1)      Trumbo knows “Johnny Got His Gun” will never be a financial success- Trumbo credits the limited success to the fact that during that time period in the US, Americans did not want to see such an involved, non-relaxing (as Trumbo calls it), gruesome film. During such troubling times as the 70’s, which included the Vietnam War, Trumbo believed that Johnny Got His Gun was too much/too relevant/too personal for people to take.

2)      Trumbo compares “Johnny Got His Gun” to a famous work of Art- In his conversation; Trumbo refers to a work by Renoir, “the grand illusion.” This work received no accolades and was in no way highly sought after when it was first produced. Now, it has been encompassed with fame. I don’t think Trumbo is just attempting to show off his Impressionist artist knowledge, but rather he knew that in time his meaning would surface. At face value, Johnny Got His Gun was turned away, but in time Trumbo knew that when the right audience saw it, his message would be clear. It was not made in attempt to glorify war, but rather to deliver home the personal/individual toll it takes on those involved.

3)      Trumbo speaks of his “limited audience”- Trumbo expresses no concern for the limited audience he knew his screenplay would originally reach. He made the book and the characters exactly what he wanted to because, that was the only way to make them. He speaks of how if he were to concern himself with the greater populous, and not his intended audience, the essence of the novel/film would have been lost in the quest. Johnny the main character would have been a combination of so many different individual human aspects, that he would have ended up with no specific message/audience at all. I believe Trumbo refers to those characters as “bastard children.”

Reflection:  When I originally listened to Trumbo speak, he was hard to follow. He speaks with such a flare that is both catchy, and sleep inducing at times. However, there is no question that he is immensely intellectual. Trumbo spoke about writing books about characters, and writing books about ideas. There is a fine separation of the two that I agree upon. A book written of ideas will form characters around the events (or ideas), and the emotions and feelings are drawn from the occurrence of specific events. On the other hand, in character driven stories, the characters develop on a more personal and relatable level to onlookers. A connection can be made easier to a novel that centers itself on a character developing cognitively, emotionally, and or spiritually.

Source of Generated Response:

Dalton Trumbo speaking at UCLA 5/17/1972 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhAXSDpvqVU