Johnny Got His Gun

The film is often sentimental, sometimes brilliant as well as horrifying, and it is intriguing to speculate on what Buuel, whom Trumbo originally wanted to direct, would have made of it.

Although Mr. Trumbo is primarily a screenwriter, screenwriting is only the worst of the film's several failures.

Instead of belaboring ironic points about the "war to end war," Trumbo remains stubbornly on the human level.

Problems aside, there's a cumulative power to the material and an idea that's impossible to ignore.

[Trumbo's] filmmaking is frugal -- jump-cuts state the passage of time, a languid fade to yellow signifies solar warmth.

Trumbo, directing his first film, drives home his points in a somewhat obvious, often awkward fashion that is overly talky, but so disquieting is his story and the reality underlying it that it is difficult not to be moved by the film.

Sadly, time has not made this story any less relevant or potent.

Dalton Trumbo (member of the Hollywood Ten) sole directing effort is one of the most hauntingly powerful anti-war film made, an experimental work that's effective as realistic portrait of war's damages as well as metaphoric, quasi-religious journey.