Movie Review: Johnny Got His Gun

Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun is something of a strange film. The movies inspiration was a novel also written by Trumbo, who not only did the screenplay adaptation but directed the film (before this was commonplace with movies like Sin City, Persepolis, Doubt and Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Johnny Got His Gun’s claim to fame up until the present has been as a result of its use as the inspiration for and used in Metallica’s “One” and because of Trumbo’s blacklisting along with the rest of the Hollywood Ten. The novel was written after WWI, shortly before WWII, to be an indicting anti-war piece, but apparently it didn’t really find an audience until the Vietnam Era; it was at this same time that it was adapted for the screen. Now, amid strife in the Middle East, it has, for the first time, been released on DVD; the film obviously has a very political context and connotation, completely separate from its content. Trumbo’s film has moments of brilliance, and is a scathing look at war, but the film does have some major shortcomings.

Click the Rawr! for the full review.

The hero of the film is Joe Bonham (Timothy Bottoms), a young American soldier who goes to fight in WWI, glad to fulfill his “patriotic duty,” completely unconcerned with the possible negative repercussions. Of course, as is always the case with an anti-war story, Joe realizes the error of his ways after it is too late; Joe is left crippled, his arms and legs have been blown off or amputated, he can’t see, can’t speak, can’t hear. As Joe lies, helpless in his hospital bed, the audience is given a glimpse of the completely mentally astute person that resides within this shell of his former self; through voice-over and flashback/dream/nightmare sequences (which are shot in color, presumably for differentiation) the audience is shown what got Joe to where he is, all that he has lost in the process, and the humanity and perseverance of the human spirit. Eventually Joe begins to adapt to his new way of life (figuring out a system to count days, realizing that he can feel the vibrations that are caused when somebody else is in his hospital room with him), and the biggest breakthrough comes when he learns that he can tap his head against his pillow to communicate with others through Morse code.

During the opening credits of the film, so as to set the tone of the political nature of what is to come, documentary footage is used to great avail. Stark black and white photography of the Politicians that caused the war is used however, because of the use of this footage at the beginning rather than the end of the film, the ironic and wry tone that feels as though it was strived for is all but lost. Had this footage been used at the end of the film (or, perhaps, with a second viewing) a heartbreaking emotion could have been achieved as we saw those responsible for Joe’s plight, however with the footage coming at the beginning of the film it really just comes off as being an ambitiously brief history lesson.

Throughout the film the question of reality is often brought up. The question of whether Joe’s visions are flashbacks, or memories, or nightmares is brought up more than once. This is heightened by the use of color film vs. black & white used. All of the “unreal” scenes are shot in color; all of the “real” scenes (those of Joe in the hospital) are shot in black and white. The use of both color and black & white photography, apart from the obvious benefit of making the “real” and “unreal” scenes easily distinguishable, is used to give the horror of what Joe is going through more of a pertinent feeling. Also various character have their own commentaries of their interpretation of what is and is not real; characters tell Joe “God is reality” and other similarly allegorical messages to the point that none of these questions of reality are ever really as interesting as the question posed as the movie overall of what reality is or isn’t.

Johnny Got His Gun as a novel or as a film has a distinct and undeniable anti-war message. The nature of a war (or anti-war) film being what it is, they are inherently, necessarily political; in other words it is impossible to have a politically neutral war film. This makes Johnny Got His Gun suffer the same problem that every political film suffers, and that is that it is hard to like the movie if you dislike the politics and vice versa.

The performances of the film struck me as being unusually weak. Most of the performances have the dated, antiquated feel that many films do 38 years later after their initial release. However this film does have one particularly great performance, that of Donald Sutherland as Christ. He makes only two appearances in the film, but he completely steals the movie whenever he comes on; his presentation of Jesus is that of a deeply thoughtful, less preachy religious figure. More significant is that many of the characters including (two time Oscar winner) Jason Robards as Joe’s Father and Donald Sutherland’s Christ are resigned to a scene or two; they provide a welcome escape from the monotony of the rest of the film, however they are extremely underutilized. Additionally Timothy Bottoms has the difficult task of having most of his performance hid underneath the mask that he wears and while being stuck to his hospital bed.

Also, being that the film comes from a novel, it suffers the challenge of having to translate Joe’s inner-monologue onto the screen. Trumbo chose to do this through voice over, a reasonable choice, however when much of the voice over is about Joe’s disabilities it comes off as over-the-top, laughable nonsense.

Johnny Got His Gun left me with unusually strong mixed feelings. I really wanted to like the movie, I tried to, and I am a fan of the novel. Is it possible to like many of the disparate elements of a film, and not like the overall result? If that is possible, it is the case with this movie. The writing is not terribly strong, but the ideas are present and (per my hypothesis about political movies) relevant. Performances are as good as they can be with the writing being as weak as it is. Johnny Got His Gun is probably as good a movie as possible considering that the plot is about a person trapped in their own body and mind (when considering the difference in era, it is comparable to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which touches largely on similar themes), however in the greater scheme of things it is mediocre at best.