Top 10 Quotes: "The War At Home"

This 1996 drama directed by Emilio Estevez tells the heartbreaking story of a Vietnam veteran's first Thanksgiving with his family since returning to Texas.

1. Karen: The final battle of Vietnam was fought along an unrecognized front, far from the shellings and the smell of napalm and the sound of planes and guns. It was a battle my brother Jeremy fought when he came back.

2. Bob: (says this repeatedly before showing people pictures of a young Jeremy) Did I ever tell you I was friends with a famous cowboy?

3. Maurine: I wish they would make Thanksgiving on a Sunday, then everyone could go to a service before they eat with their families. It'd be more religious, like it was with the Pilgrims.
Jeremy: What about the Indians?
Maurine: Oh, there were no Indians at the first Thanksgiving.

4. Bob: (to his nephew) 299. Don't tell me you don't know what that means, David. I think your old man knows what it means, don't you, Howe? That's your goddamn birthday, David, for when they pulled the numbers out for the draft card lottery. 299, that's the number that saved your ass from having to go and fight in Vietnam. Would you like to know what Jeremy's number was? It was 8! 8! 8!

5. Maurine: (about Jeremy) I just don't understand what went wrong. His whole life, he was so
grown-up, so polite.
Karen: War changes people.
Maurine: War doesn't make you rude to your parents.

6. Jeremy: Look, if you're gonna talk to me about car wrecks, you can stop right now.
Bob: What? What are you talking about?
Jeremy: You told me more people die in car wrecks each year than died in Vietnam.
Bob: I may have said that--
Jeremy: Not "may have." Did.

7. Melissa: They were scary, your letters.
Jeremy: They were scary 'cause I was scared.

8. Karen: (about Maurine) She's gonna have a nervous breakdown.
Jeremy: I know she wants one. I know she ain't gonna be happy 'til she has one.

9. Jeremy: I don't cheer when I just woke up.

10. Maurine: (about the Indians at the first Thanksgiving) I'm sure they were all Christians by then.
Jeremy: Oh no, they weren't.