{"id":4139,"date":"2009-04-10T23:24:35","date_gmt":"2009-04-11T07:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=4139"},"modified":"2009-04-19T14:19:24","modified_gmt":"2009-04-19T22:19:24","slug":"johnny-got-his-gun-dalton-trumbo-1971-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=4139","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Got His Gun (Dalton Trumbo, 1971): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Richard Feilden<\/a>. Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"DVD releases are funny things. \u00a0Films best forgotten are pushed out left, right and center, while more deserving titles languish beyond the reach of the public. \u00a0Thankfully, every now and then, art gets the better of profit and a classic emerges from the past. \u00a0Written and directed by Dalton Trumbo, one of the infamous Hollywood 10, Johnny Got His Gun<\/a><\/span><\/em> is such a classic.<\/p>\n

Set during World War I, the film is the story of Joe Bonham (Timothy Bottoms). \u00a0An unremarkable boy, from an unremarkable family, he volunteers to fight in the name of democracy– a concept he doesn\u2019t comprehend, but whose importance he understands. \u00a0Sent out into no-man\u2019s-land on a pointless mission, he is struck by an artillery shell. \u00a0Medical science overtakes common sense and, against all odds, the limbless, faceless Joe is kept alive, as the doctors hold on to the mistaken belief that the unidentifiable boy is brain dead. \u00a0Without limbs, he cannot move, and without a face he cannot see, hear, smell, taste or speak. \u00a0He is utterly trapped within his own flesh. \u00a0Slipping between the world of dreams, and the reality of the hunk of helpless meat within which his conscious mind is trapped, Joe rails against his condition, searching for a way to connect with the real world, especially the nurse who cares for him. \u00a0Comparisons with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly are impossible to ignore, and this film measures up well to Julian Schnabel\u2019s lauded creation.
\nJoe\u2019s hallucinations tend towards the abstract and the surreal. \u00a0While they generally lack the overt visual effects of Easy Rider\u2019s hallucination sequence, as the film progresses and the years pass, their content begins to suggest a drug-induced trip–no surprise given the sedatives that Joe receives. \u00a0He begins by reliving the events which occurred before he left for war, apparently quite clearly, but by the end of the film he is arguing with Jesus (Donald Sutherland) and seeing himself as the center of a freak show. \u00a0The two worlds also begin to merge and affect each other; a nurse\u2019s attempt to provide Joe with a little pleasure in his life through masturbation turns into a joyous emergence from a body of water, an idea that his dead father provides gives Joe the key to communication. \u00a0When trapped back in reality, Joe\u2019s voice can be heard by the audience, often screaming ineffectually at those he senses surround him. \u00a0The claustrophobic sense of isolation reminded me of that created by 1978s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but when divorced from its science fiction setting, it is all the more frightening.
\nOne of the most distinctive elements of Johnny Got His Gun is the use of color. \u00a0The film switches between black and white and color cinematography to separate Joe\u2019s dreams and hallucinations from his tortured reality. \u00a0However, in defiance of convention, the dream world is in color and the real in black and white, highlighting the reality of Joe\u2019s imagination and the artificiality of his physical existence. \u00a0Once you get used to this reversal of convention, it is very effective. \u00a0Black and white isn\u2019t being used because it makes the film seem \u2018arty\u2019 and \u2018serious\u2019, it is being used to tell us something.
\nWhen Roger Ebert reviewed this film on its original release, he commended it for being a war movie that didn\u2019t ram its message down the audience\u2019s throat. \u00a0Although the futile death and destruction that occurs during war is certainly highlighted, the need to defend the world is not ignored (though the responsibility and price of that defense is foisted upon those without the education to understand it entirely). \u00a0Like the other, more popular classics of the late 60s and early 70s, from Bonnie and Clyde to The Godfather, this film still holds the power to affect the audience that it held on its release. \u00a0In keeping with the best films of the period, there are no trite solutions and no unjustified happy ending. \u00a0The victories, when they come, are flags on sandcastles, quickly washed away by an unrelenting tide, just as they should be. \u00a0This is certainly not a “feel-good” film, but the same could be said of many of the very best films that have been produced. \u00a0You may not come away smiling, but you will come away thinking.
\nThe disc, which will be released on April 28th, is also packed with extras, from information on Trumbo and interviews with the film\u2019s star through to Metallica\u2019s video for One, an early track which heavily featured clips from the film and which was my introduction to it. \u00a0It\u2019s nice to see extras done right for a change. \u00a0Johnny Got His Gun will make a worthy addition to the collection of any fan of 1970s American films.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Richard Feilden. Viewed on DVD. DVD releases are funny things. \u00a0Films best forgotten are pushed out left, right and center, while more deserving titles languish beyond the reach of the public. \u00a0Thankfully, every now and then, art gets the better of profit and a classic emerges from the past. \u00a0Written and directed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}