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Johnny Got His Gun [1971]


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To End All Wars
Review date: 2008-07-29 Rating: 8 out of 10

Johnny Got his Gun is a film based on Dalton Trumbo's classic novel. Trumbo is most famous today as being blacklisted during the 1950's and also for his script work on Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus. He also wrote the screenplay for this film and lent some of his directing skills towards it.

The story follows a young American soldier called Joe Bonham who enlists in the army to fight during the First World War. While attempting to save a friend during a skirmish, he is struck by an artillery shell. Waking up in a hospital he is dazed and confused. It slowly dawns on him that he has lost his arms and legs, and his face has been torn off, leaving him unable to see, hear, speak or smell. Trapped in his body he is unable to tell his doctors that he is still conscious, as they believe he's brain dead. They decide to keep him alive as a top secret experiment.

Joe cannot escape, not from his situation or from his mind. His only contact with the outside world is through feeling the reverberations of the footsteps on the wooden floor beside his bed. He begins to slip further and further into his own thoughts. It is through these thoughts that we see him as as he was before his injuries. We see him with the girlfriend he left behind, and the childhood conversations with his father. Tragically the only solace Joe finds is in these memories. Yet he also suffers from surreal nightmares, including haunting visions of Jesus Christ. He begins to lose track of time and reality.

A new nurse on the ward begins to sympathise with him. She believes that Joe is still conscious and she attempts to speak to him by writing letters out on his chest. Joe can only reply by shaking his body, which does not convince the army command. Eventually Joe discovers a way in which he could contact the outside world and perhaps find a purpose for his miserable and terrible existence.

This is a brilliant although tragic and bleak film. I doubt that any other film I've seen has such a bleak and pessimistic outlook, and as such this film shouldn't be watched if you are a sensitive person. The only negative points I can see with the film is that it comes across as somewhat dated in some scenes, but this is forgivable and not overly distracting. An excellent and terrifying film that exposes the true horrors of war.

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Reviews


Best film I have seen in a long time! Ace!
Review date: 2007-04-24 Rating: 10 out of 10

Whenever I saw the music video for Metallica's 'one' I found the clips of this film in it intriguing so I decided to watch the film.
What the character, Joe, in this film is going through is completely incomprehensible. No arms, no legs, no face but still living & mentally active. That's whats so disturbing.
If the ending of this film doesn't leave you spooked, I'll eat my hat!!

"SOS, Kill me"
Review date: 2006-05-04 Rating: 10 out of 10

What would you do if you lost your arms, your legs, you cannot talk and you get confined to a bedroom in some gloomy hospital? Well, that's the thing about this movie. A young man went to war and ended like a human waste. What we understand is that the war is not a joke, not a bomb and explosion movie. War is this, a mutilated guy who only wants to die to end the nightmare.

Johnny give us his perspective of his environment and of his new "world": feeding, bath, test, people coming and so on. The continuos flashbakcs give us more perspective of his life and what he was before the accident.

Sometimes hard to see, it's a beautiful movie in the end, powerful and emotive.

Johnny got his gun
Review date: 2004-09-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is one of the most powerful movies i have ever watched, i guess the impact and origionality of this film makes it more of a one time watch than something you can see over and over again. This isnt a bad factor though, as the impact of watching it for the first time is one that you will never forget.
While the movie flitters between the present and Joe's memories, the atmosphere never changes, constantly drenched in depression and despair. While every second of the movie adds to the macabre feeling, one of the most clostraphobic scenes comes when Joe realising and having to come to terms with the fact that he has no arms, no legs, and no face and that he is trapped inside his mind for the rest of his 'life.' Its impossible to even imagine being in such a horrific position. The scenes featuring Joe's hallucinations of Christ are especially intriguing and sadenning at the same time. The ending shows off the purity and heart of some people and likewise the stubbornness and twisted nature of others, all this surrounded by a incredibly heavy atmosphere.
The overall appearence that this film takes on is an intense portrait of the horrific nature of war. The sight and the thought of Joe's condition is enough to turn anyone anti-war and for that the director is successful. It gives a devastatingly real insight into what could happen to what the government uses as nameless puppet soldiers, and shows that the soldiers actually have lives, relationships, famillies and hopes that are obliterated as they're sent to war to die or even worse, end up like Joe at such young stages of their lives, upon someonelses desicion.
Horrifying, gripping, unforgetable and real!

A very good film
Review date: 2004-06-25 Rating: 8 out of 10

I have only recently seen this film, I have been trying for years to get a copy of it without much success. I read the book years ago. The film however in my opinion does not have quite the same impact as the book. The book is much more thought-provoking.

Both the film and the book are very good warnings on the horror of war. Yes, the character in it is an extreme case but countless people have returned from wars throughout the years in similar situations with limbs missing, blind, deaf, etc. (Some might say that they were the lucky ones; at least they got to come home alive!)

I think every politician should be made sit down and read this book (or watch the film) before they are allowed to make a decision to send soldiers out to war!

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Craig Bovia
Judy Howard Chaikin
Peter Brocco
Don 'Red' Barry
Timothy Bottoms

Creators:
Don 'Red' Barry (Primary Contributor)
Timothy Bottoms (Primary Contributor)
Dalton Trumbo (Writer)
Jules Brenner (Cinematographer)
Bruce Campbell (Producer)
Christopher Trumbo (Producer)
Tom Tryon (Producer)
Tony Monaco (Producer)
Luis Buñuel (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Arrow Films
Manufacturer: Arrow Films
EAN: 5027035003122
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2004-06-07
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 115 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1971
Language: English (Original Language)

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