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.
Scans from the ‘LA Times’ and ‘Reading Eagle’ articles were added to the gallery:
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.”
Read the full story
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.
Read the full story
Lynchburg, VA - Two big name actors were in Lynchburg Saturday campaigning for democrat Barack Obama. John Cho and Ben McKenzie have been touring the state and dropped by Obama’s downtown headquarters. McKenzie is known for his role in The OC. Cho starred in Harold and Kumar. Both spoke to supporters about the importance of getting out the vote. McKenzie knows the Virginia well because he went to college at UVA. Ben McKenzie, Actor - “I think the state is changing very quickly and it’s really nice to see people embrace a new kind of figure. And embrace a new way of getting government to work for them.” John Cho, Actor - “I am really here to mostly thank people because Virginians are going to make a real difference in this election.” wset.com
In 2007, filmmaker Rowan Joseph, about to direct a national tour of a play adaptation by Bradley Rand Smith of Dalton Trumbo’s novel Johnny Got His Gun, went to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to watch a beloved videotape of the original 1982 off-Broadway production with Jeff Daniels. Joseph had seen and loved the play, which had run for 27 performances, and initially viewing the video in the late ’80s, he became even more besotted, despite the fact the first ten minutes had no audio. What Joseph discovered to his horror upon re-watching the video in 2007 was that the first 20 minutes had been destroyed when it was transferred from VHS to digital. Devastated by the idea that no full, permanent record of the play existed, Joseph decided to postpone the play and make a video of a new production of it instead. This is the fascinating genesis of what is undoubtedly a labor of love for all concerned.
Trumbo’s anti-war novel, which was previously filmed in 1971 with adaptation and direction by the once-blacklisted Trumbo himself, all takes place in the mind of Joe Bonham. He has been injured by an artillery shell on the last day of World War I, which leaves him a quadruple amputee who has also lost his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. His brain, however, is intact, and he devises a Morse code system of tapping his head to communicate his desire to be put on display as an illustration of the horrors of war.
The play is a one-man show, staged with the utmost minimalism and, as such, an audience challenge. Luckily, Joseph has cast it perfectly, with Ben McKenzie (formerly of “The O.C.”) as Joe. McKenzie has the perfect boy-next-door looks as well as the physical intensity and ardent naturalism to hold your interest. It’s a tour-de-force performance, and Joseph’s camerawork is fluid and sensitive, commendably staying well out of the way of his actor, as he emotes a sadly timeless tale particularly germane to this election year.