The classic anti-war movie!.
During WW I in a hospital somewhere in Europe, a horrifically mutilated
soldier named Joe (Timothy Bottoms), left limbless and faceless from a shell
explosion, and thought by the medical staff to be a "vegetable", comes to
realize the situation he is in. In his desperate attempt to establish
communication with the outer world - he isn't able to speak as he hasn't a
mouth and he can't write since his arms were cut off - he falls back on a
series of fantasies fusing myth and reality. Using differing color techniques
to differentiate between pure dreamlike fantasy, remembrances of his life
before the war and the cold, harsh (black & white) reality of his current
situation, cinematographer Jules Brenner visually reinforces Joe's first and
only night with his girlfriend, his encounters with a very pessimistic Christ
(Donald Sutherland), and events with his father (Jason Robards). And as the
doctors can't decide what to do with him other than to put him as far out of
the way as they can, a young nurse seems to be the only person able to hear
Johnny's inner, desperate cries...
From our VariaGallery, we present frames from the anti-war movie,
"Johnny Got His Gun" as well as a statement by the cinematographer and
comments by reviewers and others who have seen this movie. This site has
become one of our most visited, showing that the issues discussed in the
movie are timeless and that this film, like the book from which it is drawn,
is likely to live on for a long time.
It's a classic, following the status earned by the original book, also
written by Dalton Trumbo. The film is the first and only film directed by
Dalton Trumbo. See our "Johnny Got His Gun" page? And, after you've gone
through it, you might want to visit other JB movies.
