This is Johnny Got His Gun. The name derives from the famous slogan, "Johnny get your gun" which was used during WWI to enlist soldiers for the war effort. The clever use of the past tense says it all. This soldier has answered the call of duty, and he becomes victim to a horrible reality.
The film centers around an American WWI soldier named Joe Bonham, who is struck by an artillary shell during battle. He survives... however, he also loses all four of his limbs in the explosion as well as his sight, hearing, and speech. His brain is in tact however, and the slow realization that he is stuck in his head in a body that no longer functions at all, is a horrific decent into madness and despair. All he has is his memories and dreams when he falls asleep, a state of reality that he is never able to distinguish. He has no grasp on when he is awake or asleep.
While the thought alone is extremely unsettling, the way Dalton Trumbo (who is also the author of the novel) decided to shoot the film makes this unsettling plot absolutely terrifying. This is the textbook case of the "Jaws Effect" that what you don't see, is often times scarier than what you do see. Trumbo does not subject the viewer to Joe's injuries, instead giving him a mask to wear and his body is covered by a drapery of some kind. Something about the mask and the hospital garb really make the image of Joe's mangled shell of a body an unforgettable image.
When I was a kid, I used to have nightmares of this image. It's because of that past that I even feel uneasy about revisiting it as an adult. While its not absolute fear like it was back then, I still feel the power of this image. Its just so damn disturbing.
When you're an eight year old boy, you often find yourself immersed in a variety of soldier fantasies. I played a lot of Call of Duty and I had a lot of BB guns which resembled military rifles and would pretend to be in wars with my friends. The thought crossed my mind a few times about wanting to be a marine as an adult, but this movie killed all of those fantasies for me. It's easy to make a half baked statement in a film about war being bad, but this film, in my opinion shows the absolutely horrific effect war can have on people. It scared me into ever joining the military. This could happen to anyone.
I was first introduced to this film by a Metallica music video from their song "One" which is based on the novel. They used images from the film, and it was here that I first saw these images and I was never the same after that. I knew about the movie for years but didn't have the courage to watch the whole thing until high school... and even then those anxieties about the movie resurfaced a bit.
Another thing that really makes this film even more impactful is its use of color for the memories and dreams. You see a more innocent time leading up to Joe's tragic injury. We see his childhood and several events leading up to his involvement in the war, where he leaves his girlfriend and promises to return... a promise that never comes true, but even worse is that Joe has to live to ponder it.
This makes the nice images of the memories so much more unsettling when spliced next to the scenes of horror where the images are sure to be cemented in your mind. The opening shot is super disturbing on its own right. Its just three doctors staring down at Joe's mangled body and describing it in cold, calculated detail. The low angle puts you in Joe's perspective and its completely helpless, just like the film makes you feel during the rest of its duration.
The full film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUfBVLAY_pU&t=682s
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