The Vietnam War produced classic Hollywood films — and hardly any classic female roles

A rare contrast was Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home” the same year, in which Fonda and Jon Voight both won Oscars for the tale of a Marine wife embroiled in an intense affair with a wounded veteran at the rehab center where she volunteers. “This is the only Hollywood film set during the Vietnam War that’s told from the point of view of a female character,” says filmmaker Tony Bui, who also teaches Vietnam War cinema at Columbia University. The character is emblematic of the way Vietnamese culture has long portrayed the woman: fierce, loyal and resilient in the face of adversity, argues Duong.