YMMV / Johnny Got His Gun

• Adaptation Displacement: A lot of people became aware of the movie because clips were included in the music video of Metallica's "One", which was in itself based on the book.
• Anvilicious: War is horrible, and so is the draft.
• I Am Not Shazam: The protagonist's name isn't Johnny, it's Joe. The title of the book comes from a patriotic song sung during the war.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • It's not as much anti-war as it is anti-draft. Although it is plenty of both.
  • Also, Trumbo was a socialist. When World War II began in 1939, he found some right-wing groups were using his book as a message for why the United States should keep out of the war. This convinced him not to have the book republished until after the war had ended.
• Moral Event Horizon: While the officer isn't responsible for Joe's condition and is just doing his job, he still demonstrates some pretty inexcusable Lack of Empathy in shooting down Joe's only remaining Hope Spot.
• Retroactive Recognition: The guy playing Joe is Timothy Bottoms, who later went on to play George Bush in That's My Bush!.
• Squick:
  • When Joe is trying to communicate to a nurse by banging his head in Morse code, the nurse misinterprets him and thinks he wants a handjob. So she gives him one.
  • Then, of course, there's what's left of Joe's face.
  • The rat gnawing at him. Or was that part All Just a Dream?
• Tear Jerker:
  • The ending combines this and pure Nightmare Fuel as the full horror of his situation becomes too much and Joe is slowly going mad and can only repeat the words "S.O.S. help Me" over and over again as the screen fades to black.
  • Joe begging for his mother relatively early on and insisting this is all a dream in the book.
  • "He says, "kill me." Over and over."
• The Woobie: Joe is trapped in the ultimate And I Must Scream situation, having lost all his limbs along with his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. He wishes to be put out of his misery, and by the end of the film, this is denied, leaving him a prisoner of his own body for the remainder of his life.

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