Fonda on Film: The Political Movies of Jane Fonda

by Nelson Pressley

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. 

Genres: Nonfiction

312 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 3, 2026

Reviews

[John Schorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those of us old enough to remember, there was a time when movies meant Jane Fonda. She was admired and loathed with equal fervor... to the point where she STILL gets called Hanoi Jane.

While Fonda's long and laudable career of activism gets mention here, the focus is more on her prime as an actor: the 1970s, which means They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Klute, Julia, Coming Home, and The China Syndrome, with a chapter on Nine To Five thrown in.

All are given their due, in a manner that is informative and easy digestible. In fact, the author manages to hit on a goodly chunk of Fonda's career, as well as a number of other prominent films of the era, such as Medium Cool.

But it is in the six films mentioned above where this book really shines. They show an actor truly at the peak of her talent, working at the service of stories that are interesting and very debatable into the wee hours of the morning.

Jane Fonda may be remembered more these days as a radical of the old school, but she was a hell of a talent, and I am envious of anyone who uses this book as a chance to discover her through seeing Klute or The China Syndrome for the first time.

[Anna Wolverton]

So good & informative, learned so much not only about Fonda but the sociopolitical context for her movies and other movies from each era! Dragged at parts, but I think that's inevitable with a topic this big and so much to cover.