Like Charles Laughton's THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Dalton Trumbo's JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN shares a place in cinema history as the only film directed by an artist known for other endeavors. Trumbo received two Oscars for screenwriting for THE BRAVE ONE and ROMAN HOLIDAY while he was blacklisted. His exile from the credits of cinema ended when producer and star Kirk Douglas gave him a credit on SPARTACUS. Eleven years after that he adapted his own novel with uncredited help from Luis Buñuel into this cult classic. Many will only know the film from its inclusion in Metallica's first video ONE. For years, it was unavailable outside of the festival and revival house circuit. It is a chilling antiwar film that is disturbing like a great horror film. The powerful imagery will not leave your mind soon after.
Joe Bonham (Timothy Bottoms, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW) is a young man shipped off to World War I. During a pointless mission, his body is ripped apart by a bomb. He looses all four limbs, his eyes, nose and ears. The only sense that remains is touch. He’s locked in a living nightmare where he is uncertain of day and night and time. He talks with Jesus (Donald Sutherland, SLEUTH), who can’t give him comfort for his condition. Trapped in between dream and reality, he has memories… or are they hallucinations… of his father (Jason Robards, MAGNOLIA), who values his special fishing rod over anything else in the world, because it’s the only thing that makes him special. A nurse (Diane Varsi, PEYTON PLACE) takes pity on him, giving him crucial links to reality.
Trumbo uses black & white film to represent the real world, while Joe’s dreams take place in color. We never see Joe’s injuries. He is always covered in sheets and a mask. We hear Joe’s thoughts in voiceover and his slow discovery and understanding of the extent of his injuries is more frightening than if we saw them firsthand. The surreal quality of Joe’s dreams isn’t overplayed. The strange is played as normal and the normal is presented slightly askew. This makes Joe’s claustrophobic and hopeless reality seem all the more unnerving.
In the film, Trumbo uses Joe’s condition to critique war and existence. How do you know you are awake if you don’t have eyes to open or a mouth to scream or ears to hear others with? If you can’t participate in the world, is life worth living? Trumbo touches on great ironies as well. Generals send young men out to kill and be killed, but when they are injured they try every measure to keep them alive. In his new freakish condition, Joe is kept in a utility closet with closed shutters, because the military wants to keep him breathing, but don’t want anyone to see the product of their profession. He’d really be bad for recruiting.
Trumbo claimed that the film wasn’t antiwar, but simply an examination of Joe’s life after his injuries. But it would be foolish not deny the message of that story. The injured are often the forgotten of wars. Governments often take the lives of young men, who are still alive, but don’t give back in equal return. If you think this is a thing of the past, just ask a soldier from Walter Reed or one suffering from life altering injuries if they’ve received more than what they gave. Is life worth living if you’re 20 and can’t ever earn a living? That lies at the core of the film’s theme. Trumbo hauntingly brings this through. SOS will never be the same. Like the universal sign of distress, this film is also a call for help.
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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
