Johnny Got His Gun

• Director: Dalton Trumbo
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: War
• Movie Type: Anti-War Film, Social Problem Film
• Themes: Military Life, Haunted By the Past
• Main Cast: Timothy Bottoms
• Release Year: 1971
• Country: US
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• MPAA Rating: GP

Plot

The author of the famous late 1930's antiwar book Johnny Got His Gun wrote and directed this film adaptation. It concerns a nameless young soldier (Timothy Bottoms) in a veteran's hospital in the World War I period. The young man has had his face blown off, he is without the use of any of his senses save touch, and also has no arms or legs. He is in a coma at the beginning of the film, and his doctors doubt that he will regain consciousness. This is also what they hope. A nurse, while changing his dressings, discovers that he is awake and responsive. The unrelieved awfulness of his situation is apparent to many. However, in order to keep the "good order" of the military, the regular Army general commanding the hospital will not allow the boy to be seen or his family notified, nor will he permit anyone to perform a mercy killing. Interspersed with this horror are flashbacks of the youth's life before the war. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Review

Though he wrote the novel in 1939, when Hollywood Ten survivor Dalton Trumbo finally got to transform Johnny Got His Gun (1971) into a film, it had become all the more timely. A relentlessly grim antiwar allegory about a World War I soldier left with only his mind intact, Johnny Got His Gun spoke to the Vietnam era disgust with the hollow homilies about democracy and duty that only lead to personal annihilation. Trumbo's thought-provoking message about the deleterious effects of social and military myopia, however, is undermined by his own weaknesses as a first-time director. Though the central black-and-white images of Timothy Bottoms' faceless, armless, and legless Joe carry undeniable power, underscored by a padre's well-spoken assessment of the military's dehumanizing don't ask/don't tell attitude, Joe's color flashbacks and fantasies are a muddled, pretentious mess. The performances, including Jason Robards as Joe's father, Donald Sutherland as Jesus Christ, and Kathy Fields as The Girl, are similarly a mix of touching emotion and stilted theatrics. Regardless, Johnny Got His Gun won a prize at Cannes and remains a strikingly antiestablishment document. Health problems prevented Trumbo from directing again before he died in 1976. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Cast

Don "Red" Barry - Jody Simmons; Timothy Bottoms - Johnny; Craig Bovia - Little Guy; Peter Brocco - Ancient Prelate; Judy Howard Chaikin - Bakery Girl; Eric Christmas - Cpl. Timlon; Kenneth Clark - Hospital Official; Robert Cole - Orator; Maurice Dallimore - British Colonel; Robert Easton; Kathy Fields - The Girl; Eduard Franz - Col./Gen. Tillery; Anthony Geary; Ed Gilbert - Priest; Ben Hammer - Doctor; Wayne Heffley - Captain; Marsha Hunt - Mother; Jason Robards, Jr. - Father; Joseph Kaufmann - Rudy; Kerry MacLane - Joe at 10; Charles McGraw - The Girl's Father; William Mims - Gentleman; Byron Morrow - Brigadier General; Alice Nunn; Marge Redmond; Jodean Russo - Nurse; David Soul - Swede; Donald Sutherland - "Christ"; Tom Tryon; Diane Varsi - Nurse; Gigi Vorgan - Catherine at 13; Bruce Watson - Technician; Sandy Wyeth - Lucky; Milton Barnes - Reader; Peter Virgo Jr. - Attendant

Credit

Christopher Trumbo - Associate Producer, Tony Monaco - Associate Producer, Tony Monaco - Casting, Jerry Fielding - Conductor, Theadora Van Runkle - Costume Designer, Dalton Trumbo - Director, William P. Dornisch - Editor, Millie Moore - Editor, Jerry Fielding - Composer (Music Score), Harold Michelson - Production Designer, Jules Brenner - Cinematographer, Bruce Post Campbell - Producer, Dalton Trumbo - Screenwriter, Marvin Weldon - Script Supervisor, Dalton Trumbo - Book Author

Similar Movies

Apocalypse Now; Born on the Fourth of July; Casualties of War; Full Metal Jacket; A Midnight Clear; Paths of Glory; Summertree; Ascendancy; Men Must Fight; Resurrected; Saving Private Ryan

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