The1980swere synonymous with the advent of music videos. Thanks to channels such as MTV, songs were now depicted through a brand-new medium that found a way to weave complex stories and performances together. Bright colors and catchy hooks accompanied some of the most notable ones, but one particular video that popped up in the latter half of the decade scarred the senses of many viewers.Metallica, who had just recorded their fourth full-length album,And Justice for All, had joined the ranks of other artists who had utilized the new medium to its full advantage with their video for “One.”
In a decade synonymous with color and excess, the video for “One” was its complete antithesis. Footage of the band playing in an empty warehouse was interspersed with clips from a film, showing a solider in a hospital bed, a mask over his face, and having an internal monologue about having no arms, legs, eyes, or way to communicate with those around him. Lyrical passages such as “hold my breath as I wish for death” accentuated the plight of the subject. The footage Metallica integrated was from the filmJohnny Got His Gun, directed by author Dalton Trumbo and based on the book of the same name.Johnny Got His Gunis a harrowing look at the commodification of humanity inwartime.
A Man Becomes a Symbol of War
Johnny Got His Gunranks among films such asPaths of GloryandAll Quiet on the Western Frontas the best movies to focus on the human experiences in World War I. Yet, the battlefield is far removed from Trumbo’s narrative.Johnny Got His Guntakes place in three different worlds, all of which are centered around the main character, Joe Bonham.
Bonham, who lies helpless in a hospital bed, provides the audiencewith an internal monologuethat vividly illustrates the helplessness of the situation he finds himself in. Bonham’s plight is further illustrated to the audience through the use of black and white photography, which contrasts with the vivid color that depicts flashbacks and fantasy. The scenes in the hospital with Bonham have a presentation similar to a documentary, in which information is relayed to the audience as Bonham becomes the narrator. While lacking the ability to communicate or see his surroundings, he desperately clings to what humanity he has left. Bonham comes to exist in a world completely isolated within his own mind.
As a byproduct of war, Bonham has undergone a metamorphosis that could have existed in the pages of Franz Kafka’s story of the same name.The basic faculties necessary for any human being to function have dissipated, and Bonham is reduced to a commodity. No other moment inJohnny Got His Gunepitomizes this aspect more than when an army chaplain has no message to relay to Bonham via Morse code, remarking to a general that Bonham is the product of war and not the chaplain’s profession.
The Best Anti-War Movies Ever Made
These movies provide a scathing critique of war and make attempts to ensure that no one who sees them will ever want to start one.
Vivid Flashbacks and Fantasy Sequences
If the black and white photography inJohnny Got His Gunexpresses the hopelessnessand futility of Bonham’s malady,the juxtaposition of color to relay fantasy and flashback illustrates a means of escapism from deep within the protagonist’s tortured mind. Bonham attempts to make sense of what’s happened to him, and the morbid and sardonic nature of war takes the form of a game of Blackjack with Christ (Donald Sutherland). Soldiers in the game are somewhat blissfully unaware of their future deaths. A later meeting with Christ, where Bonham attempts to learn if his ordeal is either real or simply a nightmare, solidifies the state of horror he exists in.Christ, the ultimate symbol of hope and consolation, remarks to Bonham that it would be cruel to pretend that anyone could help him.
Amid the fantasies that provide fleeting moments of escape for Bonham are flashbacks to his past. Aside from the use of color creating excellent contrast between the state in which Bonham exists now and the life he once lived, there exists a world that’s completely different from the shell of a human being kept alive by machinery.Whether it’s the last few moments he got to spend with his lover, Kareen (Kathy Fields), or the conversations he had with his father (Jason Robards) as a young man, there’s a tragic tale of Americana that comes to exist in knowing what the future has in store for him. The picturesque world that’s depicted in the paintings of Norman Rockwell becomes nothing more than a fleeting memory and a facade.
Sequences of fantasy in which real people from his past appear, including Bonham fantasizing about his father taking him on the road as a sideshow attraction, as the “armless and legless wonder of the 20th century” illustrate the intent of Trumbo’s work toportray the horrors of warand expose them to a larger audience.
First Look at Bryan Cranston in Trumbo
Production recently wrapped in New Orleans on Bryan Cranston’s Trumbo, which explores the life of blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo.
A Message to Humanity Regarding the Perpetual State of Warfare
Johnny Got His Gunfirst appeared in print in 1938, a year in which the world was on the eve of the Second World War. With Trumbo’s film adaptation arriving in 1971, as the turmoil of the conflict in Vietnam was causing large amounts of civil unrest,there’s a lineage that can be seen in Trumbo’s work that echoes the perpetual state of warfare and the havoc it wreaks on the human population. Far removed from patriotism and call to arms, human experience exists at the core of armed conflict.Johnny Got His Gunepitomizes the commodification of human lives in war and the costs that are incurred by many.
Because of the popularity of the music video,Metallica ensured that a whole new generationwould become aware of one of the most important anti-war statements to ever exist.
