Fantastic!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Disturbing Audiences to the Extreme, bleak Anti-War Movie from Screenwriter (1938 novel), Director (only attempt), the Blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, does Try to Break the Downbeat Premise with Colorful Flashbacks containing some Dark Humor.But the Story's Central Theme of Horrific Mutilation, Military, Family, and Medical Disassociation from One's Personal Reality, is so Disparagingly Depressing, that the Tone Hardly Rises above its "Hell On Earth" Situation.Timothy Bottoms as the Quadriplegic Soldier sent to a Blacked Out Storeroom (away from curious eyes), to Vegetate while being "Studied" by Doctors, gives a Performance, at least the "Voice" Performance that Requires more than the 18 Year Old is Capable. Some of Trumbo's "Inner Voicing" is Stagy and Over Emoted.But this Flaw can be Overlooked because the Remainder of the Movie is so Effective, Offbeat, and Surreal that Watching this 1971 Film is a One of a Kind Experience that cannot be Forgotten.Powerful, Cynical Statements about War and other Things Represent Our "Cross to Bare" as the Human Species. Donald Sutherland as "Jesus Christ" makes an Indelible Impression as the Soldier Fantasizes from His Deathbed. Jason Robards Plays the Patient's Father in other Scenes that Linger.Fact is, this is one of those Films that will Linger Long. There were Reports when it was First Released in the Early Seventies that Audiences were routinely Spotted leaving the Theater in Total Silence.Without Doubt the same Thing would Occur Today. A Timeless Film that doesn't Feel Dated for One Second. Despite its Excellence, Repeated Viewings are Probably Rare.

More often then not I am unimpressed by older horror movies that other people rave about unless they scared the crap out of me when I was a child. This movie was an exception. I watched this for the first time and spent the majority of it tense with chills running down my spine.What could be worse then death? Watch this movie and you will see. Imagine you wake up with no arms, legs, you cant see or hear and your face is gone leaving a gaping hole where it used to be. This movie takes you're through that journey through the narration of the young man placed in this horrible position.This movie takes you on an emotional journey and sucks you into the story immediately. I just cant believe I never saw this earlier, but I am glad I didn't miss it.Zombiesteak.com - Discover a new world of horror films, designed just for you.

There is absolutely nothing flashy about this movie.It stands unpretentiously as a disturbingly simple film depicting the horrors of war to a generation fed up with Vietnam (much in the same way MASH did, except that MASH used the Korean War to stand in for Vietnam, while this uses World War I.) "Johnny Got His Gun" tells us the story of Joe Bonham, a young American soldier horribly wounded, so that he has no arms, no leg, and no face. He is a head and a torso. The doctors assume that because of his injuries he has no consciousness, no sense of feeling, and so they set out to keep him alive as long as possible - basically to see how long they can do it. Joe, though, is frighteningly conscious, aware of everything happening to him and around him. The military comes across as heartless and uncaring. The nursing staff comes off as slightly more compassionate toward this poor unfortunate. The scenes in the hospital are narrated by Timothy Bottoms (who plays Joe) as he relates all that he's experiencing. A significant part of the movie is also told by way of flashback, as we explore where Joe came from and what his life had been like and what his dreams are. Donald Sutherland appears in these "dream" sequences as Christ in a series of conversations Joe has about he nature of reality.This isn't a squeamish film. We hear about Joe's injuries but we don't see them. There are a lot of the familiar points made about war - I certainly recognized a point made most recently by Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 911 about the old men who won't be asked to fight sending off the young men to fight and die. Joe himself is clearly representative (in an admittedly extreme way) of the millions of young men whose lives are devastated by war and who will never be the same again, even if they survive. The story doesn't tell us Joe's ultimate fate. He figures out a way to communicate by morse code by shaking his head, but what becomes of him is left as an open question.This is apparently a low budget film, and it's in no way fancy. That's appropriate, because the subject matter doesn't need any glorification. Its power may actually be in its very simplicity.

Johnny is a victim of war. Sans almost everything with which we communicate with the world outside our bodies, his only sanctuary is his memories. And a nurse who somehow manages to sense that he is more than a living corpse. I watched this film in 1980 and can still remember about 30% of it! It still gives me the shudders but, being a nurse, also made me think deeply about patients in so-called "vegetative states". Science is slowly discovering that the (then) fictional ideas in this film aren't so far away from fact.And I only watched it because it was one of David Soul's early film appearances (he only pops up for about 3 mins!).