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:

Soldier | Hospital | Eyes | Mouth | Dream

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 3 wins & 2 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Wed. July 15

10:00 PM

TCM

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:

Joe: I don't know whether I'm alive and dreaming or dead and remembering.

Movie Connections:

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

A fate worse than death

Johnny awakes in a hospital to gradually find that he has lost his limbs and most of his sensory organs. He is being kept alive in a bizarre experiment to see just how long a torso can live in sensory deprivation. The doctors are convinced he has no real feeling, but he has dreams and memories and slowly pieces together what has happened to him. In his desperation he finds a way to communicate with a young nurse who cares for him and though she has been told he has no feeling; she finds otherwise, and tries to make the doctors aware. Johnny wants the world to know what has happened to him, what the war has done to him. Will they heed his plea or will they leave him in the living nightmare of isolation? This may be, on the surface, an anti war film, but underlying it all is a deep anti-establishment theme, for it is the politicians, the establishment who don't want to recognise this young man as a real person with feelings. He has no arms, you see, no eyes, no ears. His plight could not have been worse if he had dark skin or lacked external genitalia. He is a symbol of the ignorance of the establishment and though there is a possibility this story could be literally true, it is equally possible that Johnny could represent every single one of us, trapped in a place where we do not want to be, and no-one will listen...

LLB