DONATE OR REQUEST A DVD
Each year, thousands high school students read Dalton Trumbo’s National Book Award-winning novel, Johnny Got His Gun, as part of their English Literature, Social Studies, and Political Science classes.
Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, starring Ben McKenzie (Southland, The O.C., Junebug), was originally conceived to enhance those studies, as well as courses in Film, Theater Arts, Nursing, and Acting.
While we were honored to have our small independent film picked up for distribution in art house cinemas, our goal has always been to have a copy of this movie distributed to every high school library in the country.
THE NEED
At a time when most schools no longer offer basic Civics courses, Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun offers a perspective beyond the video games and multimedia images which bombard students and all too often depersonalize the human aspect of war.
Included with the film are a pre-screening and a post-screening discussion guide, which offer educators an opportunity to explore and discuss with their students many of Trumbo’s themes.
Sadly, many school districts today no longer have the financial resources to purchase educational DVDs, which come with the necessary ‘Public Performance Rights’ licenses that enable teachers to screen them in the classroom. And even though Johnny is priced well below the average cost of such educational videos, it remains out of reach for many schools.
THE SOLUTION
Greenwood Hill Productions is working to match each high school library in the country with a donor willing to purchase a copy of the film for them.
These DVDs are a teaching tool which can be utilized by educators across multiple curriculums, as noted above.
Furthermore, each video comes with the legally required Public Performance Rights license, which allows teachers to show the film year after year, for the lifetime of the DVD.
Finally, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each DVD go to the Fallen Patriot Fund to help veterans and their families.
Go to the film’s website and request a copy for your school
The johnnygothisgunthemovie.com site has been updated. The DVD of the film is now on sale.
This DVD is an educational/institutional version that was made primarily for use in high schools, colleges and universities, and for community libraries with film collections. a portion of each DVD sold is being donated to THE FALLEN PATRIOT FUND, assisting families of fallen or seriously injured veterans.
The site also has a featurette that you can watch online. The featurette includes interviews with Ben Mckenzie, the director Rowan Joseph, playwright Bradley Rand Smith, and Christopher Trumbo, the son of Dalton Trumbo. It has footage of the rehearsals and scenes from the film.
Click on “featurette” on the upper part of the screen: http://www.johnnygothisgunthemovie.com/
Have you ever sat in a movie theater staring at a blank screen after the credits had completed their roll? Stunned silence. You You look around and people are staring straight ahead. Among a crowd, they are alone with their thoughts. No one gets up to leave when the lights come on. I look to my right and Rosie is staring straight ahead with tears coming down her face. On my left Pat is sobbing. Two seats down Ron sits staring forward, perhaps engaged in a losing bout to control his anger. I don’t know. Finally the surreal daze is broken when the director of Johnny Got His Gun, Rowan Joseph, goes to the head of the theater and asks if anyone has any questions.
Johnny Got His Gun is not a movie. It’s an experience. I confess I didn’t know what to expect when friends Ron and Rosie (CS2 Single-Payer Healthcare Advocates) invited my wife and me to join them at the GoggleWorks in downtown Reading to see this picture. When I read that the star of the show was Ben McKenzie from the Fox TV show The O.C., my level of expectation was lower still. The O.C. is one of those titillating prime time smash series that enables TV to earn the reputation as the veritable wasteland that it is. Totally vacuous characters, one more slimy than the next. So what could I expect from an actor who dishes up this kind of fare on a regular basis? Not much. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
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‘O.C.’ heartthrob Ben McKenzie talks war, Dalton Trumbo and his role as a man trapped in his body in ‘Johnny Got His Gun.’
The casting of “The O.C.’s” Ben McKenzie as a horrifically wounded World War I soldier in “Johnny Got His Gun” might be a nightmarish notion for fans of the TV show, but the presence of this all-American-looking teen idol in a skeletal, heartfelt antiwar drama lends a jarring, current resonance.
“It’s a very small, little passion project for a few people; I just hope it adds to the conversation a little bit,” said McKenzie on a Friday evening in a cafe on noisy Sunset Boulevard. “Some of the proceeds will go to the Fallen Patriot Fund, which helps out [Operation Iraqi Freedom] veterans. But I don’t have any grand illusions that this will spark some kind of national conversation over the Iraq war; we’ve been having that conversation for some time and this is not going to tip the balance. It’s just another little bit for people to think about.”
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Rowan Joseph said not much about his life has changed since he left Reading after graduating from Holy Name High School in the 1970s.
He’s still acting, writing and directing. Only now he’s directing actors such as Ben McKenzie (recently of “The OC” and “Junebug”) and producing movies that play to a national audience.
One other thing that has remained constant is that Joseph sees the relationships he has formed to be as valuable as the talent he has.
“I’m doing the same things I was doing in high school,” Joseph said. “My life hasn’t really changed that much.”
Except, of course, for his name.
Growing up and performing in Reading, Joseph was known as Joe Rowan and he was a regular performer with the former Reading Civic Opera where he credits actors Larry Longlott, Bruce McLean and the late Betty Lou McLean with both friendship and mentoring.
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Batman: Year One (2011)
Southland (2009-2010)
Sin Bin (2010)
The Eight Percent (2009)
Johnny Got His Gun (2008)
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