Johnny Got His Gun
by Dalton Trumbo
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Donald Sutherland, Jason Robards, Timothy BottomsDirector: Dalton Trumbo
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-04-28
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: SF11312
Studio: Shout! Factory
Product features:
- JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN (DVD MOVIE)
Movie Reviews of Johnny Got His Gun
Movie Review: The Shout DVD is very good, but sadly is an edited version
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading through all the commentary here on the Amazon forum I decided to rent this version before purchasing it, just to make sure I knew what I was getting.
I remember seeing this movie in its intact, original form, and it saddens me that this version, like so many others, has been edited, with several seconds noticably missing from several key scenes. As others who know have already commented, some of these scenes are present, but have been edited and visibly shortened, for god only knows why.
I decry any censorship in either the written or visual form that detracts from or lessons in any way the author or directors full intent. If something seriously offends me I alone reserve the right to stop reading or watching it. I do not need a censor from above to do this for me. Only god and those censors that made the cuts know their motives and rationale but IMO it shouldn't have happened.
For those of you who were fortunate enough to have taped the most intact version that was broadcast on cable a few years back (in the 1990's), treasure what you have as it is not likely that we will see the likes of such a complete showing again.
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is scheduled to broadcast "Johnny Got His Gun" on the evening of July 15, 2009. I plan to record it but unless they have access to the original cable broadcast, mentioned above, I have my doubts that what I will see will differ from the "Shout" presentation.
That said, this "Shout" presentaion is probably the most intact version of this 1971 classic otherwise in extent. The quality of the DVD is excellent and the Bonus interviews and material are well worth the price of admission. For the excellent quality of the DVD and the efforts of Shout to deliver I give them cudos, and the movie is still worth 5 stars. Even in its abridged form it is still very powerful and only those of us that know better will miss what we are not seeing.
For those that can appreciate the movie, I strongly recommend the read as well. Both the book and the films screenplay and direction are by the same Dalton Trumbo, a controversial man in controversial times that sadly have changed so little over these many years.
My Original (April 13, 2009) query & commentary "Could someone please tell us if this is the original, unedited version?" Follows Below:
When I first saw this film in its original version it depicted, without actually showing, the horror of war through the memories of this hapless victim. And what was worse, the insensitivity of a medical community willing to do anything to keep "Johnny" alive, so long as they believed that he was mentally dead.
This movie, like the novel, has stuck with me many years, and when an opportunity to purchase an overpriced copy of it became available, I bought it, looking forward to seeing it again as I had remembered it. Sadly I was disappointed to discover that I had purchased an "edited" version of this fine film. Someone with "god-like" powers had deemed that one scene that I remember vividly, not because it was explicit, or pornographic, but because it was so human, should not be seen by the public, although the entire subject matter of the film is far more amoral. And just as the book was banned during WW 2 for its antiwar sentiments, so has this scene been banned, to protect us.
War and disfigurement is acceptable. Keeping a vegetable alive as an experiment is acceptable. But viewing a tender moment of compassion and human touch is evil and subject to corrupt the viewer. The scene I recall, that was not present in the version I purchased, depicted a young nurse, caring for "Johnny." He has no extremities, and no face, but apparently his manhood was somehow spared. During a bath, he must have had an erection and this nurse, with tears in her eyes, compassionately relieved him. This was not graphically illustrated, but the viewer understood what was happening. Johnny blesses her as the only human to treat him like a man in all the years since his injury. Her tender touch is the only bright experience he has to look forward to. It was this nurse who finally realized that Johnny was still a thinking human being, and learned that his head tapping was Morse code for "please kill me." When she compassionately tried to smother him, with Johnny blessing her all the while, she was stopped by her superiors before the mercy killing was complete and terminated. Johnny was stashed away, even deeper into the bowels of the hospital "dungeon" least someone else discover the inhumanity of his forced survival.
So here is the true pornography, that someone would not want us to see a scene that made the succeeding attempt at mercy killing so poignant. Johnny is left to be as forgotten as the forgotten war which took away all, except the man within the horribly injured shell.
When I pay good money for a movie or a book, I want to see what the author or director had originally intended, unedited and unabridged. I want to decide for myself what is worthy for me to view or not.
I would gladly purchase this DVD from Amazon, if I knew that it was intact and not edited in anyway from the original. So if someone has already purchased and viewed this current release, would you please enlighten us as to whether the scene which I described is present or not.
It is not an explicit scene and its subtleness could easily be overlooked, by everyone except the censor. But its presence lends power to this movie that contrasts inhumanity with humanity.
I cannot rate this current DVD since I have not seen it. As for the original uncut version, I would easily give it 5 stars.
Summary of Johnny Got His Gun
A young American soldier (Timothy Bottoms) is wounded by a mortar shell on the last day of World War I. He lies in a hospital bed as a quadruple amputee who has lost his arms, legs, eyes, ears, mouth and nose. He remains conscious and able to think, thereby reliving his life through strange dreams, memories and conversations with Jesus (Donald Sutherland), unable to distinguish whether he is awake or dreaming. Dalton Trumbo, author of the famous 1930s antiwar book Johnny Got His Gun wrote and directed this film adaptation. In 1947, he refused to testify before a congressional committee investigating alleged Communist infiltration of the film industry. Blacklisted for nearly a decade, he wrote numerous scripts under pseudonyms including Roman Holiday and Gun Crazy until he was finally credited for his work on Exodus and Spartacus in 1960.Bonus Features:
* Includes a limited-edition reproduction of the film poster in-pack.
* Dalton Trumbo: Rebel In Hollywood (60 min. feature available for the first time in U.S.).
* Interview with star Timothy Bottoms.
* Behind-the-scenes footage with commentary by films DP, Jules Brenner & Timothy Bottoms.
* Original theatrical trailer.
* Metallica Music video for 'One', featuring footage from the film.
* 1940 Radio adaptation staring James Cagney.
Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo directed just one film in his career, but it was a doozy: Johnny Got His Gun, Trumbo?s 1971 adaptation of his 1939 novel and a work that has long been considered one of the most powerful anti-war movies ever produced. Ironically, though, there?s very little war in it, and nothing in the way of blood and guts. Instead, what we get is the tortured tale of one Joe Bonham (Timothy Bottoms), a callow 18-year-old who goes off to World War I because he believes that fighting for his country is the right thing to do. But when an officer orders some men to leave their trench and bury a dead enemy soldier, Joe is hit by a mortar shell and left without arms, legs, or a face (he can?t see, hear, or speak). Doctors assume that his cognitive brain function is gone as well, but in fact he can still think, reason, and feel (figuratively and literally); as a result, he has been consigned to a life far worse than death. The film intermingles scenes of Joe in an Army hospital as he gradually comes to understand his circumstances (we never actually see him, as he?s covered by a mask and sheets) with the various flashbacks, memories, and hallucinations he experiences during that process. The former, during which Bottoms supplies Joe?s thoughts in voice-over, are in black & white; the latter, which range from childhood memories (Joe?s father is played by Jason Robards) to bizarre fantasies like playing cards with Jesus Christ (Donald Sutherland), are in color, bathed in a kind of dreamy glow that?s countered by a heavy and persistent sense of dread. To be sure, Johnny Got His Gun has its heavy-handed, pretentious moments. But this is a smart, disturbing, and somber film that stands out in a genre (i.e., war movies) that unfortunately is never irrelevant. An excellent batch of bonus features includes an hour-long profile of Trumbo (who was jailed for contempt of Congress during the Communist witch hunts of the ?40s and ?50s, then blacklisted by Hollywood), a new interview with Bottoms, a 1940 radio adaptation of the story (featuring James Cagney as Joe), and even the Metallica music video ?One,? which features extensive footage from the film. --Sam Graham
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