By then [1965] we had cottoned on to what a Harold Pinter play ought to be, and with The Homecoming it was all too tempting to round on Pinter and accuse him of breaking his own rules: actually supplying characters with biographies and a shared past, and otherwise ripping the veil of ominous ambiguity.
As always, of course, Pinter was busy extending his territory, and it is easy to recognise the play, in Kevin Billingtonís sabre-toothed revival, as a technical advance on The Birthday Party and The Caretaker.
It extends the territorial metaphor from a single room to a household of bears sharing the same pit; it extends the conflict across the boundaries of class; and it achieves the most intense expression of compressed violence to be found anywhere in Pinter's plays.
Review by Irving Wardle (1978)

In North London, as all-male be-hive of inactivity is ruled with a foul mouth and as iron hand by the abusive Max (Paul Rogers) and his brother, the priggish palace eunuch Sam (Cyril Cusack). Rounding out the precision vulgarity of THE HOMECOMING’s “situation tragedy” are the sons, punch-drunk demolition man Joey (Terence Rigby) and the magnificent Ian Holm (LORD OF THE RINGS, THE WEET HEREAFTER) AS PIMP-SMART Lenny. When, under cover of darkness, the prodigal son Teddy (Michael Jayston) brings his wife Ruth (Vivien Merchant) home to meet his family for the first time, he gets far more and less than he bargained for. To Teddy’s rueful discomfort, Ruth’s Mona Lisa smile forms the gateway to a labyrinth of Freudian dread, venal family values and naked neediness that could only come from the mind of Harold Pinter.

Director Sir Peter Hall re-renders his original Royal Shakespeare Company London stage triumph as a bleached, claustrophobic delirium that exploits the jagged tempos and seductive tensions of Printer’s best play as no theatre staging could. The New York Times declared the American film Theatre’s productions of THE HOMECOMING, “a movie of astonishing dynamism.” Indeed, director Atom Egoyan (THE SWEET HEREAFTER) went so far as to say, “I often find myself seeking solace from this film. Its poetry and twisted sense of compassion and humor have assuaged many moments of despair and confusion. Other people have religion, I have my copy of THE HOMECOMING”.


Directed by
Peter Hall

Writing credits
Harold Pinter

Cast (in alphabetical order)
Cyril Cusack .... Sam, brother of Max
Ian Holm .... Lenny
Michael Jayston .... Teddy
Vivien Merchant .... Ruth
Terence Rigby .... Joey
Paul Rogers .... Max, father of Lenny, Teddy, and Joey
Jonathan Sachar .... Brian

Runtime: 111 min
Country: UK / USA
Language: English
Color: Color (Eastmancolor)
Sound Mix: Mono
Certification: Singapore:NC-16 / USA:PG