You have probably never seen an anti-war film like Johnny Depp. Dalton Trumbo’s 1971 classic takes you to Inner life of a World War I veteran and was interpreted as a critique of the Vietnam War when it was published. However, its examination of the question of what the war and its perpetrators do to people is timeless.
Johnny Goes to War is anything but a conventional war film
The young soldier Joe “Johnny” Bonham (Timothy Bottoms) is hit by an artillery shell in the last days of the First World War. This leads to all of his limbs having to be amputated. He also loses his eyes, ears, mouth and nose, and remains as a helpless torso in the hands of the doctorsDespite his serious injuries, he is fully conscious and is gradually beginning to understand the fate that has befallen him.
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Johnny Goes to War is on PlutoTV today
Since he is unable to communicate with his environment, the boundaries between dreams and reality become blurred for him. In his dreams he speaks to his mother and even to Jesus Christ (Donald Sutherland).
For his only directorial work, screenwriting legend Dalton Trumbo (Papillon) dared to take a radical step away from the usual spectacle of the (anti)war film. Instead of battles and violent scenes, you can expect a journey into the memories and dreams of a single soldier whose connection to the outside world has been severed by the war machine.
So you can watch Johnny Goes to War on TV tonight
Anyone who wants to watch the anti-war film can do so on Pluto TV. The free, ad-financed provider recently launched our Moviepilot TV channel. It only shows films that have received good ratings from the Moviepilot community.
Johnny goes to war has a excellent rating of 7.8 pointswith over 640 votes cast. The film will be shown today, August 10th, from 10 p.m. on the live channel Moviepilot TV with Pluto TV shown, without subscription or additional costs.
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An anti-war film that deserves this label
The great director François Truffaut already declared in 1973: “Some films claim to be anti-war films, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anti-war film. Every film about war is ultimately for war.”
Even films that show the obvious “horror of war” run the risk of getting lost in the depiction of violence and the exaggeration of war as a (heroic) experience. Dalton Trumbo takes a different path in his film, as Rajko Burchardt explained in more detail at Moviepilot:
Johnny goes to war, perhaps the only real anti-war filmforces its audience into the consciousness of a wounded soldier who has lost both limbs and sensory organs. The way this film presents war and the war economy (the protagonist is abused as both a medical experiment and an involuntary military hero) as something completely abstract in cinematic terms makes it more impressive than any Hollywood war fireworks display.
Don’t miss Dalton Trumbo’s unique anti-war film.