Johnny Got His Gun (1971)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Dalton Trumbo

Writers:

Dalton Trumbo (novel)
Dalton Trumbo (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 August 1972 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

The most shattering experience you'll ever live.

Plot:

Joe, a young American soldier, is hit by a mortar shell on the last day of World War I. He lies in a hospital bed in a fate worse than death...

Plot Keywords:

Dream | Memory | Eyes | Hospital | Soldier

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 3 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Don 'Red' Barry	...	Jody Simmons (as Donald Barry)
Timothy Bottoms	...	Joe Bonham
Craig Bovia	...	Little Guy
Peter Brocco	...	Ancient Prelate
Judy Howard Chaikin	...	Bakery Girl
Kendell Clarke	...	Hospital Offical
Eric Christmas	...	Corporal Timlon
Dalton Trumbo	...	Orator (as Robert Cole)
Maurice Dallimore	...	British Colonel
Robert Easton	...	Third Doctor
Kathy Fields	...	Kareen
Larry Fleischman	...	Russ
Eduard Franz	...	Col. / Gen. Tillery
Anthony Geary	...	Redhead (as Tony Geary)
Ed Gilbert	...	Priest (as Edmund Gilbert)

Also Known As:

Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16 (f) | New Zealand:R16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | USA:R (original rating) | Norway:18

Company:

World Entertainment

Trivia:

Only a minor success at the time of its release, this long-forgotten film became well known in 1989 when it was incorporated in the Metallica video Metallica: 2 of One (1989) (V), which turned it into a cult item.

Quotes:

Father: He eats through a tube. And whatever comes in through a tube has to go out through a tube. He is the armless, legless wonder of the twentieth century. And yet, by God, he's just as alive as you and me.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Metallica: The Videos 1989-2004 (2006) (V)

Maybe the most effective movie I've ever seen

Let me say that I would NOT recommend this to anyone lightly. I feel quite confident saying that there are very few people I know who I think should see it.

It's all about the horror of war. The setting is WWI and involves a very young man, boy really, who has no appendages because of a grenade. The rest of the moving cuts between his horrific vegetative physical state with voice-overs of his thoughts and flashbacks to his rather limited life experiences and a few fantasies or inner monologues.

This was really a soul-shattering movie in a lot of ways. After watching it I couldn't get it out of my head for hours after hours. I couldn't' get to sleep until mid way through the next day. It is just relentlessly brutal in giving detail of true internal psychological torture, seeing a wasted life sacrificed.

I didn't read the book, which I've been told is even more dramatic than the film. I honestly can't imagine that. I don't think I could read the book. Parts of it make me think of "All Quiet on the Western Front" but in far more isolated ways. There's no glory here.

Donald Sutherland's Christ is a fascinating character and compelling. Joe's flashbacks are all meaningful and relate to the "big questions" he's trying to sort out that only seem to provide answer that torture him even more. The scene with his girlfriend early in the movie when the old man says "don't make a whore out of her" is profound in its delivery.

It is fairly artistic in a very dark sense. It's too heavy for some people. They will claim it was boring but that is only for those who have no understanding of the weight of the matters because it doesn't involve them. Make no mistake, this sort of thing goes on every day as there are wars every day.

I'm all about defending and fighting for personal rights, but if this movie were shown in every public school in the world there would be far fewer people willing to fight for the causes of others and the promise of a few more dollars.

I've never seen a movie that moved me so much but in such a sad way. It was perfect in its execution, but then again some lessons are better left unlearned.