Johnny Got His Gun

An artillery shell in the First World War takes a young soldier's arms, legs and face. He survives. He cannot see, hear or speak, and the doctors believe he is not conscious. He is thinking. Most of the film takes place inside his head: the past, fantasies, and his attempts to work out how much time has passed. The subject is not war but communication itself. He eventually manages to say something in Morse by knocking his head against the pillow, and what he asks for is the film's hardest passage: either exhibit me or kill me. The form is split in two. The hospital sections are black and white and almost motionless; memory and dream are in colour. The division is simple and effective, and the film's entire rhythm rests on it. The most notable thing is who directed it. Dalton Trumbo filmed his own novel; he had been blacklisted after the book appeared in 1939 and spent years writing screenplays under other names. It is the only film he directed. It was awarded at Cannes in 1971. Years later Metallica used footage from it in a video and the band later bought the rights to the film. Timothy Bottoms plays the soldier and Donald Sutherland plays Christ. Who it is for: viewers who like anti-war cinema and formally daring films. Who it is not for: anyone who cannot take claustrophobia; the film locks the viewer into the same bed on purpose.