Upon publication, the pacifist novel Johnny Got His Gun was praised by the right, which did not want the US to join the war against Hitler, only to then become a cult novel for the left during the war in Vietnam. In 1971 [Dalton] Trumbo adapted it for the screen and took charge of the direction himself – making it his directorial debut at the age of 66, just five years before his death…
Soldier Johnny gradually becomes aware of his status as a “human torso” after his face is destroyed and his four limbs are amputated, curtailing his ability to see, hear, speak, smell or touch; he is kept alive by a senseless “therapeutic fury” as a war resulting in millions of deaths is waged. But he can think, and remember. Unable to die, his mind becomes his only salvation; it immediately turns to the essential issues, reflecting on his condition, the reasons for it, and then coming up with a plan… He resolves to communicate a message to the world, and the living: nothing is as valuable as life. It should be proclaimed in church, “in all the schools of the world”, an indisputable demonstration of the consequences of war and the wickedness and stupidity of those who declare wars and sacrifice lives. However, he will be prevented from doing so, despite escaping his solitude and regaining the ability to communicate. No, Johnny cannot “go out”, cannot show himself to the world, or converse with the living. Those in power do not want him to and will not permit it.

Goffredo Fofi, Prefazione in Dalton Trumbo, E Johnny prese il fucile, Bompiani, Milan 2017

World War I began like a summer festival – all billowing skirts and golden epaulets. Millions upon millions cheered from the sidewalks while plumed imperial highnesses, serenities, field marshals and other such fools paraded through the capital cities of Europe at the head of their shining legions. It was a season of generosity; a time for boasts, bands, poems, songs, innocent prayers… Nine million corpses later, when the bands stopped and the serenities started running, the wail of bagpipes would never again sound quite the same. It was the last of the romantic wars; and Johnny Got His Gun was probably the last American novel written about it before an entirely different affair called World War II got under way.

Dalton Trumbo, Introduction, in Johnny Got His Gun, Bantam Books, New York 1967