting vulnerability, Fonda is the dramatic blueprint for the ideal woman -- smart, sexy and curious.

But Ms. Fonda would value her smarts above her sex appeal and, like many of her famous film roles, is a woman constantly searching (read her superb autobiography My Life So Far and you'll find an honest, strong but often insecure woman). Fonda had been away from movies for 15 years before making the rather unfortunate Monster-in-Law (she was as great as she could possibly be, the movie was not) and now is back at it with Georgia Rule, a film featuring Lindsay Lohan and one that makes me scream inside: Jane! Pick better roles!

But I'm happy to see her writ large--in any way possible. So in celebration of Jane's second return to screen, I've gathered 10 of my favorite performances -- no easy feat because Ms. Fonda is always fine.

Here's five from the list:

Barbarella (1968)

This is supposedly the movie that Fonda had to live down, a movie that while in her more feminist days she found embarrassing, but one she now sees as something quite funny and appealing. A silly, sexy space comedy directed by her then husband Roger Vadim, Barbarella was made during her Gallic phase and directly before she became more serious, more political and a deeper actress. But Barbarella (cult credibility notwithstanding) is actually an interesting Fonda role in that she breathes a kind of saucy intelligence into this comic strip, even while, yes, stripping and being so sexually voracious that she famously breaks the Orgasma-tron. Fonda's sexy as all get out and cheeky (she knew this was good fun), and the film contains some sparkling dialogue written by Terry Southern. And Jane even stands up for herself when she says: "My name isn't Pretty-Pretty. It's Barbarella." There have been talks of a remake with Sienna Miller but, sorry, no one tops Jane. No one.

Coming Home (1978)

Hal Ashby's Coming Home is famous for its realistic portrayal of a disabled Vietnam veteran (played by a splendid Jon Voight), but it's Jane Fonda's role as a changed woman on which the film centers itself. As Sally Hyde, the ex cheerleader, all-American, unquestioning wife to a Marine, Fonda begins her character's journey as something of an unexceptional person. But when her husband (Bruce Dern) leaves for the war, she's on her own and, for the first time, begins thinking for herself. One of the most important changes occurs when she volunteers at a veteran's hospital and meets an angry and frustrated man whom she recognizes as the captain of her high school's football team. Now a paraplegic from the war, his thoughts about Vietnam wildly differ from her husband's and influence Sally's awakening. What's remarkable about Fonda (and Ashby's film) is that a romance begins between these two but also a friendship and an understanding. Neither the filmmaker nor Fonda judges this character for being unfaithful, but they don't view her as a saint either. She's human. A beautiful, immensely touching performance.

Cat Ballou (1965)

Many of you will be surprised to see Fonda's Cat Ballou near the top of her "best of" list. You might think it's a fun romp for sure, and she's hot as hell, but didn't Lee Marvin win the Oscar for this picture? And isn't this Barbarella -- era Jane? As in, not so serious Jane? Well, sure it is, but that doesn't downgrade one of her most charming performances in one of her most lovable movies. Like her father, who easily straddled drama with screwball and whose weight even heightened his more comical roles, Jane is a funny vixen with wit — a once mild-mannered schoolmarm who turns feisty, vengeful Cat Ballou after her father is killed. Fonda showed that this kitty not only had claws but commanded the big screen. Working the Western spoof and wearing her cowboy hat very, very well (did we mention how hot she is in this movie?), Fonda mixes beautifully with co-stars Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman, Tom Nardini and the ever-wonderful Marvin. It's not easy making a pouting, hot-to-trot near cartoon so lifelike, but Fonda's poignant Cat ("You won't make me cry! You'll never make me cry!") does. Tuned to the songs of Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole, Jane makes her Cat unforgettable. 

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)

"Maybe it's just the whole world is like central casting. They got it all rigged before you ever show up." So says Jane Fonda's Gloria in one of the grimmest pictures ever made (really it is) -- particularly about showbiz. As the supremely beaten down heroine in Sydney Pollack's powerful adaptation of Horace McCoy's masterful 1935 novel -- she's a lloser who knows she's a loser. Fonda's bruised dance marathon participant Gloria is achingly tragic not only because her life is so depressing but because she's, presumably, one smart cookie. An analogy of Depression-era hopes for money, food and fame, the movie and Fonda raggedly dance to Gig Young's decidedly unhappy call of "Yowza, Yowza, Yowza" while showcasing their desperation and despair. You can't help but ask, why must it be this way? And why is Gloria engaged in this disturbed dance? Fonda never really answers that question making Gloria a real live, frustrating person (instead of a charity case) giving her character a raw dignity within such relentless morbidity.

Klute (1971)

This is the ultimate Jane Fonda performance: damaged, lovely, slutty, vulnerable, tough, intelligent, clinging, free spirited, sad -- Jane gets it all down perfect. Playing Bree Daniels, an independent New York City call girl who finds herself working with a cop named John Klute (Donald Sutherland), Fonda gives a naturalistic, heady performance that's both edgy and surprisingly romantic (a sequence showing Jane walk across a dance floor and towards her ex pimp played by Roy Scheider is pure brilliance). Since Bree had received obscene phone calls and letters from the missing man Klute is investigating, she is a source of interest for the soft-hearted cop who eventually falls in love with her. But the film (directed by Alan J. Pakula) and Fonda do not present their relationship in a typical scenario and instead wrap its thriller elements directly into the relationship -- there's something terrifying and dangerous about falling in love, especially when you've hardened yourself to love no one. This struggle is brilliantly played out by Fonda, who gives such a moving performance that no matter what Bree does, you can't help but forgive her. And really, in the end, root for her.

Read the entire list from my MSN Fonda Fest here.

And read the anti-Fonda comments here. Yes, the "Hanoi Jane" hatred persists.

Comments

[Felix]

Are people STILL harping on Fonda's Hanoi Jane moment?

Get over it, people, she's bold for doing what she did. The Vietnam war was a massive waste of time, just like the Iraq war, let's move on with our lives to more important issues.

As for Fonda, I love her, she's a great actress.

My favorite film from her has to be Barbarella.

As for Ms. Fonda, I admire her, I wish we had more rebels like her in this modern time. Ms. Fonda did a great thing posing with the enemy.

She's not a xenophobe. Good for her!

[Felix]

"celebrate her legacy? are you joking? kim morgan-remember that name and never read his/her tripe again."

This was a joke, right? Are you kidding me?

I say we celebrate her legacy again and again.

Don't worry Kim, I got yo back.

[theron]

Jane Fonda seems to be one of those people, seemingly so often women, that seems to have come of age in the wrong time. The world wasn't ready for a woman like her in the sixties.

Of course, if she hadn't come along when she did, where might we be now? I suppose it boils down to this: It doesn't matter so much when Jane came along, but that she did - and thank God it was during my lifetime...

[K Byrne]

Jane is one of the few people who walked it like she talked it.
The American Rightwing blowhards have used the image of this former pin up girl, a child of Hollywood Babylon at that anti-aircraft gun, to help ensure that working class people won't realize how they got suckered into fighting the Vietnam war. It must be remembered that while she was (however thoughtlessly and ill advisedly) posing in her helmet, those ruling this country had already conceded that the war was lost. See Robert McNamarra in The Fog of War. Read the Nixon Kissinger conversation transcripts. Yet no one is desecrating Tricky Dick's grave, or screaming for Dr. K's head.

Jane, who has reached out, and apologized to veterans for years, had the temerity to stand up politically, while being a woman. In the eyes of some fools, that in itself is an unpardonable sin. Their Barbarella fantasy doll did not OBEY.

[Campaspe]

Whoa. A simple tribute to an uncommonly talented actress, who has repeatedly apologized for the sins of the past, draws 16 pages (at last count) of shrieking hysteria and naked misogyny. Thanks for not letting it get to you. You have real backbone, Ms. Morgan. If you have not seen it already, I am attaching a link to Rick Perlstein's carefully balanced review of Mary Hershberger's Jane Fonda's War.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n22/perl01_.html

I must admit to liking Fonda in "Walk on the Wild Side." Her tarty performance gives the movie some much-needed zest. I find her a bit irritating in "Barefoot in the Park," but her reporter in "The China Syndrome" is a fine, restrained performance that helps keep matters from tilting into dull polemic.

[Chuckwheat]

Fonda and Robt. Redford were very entertaining in "the Electric Horseman."

[theron]

Kim, as I was reading your post yesterday, a (ultra-Republican) co-worker came by my desk and saw the "Hanoi Jane" pic. He commented that he hates Jane Fonda and considers her a traitor for her actions during the war. Now, this is a guy in his mid- to late-thirties and, still, he has extremely strong feelings about this 40-year-old event. "People have been shot for less," he said. My response? "Yeah, people were shot for less yesterday...in Iraq."

Sometimes, it all just truly amazes me...

[Robert]

It’s amazing that people have such a difficult time separating and differentiating the personal life of celebrities from their private life. It’s also way too easy to make Jane Fonda a negative symbol of the liberal sect of Hollywood and try to vitiate her political stance. Within reason, I don’t care about her personal life. That’s her business—not mine.

Having said that, I’m not a big fan of Jane Fonda’s movies. But I did really like her performance in “Barefoot in the Park.” She was more naturally beautiful (and yes…sexy to the point of eroticism in my mind) and funny in “Barefoot” than in “Barbarella.” “Barbarella” was too far over the bend for me. If someone tries too hard to be sexy it usually fails. Plus come on, Redford and Fonda starring in a Neil Simon adapted play about the trials and tribs of their honeymoon in old New York City in 1967? That's a winning hand. Great dialogue, outstanding acting, massive chemistry and irreverent humor…the film flat out works.

Even with the exclusion of “Barefoot”, you still have a shapely Fonda top ten there, Morgan.

[Kim]

The wonderful "Barefoot In the Park" IS on my list. Number 6.

Just so you know.

--kim

[Robert]

My bad. Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

[L]

It's hard to watch politically active actors in movies... I find my mind wandering, thinking things like, "I wonder if X Actor - when studying this character - decided that this character is a Democrat and is playing this character as someone who would vote for what a Democrat would vote for. Would this actor ever play a sympathetic Republican character in a political movie? I wonder if that would be believable..."

And then I snap back to reality and realize I've missed a plot point. So I try to steer clear of reading or hearing about an actor's political ideology. I don't want to know!

That said, I loved 9 to 5! Perhaps it didn't make the list because she had a supporting role? (I'm embarrassed to admit on a movie blog that I haven't seen any of the Fonda movies on this list... I have some catching up to do.)

[Peter Nellhaus]

It's great that Fonda is back on screen. The problem may not be with the parts she picks, but the parts available to older actresses.

[MichaelG]

I saw “Barbarella” for the first time at a drive in Fayetteville North Carolina between tours in Vietnam. I’ve seen most of the movies you reference and have always thought Jane Fonda a beautiful and talented actress. I never really worried about her politics which pretty much mirrored my own. I did wonder about the seemingly self destructive impulse that some of her activities pointed up. I haven’t watched either of her recent movies although from the promo stuff I have seen, she seems to have weathered the last forty years better than I have. The Vadim thing is a case study of sorts with his string of starlets from Bardot and Fonda through others whose names I can’t remember. They shared a look and ultimately, at least the two above, shared an intelligence and commitment to causes that their early film careers didn’t portend. I still don’t see the marriage to Tom Hayden. That had to have been some kind of guilt thing. He’s as dull as I am.

[Felix]

"Barbarella" was... a hot experience for me. I saw it for the first time four years ago and I had difficulty watching it... if you can use your imagination.

While Fonda was just amazing, I thought the Black Queen was deserving of a spanking, and a li'l loving.

[Mr. Albee]

To the above poster, Miss Morgan might not want to use her imagination in that scenario...Grant her some respect here.

As for Fonda, ain't no actress like her. Seriously, if they hollered "Find me a Jane Fonda type!" could it be done? Don't think so.

And my favorite? Has to be "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" I know you love it but watch those extra viewings Kim, that movie fucks with you head.

[Me]

Let me say this: I Love Jane Fonda. To pieces! My three favourite performance of hers would have to be "Klute", "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" and "Coming Home".

I saw "Georgia Rule" the other day. Not the best movie but it wasn't THAT bad either ifyoumanagetoforgetthatLindsayLohanisinit.

[Will Errickson]

Terrific article that I whole-heartedly agree with; coincidental too. I've spent the last month Netflixing many of Jane's movies, then found your site. Once it hits you how great she is, you have no choice but to see everything. And then seeing her on the Colbert Report--!!!

[abozaid]

good