Customer Rating: Summary: Very moving and emotional movie Comment: This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's about a young American soldier named Johnny who gets hit by a shell on the last day of the First World War. Johnny lies in a hospital bed, a quadruple amputee who has lost his eyes, ears, mouth and nose. His only means of communication is by banging his head against his pillow. As the movie progresses you get inside Johnny's head by means of a series of flashbacks and fantasy sequences. We learn about Johnny's failed shoe salesman father, his first, and last night with the woman he loves, his pre war job in the local bakery. I was so moved by the nurse in the movie. She finds a way to communicate with Johnny and her kindness to him should inspire us all. So, what's this movie all about? Well it's a damning indictment of war, obviously, and a strange one at that. But it's also a metaphysical examination of what it is to be human. The absence of limbs and features in no way extinguishes Johnny's imperishable humanity and in this case the mind definitely rules the body rather than vice versa. Bizarrely, the story is based on real events, and while this kind of truth is usually too strange to be turned into fiction, the director successfully turns Johnny into the living embodiment of the horror of war,but also of the unquenchable resilience of the human spirit. This is a wonderful movie and I highly recommend it if you are someone who likes to watch movies where when you are done watching it the story stays in your mind and has a high impact on you.
Customer Rating: Summary: A powerful, horrifying movie that should be seen, but not by all and not many times Comment: I know that the title of this review may seem strange , but here is what I mean. More than an attack on war this story is an attack on what we sometimes do in the name of life. The doctors in the movie all think they are doing something great keeping this "living meat" alive to study, never even thinking that this "hunk of meat" might be a thinking living person. The story is really a horror of the first order as we learn that this "lump" is alive, thinking and knows that he is doomed and wants to die but they won't let him. This is a very good , but flawed film that should be seen. That said it is such a downer(the last shot is just heartbreaking) that to watch this one more than once a year(if that often) is to invite a nightmares of the worst kind. If you are unsettled by the thought of being left alive with just your mind and no way to do anything for yourself then maybe you should skip this one!!!!!! Customer Rating: Summary: Gratitude is a gift that we gain from Pain Comment: How else can we be grateful, if not from our own pain or from the pain others experience. The pain and hardship the young character in this film endures is beyond human tolerance. After viewing this film, I indeed counted my blessings. World War 1, 2, Vietnam, Iraq, any and all, have the one thing in common that this film depicts, the death and eternal sacrifice of our finest. Break out the towel but at the same time be proud when viewing "Johnny got his gun". PS: One might want to take the patriots point of view here but I personally feel That Dalton Trumbo (director) had a more thought provokeing message. See if you can tap in to it. "death be not proud" but Heroism will always be. Thank You a Vet. of Vietnam and grateful American. Customer Rating: Summary: Chilling adaptation Comment: The book had a profound affect on me when I was young. I only saw this film adaptation recently and was pleased that it was adapted so closely to the book. It is a chilling and frigthening portrayal of the consequences of war on the young in particular. Truly a classic adaptation of the classic novel. Customer Rating: Summary: WAR DOES NOT EXEMPLIFY THE TRIUMPH OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT!! ARGGHHHH!!!! Comment: The trailer to this film bills it as ''a celebration of the human spirit', a tagline which fails to reflect the true nature of the original book, which, rather than being ''a celebration'' of the human spirit, is, in fact, a denunciation of that spirit's failure, a failure which manifests itself in a tendency towards self-extermination and a desire to perpetuate war.
