Fonda on Film

The Political Movies of Jane Fonda

Nelson Pressley

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Year: 2026
• eBook ISBN:
  9781556522604
• Subtopic: Political Biographies

As much coverage as Jane Fonda has elicited through the years, the stories often skim past her prime filmmaking core. 
Fonda on Film spotlights the signature political films Fonda generated in the 1970s— Coming Home, The China Syndrome, 9 to 5 and more—that are still underappreciated even as Fonda endures as one of the world's most admired and controversial performers. 
This is a movie book about a mega-celebrity, an origin story voyaging through Fonda's learning years in the 1960s and the calculated payoff of the 1970s. She emerged as a Hollywood scion challenged to prove herself while trying to rise above ingenue roles and sex-angst melodramas. Splitting time between the United States and France to stretch her range, Fonda broke through as the perky newlywed of Barefoot in the Park, the sci-fi pinup Barbarella and the Oscar-winning star of the sleek Klute. 
And then Fonda earned her activist stripes with the Vietnam vets' Winter Soldier hearings and her alt-USO F.T.A. tour. She survived the "Hanoi Jane" flap and, by the mid-1970s, transformed into a singular star on an unparalleled moviemaking mission. 
Fonda's long post- Klute break ended with bold comeback hits—comedy and economic justice in Fun with Dick and Jane, high drama and political commitment with Julia. Over the following half decade, Fonda's production company generated the purposeful movies that still underpin her actor-activist persona, including the groundbreaking Coming Home on Vietnam, the timely The China Syndrome on nuclear power and the still-relevant 9 to 5 on workplace equality.
Her more recent work protesting the Iraq War in 2005 and ringleading the 2019–20 Fire Drill Fridays campaigns on Capitol Hill illustrates Fonda's political method—and how it guided her movie work. 
Fonda on Film is a movie buff's book, and a portrait of an iconic activist-artist bridging the gap between streets and screens. 

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Prologue
• 1. She Used to Be a Movie Star, Or It's the Pictures That Got Small
• 2. A New Star in Old Hollywood - Jane • Tall Story • Walk on the Wild Side • The Chapman Report • Period of Adjustment • In the Cool of the Day • Sunday in New York
• 3. On the Ground - Winter Soldier
• 4. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Lessons from the '60s, Part I - Hurry Sundown • The Chase
• 5. Vive la Différence: Lessons from the '60s, Part II - Any Wednesday • Les Félins (Joy House) • La Ronde (Circle of Love) • La Curée (The Game Is Over) • Spirits of the Dead • Barbarella
• 6. Wild in the Streets: Lessons from the '60s, Part III - They Shoot Horses, Don't They? • Klute
• 7. Fighting for It - Steelyard Blues • F.T.A. • Tout Va Bien • Letter to Jane • Introduction to the Enemy
• 8. Fun with Jane and Julia - Fun with Dick and Jane • A Doll's House • Julia
• 9. A Farewell to Arms - Coming Home
• 10. Star, Power - The China Syndrome
• 11. Side Tracks: Horses for Courses - The Electric Horseman • Barefoot in the Park • Cat Ballou • Comes a Horseman
• 12. On Target - 9 to 5
• 13. On “the Money” - On Golden Pond • Rollover
• 14. “The World We're Working For”
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author