When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again : Three Soldiers, Three Wars

When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again spotlights the stories of three soldiers in three wars.

Three soldiers. Each someone's Johnny. Father, son. Brother, cousin. Husband, lover. Just plain buddy.

Three conflicts. Civil War, pitting brother against brother, North against South, Yank against Johnny Reb. Vietnam War, North-South strife with Orwellian overtones. War on Terror, Afghanistan theater.

Three life-and-death stories in screenplay format:

'Owl Creek Bridge," based on the Civil War stories of Ambrose Bierce, and expanded to feature-film length by incorporating the Siege of Vicksburg.

'Sleeping With Charlie," adapted from the author's short story 'Cu Chi."

'Dawn's Early Light," P.O.W. drama inspired by a Leo Tolstoy tale and a cinematic rendition thereof by Sergei Bodrov Senior.

Gregory G. Sarno earned a J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law, U.C. Berkeley. He has written five screenwriting how-tos for a London-based film journal, www.scriptwritermagazine.com. Nonfiction books include Contemporizing the Classics: Poe, Shakespeare, Doyle; Threshold: Scripting a Coming-of-Age; and Lights! Camera! Action!: Crafting an Action Script.