Best movie of this year hands down!

Fresh and Exciting

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Blistering performances.

This deeply felt anti-war drama will make you ask many questions as to the point of war, the frailty of humanity to stop future wars, and for me, this one: When your government sends you off to war, and you come back so maimed that your life is not your own anymore, who is to take responsibility for your mortality? Timothy Bottoms is the tragic hero, a nice innocent young man who goes to France and comes back so messed up, there is almost no point to survival anymore. No arms, legs, ears, eyes, mouth, nose. Simply a working brain connected to non-working flesh. The heart beats, the kidneys, liver and lungs do what they need to do. But an eternal living death endures with nothing but time to reflect and ponder why he survived. Bottoms recalls his very loving parents (Jason Robards and Marsha Hunt in magnificent performances) and learns to communicate with one nurse (Diane Varsi) through the Morse code he learned as a child. Bottoms makes a request-either put him on display so the world can see the tragedy of war, or let him die through mercy killing.Dalton Trumbo, whose screenplay credits list some of the greatest films Hollywood ever saw, recounts a bit of his own childhood along with his anti-war sentiments that made him an enemy of the McCarthy era and got him blacklisted. He wrote the original book back in the late 30's (just as Europe was beginning to start another World War) and also directed this engrossing film that will endure discussion for generations to come. Timothy Bottoms is excellent, showing such fear in his voice-overs as his soul begs to be released, remembering an ideal childhood that makes his tragic fate so much more so. Robards gives a performance as Bottoms' devoted father so nuanced and layered it is a shame he did not receive an Oscar Nomination. Veteran star Hunt, another blacklisting victim, is both strong and loving as his hard-working mother. You cannot help but be touched by Bottoms' remembrances of their special times together. In a controversial but tear-inducing appearance, Donald Sutherland plays the vision of Jesus Christ who offers Bottoms comfort but not release.I normally do not like films that flashback so recklessly between different times or films that reflect different moods. This film has three different moods-one for Bottoms' stay at the hospital, another for his adolescence, and the third for the metaphoric dreams he faces as he falls deeper into despair. All work seamlessly together to reveal the deeper strength of our souls that overpower our physical beings. Words alone cannot convey the depth of emotions that this film brings on; It must be seen so the individual can understand what makes Trumbo's writing so deep and special.

In 1972 I was 16 and living on my own in NYC. The era was tumultuous and I was naive enough to believe that tumult was the norm. That time was tailor made for the vision of Trumbo. In a different but appropriate way, today is too. I had read JGHG in my HS freshman year and seeing the title on a marquee in Soho I bought a ticket.I won't remark on storyline or the skills brought to bear by the principals or dwell on how the ethos, pathos and logos of Trumbo's piece are resonant now as then.I will relay this information. I left that theater shattered. I knew the story, the book was faithfully translated to the screen albeit abbreviated. Nonetheless the delivery of JGHG on screen affected me to a degree that no other single piece did before or has since. I am a middle aged man now with grandchildren, and the uncle of young men who served in foreign wars. I have yet to reconcile my disdain for people who take advantage of their positions to send our children to their deaths with my understanding that some things are worth our blood and treasure. We each carry our own unique moral baggage to our concepts of war. My baggage was made manifest at an afternoon matinée one rainy day in 1972, almost 40 years ago but cemented in my psyche. This is my testimony to the power of Dalton Trumbo's work.In case the magnitude of its impact has not been strongly enough emphasized here, I should note that I have had a copy of JGHG in my film library for some time but have not watched it. I just can't bring myself to go through that again as there is no cathartic effect or anything approaching relief to be had.

Johnny Got His Gun (1971)I was devastated by the book, in the early 1970s, and yet this movie feels forced and a little cheesy. But this is purely because of how it was made, not for the story, which is terrifying both for the idea at its core, and for the way they carry it through. There might be some problems with the logic of what to show and from whose point of view. "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is easily a way to approach this problem a little differently. Dalton Trumbo, the director and the writer here, relies heavily on flashbacks, and in a way we have a movie of a young man preparing to go to war, with his girlfriend more afraid than he is about, and a father with troubles of his own, a whole panoply of memories that make up a young man's life.. The narration by Timothy Bottoms (from the wounded soldier's head) has an awkward delivery--the words work, the voice less so.The book when I read it felt like a protest to the Vietnam war, even though it was published in 1939. The movie was meant, I'm sure, to target more specifically Vietnam, but now, in 2010, it's lost some of that immediacy, and it becomes a bit more abstract. It's also a bit of a moviemaker's exercise, due to the restriction of point of view (either literally, or through flashbacks).No amount of analyzing will remove the horrors of this situation. The movie lingers when you think it should move on, and it stutters at times with some less than convincing acting. But when the communication actually begins, it's quite a thrill. Trumbo is a writer and screenwriter, and maybe this wears at the overall effect of the film, as a film. As a story, it remains devastating.

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!).