Brian Matthew Kessler

United States History II

Trimester III, Period 6

May 4, 1990

Table of Contents

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Brief Summary of Film and Major Theme 

Discussion of Historical Accuracy and Value of Movie 

Comparative Analysis Between Film's Screenplay and Actual Source 

Discussion of Film's Impact Upon Me and Audience 

Footnotes

Bibliography 

Brief Summary of Film and its Major Theme

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Joe had enlisted in the army during World War I. During the war he was blown up by a land mine. The landmine has taken his sight, taken his speech, taken his hearing, taken his arms, and taken his legs.

Months later he awakens. He can not tell if what he experiences is true or a dream. Deep inside he wants to scream, but can not. As he awakens, he realizes that the war has finished with him, and he can perceives how great has been his loss and that nothing is real but pain. He feels as if he is back in a womb that is much too real. It pumps in life that he is com-pelled to feel, but it is a life without hope.

He is fed through a tube and thinks of himself as a wartime novelty tied to machines which sustain him. He does not want that life.

As he lies in the hospital, he thinks about his former life, his girlfriends, his lovers, his friends, his father, the war, his fate, life and death, and many other things. Eventually he learns how to tell day from night and begins to keep track of how long he has been there. He discovers that he can tap out Morse code with his head and puts everything else out of his mind as he continuously nods "SOS", hoping that someone will understand what he is trying to do. Finally, after what seems like months, a nurse understands. She gathers a few people to see Joe and Joe "talks" with the men. First he asks to be put in a carnival where people can see what the war has done to him. When they refuse, he asks to be put to death. They refuse that as well. The nurse tries to end his life, but she is stopped.

The movie ends without letting you know what becomes of Joe.

James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich, of Metallica, wrote the following song, One, based on Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun:

In my opinion, this song summarizes the entire movie almost completely.

Discussion of Historical Accuracy and Value of Movie

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It seemed to me extremely possible that a landmine could blow someone up, leaving him or her in that condition, even though it is hard for me to believe that the person would actually live. It seemed just as hard for me to believe that the doctors would not put him out of his misery. Putting aside these questions of plausibility, it seemed extremely possible, if not probable, that a person in Joe's condition would react the way the book depicted.

The value of the movie is that it teaches the viewer about possible injuries effects of war, about the treatment of the injured, about the soldiers of foreign countries, about the stupidity of war, and about the stupidity of fighting and risking one's life for mere words.

Comparative Analysis Between Film's Screenplay and Actual Source

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The film did an accurate job of telling the story of the book it was based on. Unlike the book, the movie told what the doctors were thinking. The movie left out some things contained in the book. Most of these things were of little significance and if they were not left out, the movie would have been much longer. Such omissions are easily understandable. However, the movie also left out a lot of the philosophical thoughts that Joe had in the book. I thought that these thoughts were significant in trying to relay why the author wrote the book and I do not think they should have been left out of the movie. Putting this aside, the movie pretty much followed the book: it did not add anything that was not in the book, although at several points it told things a bit differently in terms of either style or order to make it easier for the viewer to follow.

Discussion of Film's Impact Upon Me and Audience

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The movie had little effect on myself since I did not agree with war even before I saw the movie. I also was not suprised by the content of the movie because Metallica's One video contained almost the entire story and that which I did not know from the video I had heard before from friends who read the book or saw the movie.

I think that the effect it would have had on someone who did not already know the story would have been to scare him or her about the possible fate of a soldier in a war. Perhaps it would deter young men from mindlessly following "tunes of glory", and older people from sending their children off to war.

Footnotes

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