Review: Johnny Got His Gun

Timothy Bottoms plays a soldier in WWI who after being severely wounded in battle, is left with no arms, no legs, no hearing, no speech, and no sight (Landmine! – Had to do it). He is being kept alive in hospital by unfeeling, insensitive doctors (one of the film’s big statements is that this is a war fought by the young sent by the elder generation, who should be condemned for their ‘crimes’) who assume him a hopeless case and contemplate conducting experiments on him. He can think, but his thoughts are somewhat hazy memories and dreams (featuring his father Jason Robards and even Jesus Christ, played by Donald Sutherland!) that help us relate more to Bottoms (given that in his current state, he’s practically dead), but for him, only serve to torment him. He needs to find a way to communicate to that nice young nurse (Diane Varsi) that he is indeed still alive, still a person.

Said by some to be the most depressing film of all-time, and later to be used as the story (and visuals) for Metallica’s first-ever music video for the classic “One” (from the “...And Justice for All” album, not to be confused with the film of the same name), this uber-weird, surrealist 1971 anti-war flick from writer-director Dalton Trumbo (writer of “A Guy Named Joe” and “Spartacus”) is a real mixed bag. When it focuses on the present, with the stark, B&W cinematography and just Bottoms internal monologue and a few other mutterings from peripheral characters as this wounded man lay helpless in his hospital bed, with only his mind working- it’s truly harrowing, haunting stuff. Bottoms’ performance in these scenes is hammy, but under the circumstances, I’m surprised he gave a performance at all, and he is definitely part of the reason for the most effective (and affecting) parts of the film. Even the most hardened, unabashed war-lovin’ person could not possibly be left unmoved by these scenes that seem half surreal/experimental, and half docudrama. Then we get the colour scenes set somewhere in the trippy, but sanctimonious wilderness between memory and dream/fantasy. These scenes make little sense, and are stylistically at odds with the rest of the film. Instead of the stark, realistic scenes with Bottoms helpless in hospital whilst doctors contemplate conducting tests on him, we get pretentious, frankly confusing (I never could tell if these were dreams or memories, or some of both) moments that do not seem to take place in the real world, and clash with the rest of the film. Sometimes they even clash with each other, some scenes are sentimental, others just plain weird. These scenes might have worked in a film of their own (something akin to “Slaughterhouse Five”, which was a pretty good film), but inserted here, they are jarring. Even the performances in these scenes are uneven, Robards is far too actory (the character doesn’t seem to operate in the real world anyway, more of a glossed-over remembrance of a character), the usually terrific Charles McGraw is unrestrained (to no good effect), and...I have no idea what film Sutherland’s character was supposed to be in, but it wasn’t a good fit in this one.

Look, there are genuinely powerful moments, some important statements being made (I can definitely see a lot of people responding to it favourably, as well as even more negatively than me), I’d just suggest watching the clip for “One” instead. Trumbo adapted his own 1939 novel (right before WWII, just as the film adaptation would have resonated for the Vietnam era), supposedly based on fact! It might work as a curio.

Rating: C+