Barefoot in the Park (1967)
A gorgeous Jane Fonda and a deliciously handsome Robert Redford playing newlyweds in a film adaptation of Neil Simon’s Broadway hit – what’s not to love? Fonda as the free-spirited (and passionate) new bride looking to loosen up her unadventurous hubby finds herself on the receiving end of flirting from an amorous and eccentric Frenchman (Charles Boyer). Lots of double-entendres, smart dialogue and, well, one can’t help but wonder what a baby with both Fonda and Redford’s genes would look like.
Barbarella (1968)
Sure, this futuristic sci-fi based on the risque comic-book series is pretty bizarro at times, like when Fonda’s intrepid space adventurer character nurses a blind angel from a distant galaxy back to health by having sex with him, there’s one thing that cannot be disputed – Fonda is sizzling hot in it. This film, which was directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim, made her an overnight sex symbol and became a camp classic, with one critic calling it “a gift-wrapped ‘X’ certificate bonbon for a space age nursery.”
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969)
Fonda plays a ground-down and hopeless contestant in a Depression-era dance marathon that’s more Bataan Death March than “American Bandstand.” When she loses her partner to bronchitis, she hooks up with young drifter Michael Sarrazin, as sleazebag MC Gig Young manipulates the proceedings and the contestants. Fonda’s weariness is palpable as the days and weeks drag on, couples drop off (and die off), alliances shift and partners swap. By the time Fonda’s Gloria finally stops dancing, you may be too exhausted to pick your jaw off the ground. Sydney Pollack directed Fonda to an Oscar nomination in what Roger Ebert called one of the best American movies of the ’70s, and it may have been the movie that proved she could do pretty much anything.
Klute (1971)
Jane Fonda earned her first Oscar and notched a revolutionary portrayal of a hooker-in-therapy who gets involved with the titular detective (Donald Sutherland) investigating the disappearance of one of her johns. Character supersedes procedural under director Alan Pakula. And as Bree Danials, Fonda strikes an awe-inspiring balance between hard-bitten and hopeful, delivering cinema’s all-time most cutting post-coital line to John Klute, while also confessing her feelings in therapy and gamely trying to break into the acting business. (In the latter, she finds less control and is met with far less enthusiasm than in her chosen trade.) Fonda famously shadowed real New York call girls for the role, but her intelligence and assertiveness evaporate any stereotypes and make for a groundbreaking character in the early ’70s.
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Fun With Dick and Jane (1977)
Although this is one film that would never hold up to today’s politically correct standards – from George Segal donning blackface during a stage play to the casual dropping of homophobic jokes and stereotypical portrayal of Latinos – there are some truly funny moments of Fonda and Segal playing a wealthy couple who find themselves broke and d-e-s-p-e-r-a-t-e for money when Dick’s crooked boss frames him. And in many ways, 45 years later, this social comedy has some glaring similarities to the plight of many today.
Coming Home (1978)
Fonda deservedly won her second Oscar for this film playing Sally, the earnest, undaunted wife of a U.S. Marine Corps officer Bob (Bruce Dern), who is deployed in Vietnam. While Bob is away, Sally volunteers at a veteran’s hospital, where she reconnects with a former school friend, Luke (Jon Voight), whose injuries sustained at war left him a paraplegic. They eventually make love, and she climaxes for the first time. “Coming Home” was Fonda’s brainchild and the first film under her production company IPC Films, as she wanted to make a movie about the Vietnam War and her friendship with Ron Kovic, who was portrayed by Tom Cruise in “Born on the Fourth of July.” It still stands as one of her best.
Julia (1977)
Fonda was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe, deservedly so, playing author Lillian Hellman recounting her friendship with a woman (Julia, as played by Vanessa Redgrave), who fought against the Nazis pre-World War II. At the time the film was in development, both Fonda and Redgrave were known to be politically outspoken, a combination that could have been a publicity nightmare. It wasn’t. The film went on to become a critical hit with 11 Oscar nominations and three wins.
The China Syndrome (1979)
Life imitated art in the most lethal way possible when, on March 28, 1979, the nuclear power plant Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania had a partial meltdown — just 12 days after the theatrical release of “China Syndrome.” Fonda stars as Kimberly Wells, a TV news reporter who, along with her cameraman (played by Michael Douglas) and a nuclear plant supervisor (Jack Lemmon), join forces to alert the public of a potential catastrophe. Fonda, who was nominated for both an Oscar and Golden Globe, prepared for her role by shadowing female TV reporters. According to Rob Dixon of TCM, “The genesis of ‘The China Syndrome’ came partly from Jane Fonda’s roots as a political activist. Opposition to nuclear power was a centerpiece of the program of the Campaign for Economic Democracy, founded by Fonda’s then-husband, Tom Hayden.”
9 to 5 (1980)
If you haven’t seen “9 to 5,” stop everything you’re doing – even reading this – and go find it streaming somewhere. Fonda, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda are comedy magic as three smarter-than-their-sexist-boss-would-like-them-to-be secretaries, who reach a breaking point. And comedy ensues big time. Fonda plays the shy Judy, whose husband ran off with a younger woman; Tomlin plays the experienced, sharp-tongued Violet; and Parton is Doralee, the voluptuous (surprise, surprise) Doralee, who is a victim of the rumor mill. It is, yes, a social commentary so topical today, but it is also hilarious.
On Golden Pond (1981)
An estranged relationship between a father who doesn’t know how to express his love and a devastated daughter aching for a connection. That is both the theme of “On Golden Pond” and it echoed the real relationship between Jane and Henry Fonda. In one heartbreaking scene in which Jane’s Chelsea tells her father she wants to be friends, the audience can feel their real-life emotions breaking through. Jane tells it best: “We shot dad’s close up first I so wanted it to be a full emotional scene for him, and so I gave my all to him for his close-ups, and I saved one thing for last,” she said in an AFI interview. “He wasn’t used to ever doing anything that hadn’t been rehearsed. He didn’t like surprises. And so at the very last, when I said, ‘I want to be your friend,’ I reached out and I touched his arm. And I could see him seize up. I could see tears begin in his eyes and then he ducked his head and turned away. But I saw. I saw.”
