This incarnation of Johnny Got His Gun is a mismatch of medium, text and talent.
Comment
10/19/08
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Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun (2008)
21
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Reviews Counted:14
Fresh:3
Rotten:11
Average Rating:4.3/10
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Reviews for Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun
1 - 14 (sorted by rotten rating)
A veteran theater director, Rowan Joseph adapted Dalton Trumbo’s antiwar novel into an Off Broadway play in 1982. If you’re still kicking yourself for missing that production, then this film is for you -- and only you.
10/22/08
It's hard not to wish that the novel had instead been newly adapted into a real film by a director with the requisite daring and imagination.
12/04/08
Unless viewers are aficionados of solo shows and want to see every one they can, this effort comes off as forced, far too self-aware and unfortunately dated.
12/04/08
Trumbo's dialogue is as subtle as a bayonet charge and as outdated, while McKenzie, alternately shouty and moany, is not the actor to pull it off.
10/24/08
Top CriticStaged plays just aren’t that cinematic, and even under the capable direction of Rowan Joseph, Mr. McKenzie doesn’t provide enough spark to offset the problem.
12/04/08
The story of a wounded soldier during World War I and his hallucinations about life and combat serve as a poignant reminder of our country's current situation, but don’t do much to elevate it beyond that.
10/22/08
Coming out one year after The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Julian Schnabel's inventively mesmerizing movie about a man who can only communicate through blinking his eyes, places Johnny Got His Gun at a disadvantage.
09/26/08
Trumbo's aim was a kind of proletarian poetry, but McKenzie's broad emoting has the deadly earnestness of a school play.
11/14/08
Little more than a good performance of dated material...Trumbo's pacifist rant now seems pleasantly corny in its memories of small-town America and absolutely irrelevant to the very real issues of present-day warfare.
10/22/08
Whether or not you agree with the pacifist message, the presentation is often overwrought and maudlin.
10/10/08
Johnny Got His Gun won't break any box-office records. But it should find a small but loyal audience.
12/05/08
McKenzie has the perfect boy-next-door looks as well as the physical intensity and ardent naturalism to hold your interest. It’s a tour-de-force performance, and Joseph’s camerawork is fluid and sensitive.
12/05/08
Ably filmed by veteran stage producer-director Rowan Joseph, Bradley Rand Smith's theatrical script provides a bravura thespian workout for Ben McKenzie.
12/04/08
Top Critic1 - 14 (sorted by rotten rating)
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