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Johnny got his Gun

Johnny got his Gun – 1971
Director
Dalton Trumbo

Writer
Dalton Trumbo

Cast
Timothy Bottoms
Kathy Fields
Marsha Hunt

 

Review by Wayne Malin

Powerful but bleak and depressing

A young man in WWI has his arms, legs and face blown off, but he can still think, if not talk. We hear his thoughts while he’s in a hospital bed all bandaged up. Most of the movie is flashbacks to who he was and why he was in the war.

Dated, very 70s (the conversation with God played by Donald Sutherland should tell you that) anti-war movie…but, despite everything, it still works incredibly well. The low budget shows, and hurts, at times but this film still packs a wallop. Good acting, great script but a VERY depressing tone and an incredibly downbeat (but truthful) ending. Very upsetting but a definite must-see.

Also the opening good-bye sequence involves nudity (male and female). It’s cut from some prints so beware.

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70s Films

A tour through the great and not so great films of the seventies The seventies saw a huge change in styles and genres from the advent of the slasher horror movies like Halloween and the blockbuster summers films started by Jaws. More...

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