Johnny Got His Gun

This play about a guy trapped in his own mind is obviously being brought back to the stage and on DVDs to capitalize on the success of The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (and popular anti-war sentiment in the US).

The most interesting part of this trailer is “Live on stage, on film.” This is not really possible; the audience is either in the same physical space as the performance, watching it unfold in real time, or they aren’t. Sure, you can listen to a CD of a live concert event, enabling you to hear the audience respond to the music, to hear any accidental or deliberate variations that took place on that particular night. But films of stage plays don’t work that way. The audience (if there even is one) is quiet. The camera angle changes to give you the best view. But most of all, you simply are not sitting there breathing the same air as the performers, supporting them with your respectful silence, feeling that by being in the room, you are helping to make the magic happen, which is what live dramatic performance is really all about.

The difference is especially important in the case of a story about a guy trapped in his own mind, literally unable to share a room with another human being. His whole inner life is about the impossibility of reconciling live participation in human events with an inner movie that goes on forever, always referencing life, but never becoming it.