Johnny Got His Gun (1971)

 

            There are anti-war movies and then there is “Johnny Got His Gun”.  It was based on Dalton Trumbo’s 1939 novel.  He was inspired by the stories of British and Canadian soldiers who had been reduced to only their trunks in WWI.  They were examples of what soldiers called “basket cases”. In one case, the Tommy was so badly wounded that his family was not told he had survived until after his death years later.   Before Trumbo could get it made he had to go through a period of being blacklisted in the 1950s because of McCarthyism.  He wrote the screenplay and then shopped it in Hollywood with little success.  He was turned down by 17 producers before the film was made.  Trumbo made his directorial debut with the film.  The shoot lasted 42 days and used 23 locations.  The rough cut was over 300 minutes, but it was cut down to 111 partly to get a PG rating.  The title comes from the George M. Cohan song “Over There”.  The movie won the Grand Prix Special du Jury at Cannes, but it did not do well at the box office and lost money.  Years later, the rock band Metallica was inspired to write the song “One” based on the movie.  Clips from the film were used in the video and the movie became a cult classic.

            The movie opens with footage of WWI leaders, soldiers marching off enthusiastically, and U.S. entry.  A badly wounded soldier is in a hospital bed.  Joe Bonham (Timothy Bottoms)  is an American soldier who was on the wrong end of an artillery shell.  The doctors think he feels no pain and is a vegetable.  The hospital scenes are in black and white, but when the soldier remembers, it’s in color.  His girlfriend Kareen (Karen Field) did not want him to enlist, but he had to go because his country needed him.  He leaves to patriotic music, speeches, and a prayer.  He also has dreams brought on by the drugs.  For instance, several of them involve Jesus (Donald Sutherland).  The hallucinatory scenes are color saturated.  This is the first of numerous religious references.  He also fantasizes about his dysfunctional relationship with his father (Jason Robards).  Seemingly abandoned, he finally gets some care from a nurse (Diane Varsi).   She communicates with him by tracing letters on his chest.  He uses Morse Code to respond that he wants to be put in a carnival to show what war does.  Or in a movie by Dalton Trumbo.

            Obviously, this is a strange and unique movie.  Trumbo was set on making it as a statement about the ongoing Vietnam War.  It is better matched to the war it is set in.  The Great War is exemplified by fathers prodding their offspring to march off to war.  At the time it was released, it might have convinced some young men to think twice about enlisting or head off to Canada to avoid the draft.  There is no doubt it is a powerful film.  There is nothing uplifting in it.  The “war is hell” theme is not ambiguous, but it is not hammered because the movie concentrates on the back-story dreams and the hallucinations.  The ones with his father have some interesting twists and the ones with Jesus are surreal, and not just because Donald Sutherland is Jesus.  By the way, if you think the movie is reverent, think again?

            For a low budget film, Trumbo manages to be competent in his first directorial effort. His script might be corny in spots, but it never becomes maudlin.  The acting is average with honors going to Diane Varsi.  The score tends to be a bit melodramatic.  The cinematography is average with the three tones nicely differentiating the scenes.  In spite of the competence, the movie is hard to watch.  If you can put yourself in Bonham’s shoes (sorry, I feel bad about that), you’ll be depressed at the end.  But maybe war movies should leave you depressed about the effects of war.  Not many do.  Because making war movies is a business and downers don’t sell tickets.  However, if you are a war movie fan, you do need the occasional film that does not feign being against war. 

GRADE  =  B    

"SPARTACUS" REVISED FINAL SCRIPT

                  I found a copy of Dalton Trumbo’s “revised final script”  to “Spartacus” and it was fascinating to see how the movie was different than the final script.  Although Trumbo was one of the greatest screenwriters of all time and won the Academy Award for Original Screenplay, it is interesting to note that, in my opinion, all the changes made to the script were improvements and made the movie better.  I am not sure why the changes and additions and omissions were made after the script was supposedly finalized.  It could be that Trumbo suggested changes during the shooting.  Some of the changes might have been done by Stanley Kubrick or Kirk Douglas (or other cast members).  Here is a list of some of the more interesting changes, additions, and omissions:

1.  Originally the movie was supposed to start with the scene where Crassus addresses his officers before the final battle.  He tells them to understand that the slaves are fighting like free men.  Don’t underestimate them like our other armies have.  He mentions that Spartacus is what the Egyptians called a “koruu” which means third generation slave.  This sets up the transition to Spartacus in the mines (the actual opening of the movie).

2.  In the scene where Marcellus dares Spartacus to kill him, Spartacus us given a long sword and Marcellus has a dagger.  Spartacus tries to kill him, but Marcellus gets in several dagger cuts until he collapses in exhaustion.  Earlier, when Batiatus mentions Spartacus to Marcellus, he does not tell Marcellus not to overdo it.

3.  In the conjugal visit scene, Batiatus refers to Varinia biting him, so he puts him in with another “animal” – Spartacus.

4.  A mock battle between the gladiators was cut.  In that battle, Spartacus offers to help Draba up, but Draba pulls him down and puts his sword to his throat.  

5.  In the Spartacus – Draba match, Spartacus gets ensnared and Draba moves in for the kill.  Batiatus has the line:  “Kill him, you imbecile!”  Draba does not throw a spear at the audience.  He kills a guard on the way to trying to get to Crassus.  He takes two pila in the back.

6.  Two gladiator characters got cut – David the Jew and Gannicus.

7.  Varinia bribes a guard to visit Spartacus in his cell.

8.  In the kitchen revolt, Spartacus tips a cauldron onto Marcellus.

9.  The script includes the scene where Varinia escapes from Batiatus.

10. When Spartacus returns to the school, he stops the fight between two Romans, but then he says “let’s burn this place down.”  There is no discussion of a plan.

11.  There are two other slaves in the snails/oysters scene.  After Crassus does his monologue about Rome and turns to find Antoninus gone, he runs into his bed chamber calling for him.

12.  Tigranes Levantus (the pirate negotiator) does not appear in the final script!   When they reach Brundisium, Antoninus is sent ahead and reports back to Spartacus that there are no ships.

13.  Spartacus does not give a speech before they leave Brundisium.

14.  When the gladiators are yelling “I am Spartacus!”, they are mocking the Romans and even Spartacus joins in.  They are also yelling other things.

15.  Batiatus offers to finger Spartacus in the line of captives.  Crassus declines the offer and has Batiatus flogged.  Crassus calls out Antoninus and adds Spartacus after he laughs at him.

16.  When Crassus comes to see Spartacus, Spartacus taunts him before spitting on him.

17.  When Spartacus is on the crucifix, there is a dialogue between two soldiers discussing the cheating of one of their wives.

18.  There is no scene where Batiatus introduces Varinia to Gracchus.

19.  The script has a scene where Gracchus commits suicide in a bathtub.

“SPARTACUS” TRIVIA

“SPARTACUS” TRIVIA:  I Am Spartacus!  Making a Film, Breaking the Blacklist by Kirk Douglas

1. The screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo, was a member of the “Unfriendly Ten” which were nine screenwriters and one director (Edward Dmytryk) who were brought before the House Unamerican Activities Committee to testify about communists in the movie industry.  Congressman J. Parnell Thomas headed the witchhunting committee which included Richard Nixon.  Trumbo refused to answer the question:  “Are you a member of the Communist Party?” and was sent to prison.  Kirk Douglas was not enough of a star to be part of the Committee for the First Amendment which included Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Gene Kelly, Danny Kaye, and John Huston.  Stars that supported HUACs efforts included Gary Cooper, Robert Montgomery, George Murphy, and Adolphe Menjou (Douglas’ co-star in “Paths of Glory”).  In an act of karma, Thomas ended up in prison himself for padding his payroll.  He went to the same prison that two of the “Hollywood Ten” (Lester Cole and Ring Lardner, Jr.) were sentenced to.

2. Novelist Howard Fast wrote the source novel.  He was a communist and went to prison for contempt of Congress.  In prison, he began researching the life of Spartacus.  Upon release, he was under surveillance from J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI.  Hoover accumulated over one thousand pages in his file.  When the novel was finished, Hoover put pressure on publishers to not publish it.  Fast ended up self-publishing.  Later, Fast broke with the Communist Party after Khrushchev revealed Stalin’s crimes.  Douglas became interested in a film about Spartacus and optioned the book for just $100, but Fast insisted on writing the screenplay.  Douglas agreed, but was skeptical of Fast’s ability to write a competent screenplay.  Douglas was right.  Fast’s first draft was terrible and Douglas secretly brought in Trumbo who was writing under the name Sam Jackson.

3. The movie almost did not get made because there was already a movie about Spartacus in production.  It was to be based on the novel “The Gladiators” and was to star Yul Brynner.
  
4. Douglas approached Sir Lawrence Olivier while they were co-starring in “The Devil’s Disciple”.  Olivier was interested in directing.  In an awkward development, Olivier assumed he would be playing Spartacus.  When Olivier decided not to direct, Douglas reluctantly turned to Anthony Mann.  Douglas fired Mann (under pressure from Universal, but with Douglas’ agreement) because Mann was in over his head and had lost control of the cast, especially Peter Ustinov who was rewriting most of his lines.

5. The first choice for Varinia was Jeanne Moreau (Christine in “The Train”), but she turned it down.  Jean Simmons (a friend of Douglas) pushed hard for the role, but Douglas insisted that he wanted an actress that did not have an English or American accent.  He ended up settling on an unknown German beauty named Sabine Bethmann.
  
6. Douglas brought Stanley Kubrick in to replace Mann even though they had not enjoyed working together on “Paths of Glory”.  Kubrick convinced Douglas to dump Bethmann by proving to him that she was incapable of showing emotion.  (Her movie career collapsed after this.)  Simmons got her chance and it worked out even though the production was set back when she had a health crisis that lasted five weeks.

7. Kubrick was a prick to work with.  At one point, the horse-bound Douglas physically threatened him in order to get him to stop wearing the same clothes every day.  They had several major disagreements on the script.  For instance, Kubrick did not want to include the “I am Spartacus!” scene!  Douglas insisted on it, thank God.  Douglas was apoplectic when he learned that all his time on the crucifix ended up on the cutting room floor.  He was not going to be seen in that final scene.  Douglas won on that one also.  On the other hand, Douglas was concerned about having to say the line:  “I have never had a woman”.  He felt it would result in giggles from the audience.  It didn’t.

8. The biggest dispute was over the overarching theme of the movie.  Douglas and Trumbo wanted the “Large Spartacus” – the slave revolt was a major threat to the Roman Republic and after winning several spectacular victories, was overwhelmed by three Roman armies.  Kubrick and the studio wanted the “Small Spartacus” – Spartacus led a jail break that only had the goal of escaping from Italy, but was defeated by one Roman army.  After the first underwhelming rough cut, Trumbo wrote a brilliant critique which steered the film back towards the Large Spartacus.  However, Universal had the final cut and we ended up with Medium Spartacus.

9. Olivier agreed to play Crassus partly because the movie was to open with narration by Crassus.  This was latter cut.

10. Trumbo threatened to quit over rewrites.  He could not be on the set because not only was it a secret that he was writing the screenplay, but he literally could not come on the studio lot.  Douglas mollified him by promising him screen credit using his real name and 5% of the profits.  During a discussion about whether to credit Trumbo, Kubrick offered to take the credit!  I told you he was a prick.

11. The movie was supposed to cost $5 million, but ended up at around $12 million.  Part of the overrun was due to adding an expanded final battle scene.  Franco provided 8,000 Spanish soldiers (at $8/day), but insisted that none of them being shown dying on screen!

12. John  Gavin (Caesar) went to a Notre Dame at Michigan State football game and got the crowd to yell “I am Spartacus!” for his tape recorder and this is the sound that was used in the scene.

13. That’s Woody Strode, not a dummy, hanging upside down through numerous takes.

14. Douglas broke Charles McGraw’s (the trainer) jaw when filming the soup-drowning scene.  The cut that appears in the movie involves a stunt double.

15. The actor who gets his arm cut off in the final battle was an amputee with a prosthetic arm.  Douglas refused to do more than three takes.

16. Douglas had to talk the prudish Simmons into taking off her bra for the bathing scene.

17. Universal made 42 cuts to the movie before releasing it.  These included:  no severing pf an arm, we don’t see Gracchus’ suicide, no montage of other battles (not even the map and narration), and of course, no “snails and oysters” scene.  In general, the studio cuts reduced Spartacus’ historical significance because the powers did not want the rebellion to appear to have had a chance to succeed.  This might have inspired communists!

18. The “snails and oysters” scene was discovered years later, but the audio was so bad it had to be recreated.  Tony Curtis came in to do his lines again, but Olivier had passed away so Anthony Hopkins did his voice, extremely well.