Trumbo

The film does a terrific job of examining Dalton Trumbo's unyielding beliefs, his cantankerous personality, and most importantly his words.

His letters are read by terrific actors like David Straithairn and Donald Sutherland, and it's in these readings that we get an insight into how sad and deep America's fear of intellectuals and artists really is.

The film has flaws, including rushing through some of the most important turns in Trumbo's professional life (e.g., his return to finally being able to take credit for his work in 1960) and there's a slight lack of emotional punch to the whole thing. But this is intelligent filmmaking, and Trumbo's words will ring in my head for a long time.

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo was arguably the most famous of the "Unfriendly Ten" who were blacklisted in 1947 in the first flash of America's witch-hunts. But that's pretty much all that the casual observer knew about him before his son, Christopher, presented his letters in the two-hander "Trumbo." Now Peter Askin's documentary, which includes dramatized readings from Trumbo fils' epistolary drama, fills in the historical gaps with newsreels, interviews, and a minimum of film clips ($). The importance of this documentary is that it shows how unquiet Trumbo was, how his insistent visibility helped break the Blacklist, and how the forces that tried to make the Blacklistees toe the line are still running things. For any doctrinaire Right-wingers reading this summary, "Trumbo" isn't about Communism, it's about thought control -- something both Left and Right seem to be fixated on imposing. The power of this film comes from its varied, non-manipulative portrayal of an indomitable creative spirit.

When many people think of movies several thoughts came in mind: Who are the actors? Is this a good movie? Who directed? But many times we forget to ask ourselves who wrote it and why someone wrote this kind of movie? After all writers are the real movie creators, they develop a story, plot, scenery, what period the story is set, everything comes from a good story. Author, novelist and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (1905 - 1976) was one of the greatest writers of all time not only on-screen but off-screen too. Many of his credits are well known films such as "Papillon", "Johnny Got His Gun", "Spartacus" and "Roman Holiday". But why is he so famous you may wonder. Sadly, Trumbo was enlisted in the Black List of artists considered to be Comunists by the House of Un-American Ativities in the late 1950's. After that he was arrested for a year, released but he couldn't work anymore because he was one of the Hollywood Ten figures to not answer some of the Congress's questions.

"Trumbo" is a documentary about the man in all of his forms: writer, father, person, husband, friend and more. Directed by Peter Askin and written by Christopher Trumbo (Dalton's son) based on his own play, this documentary is an original look into the life and work of one the greatest screenwriters of all time. Not only that. An ensemble cast appears performing and reading many letters written by Trumbo during his different moments in life. Michael Douglas, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Josh Lucas, Donald Sutherland, Liam Neeson, Brian Dennehy, Nathan Lane and Paul Giamatti put the emotion by reading and performing Dalton's vision of the world, his fights against the people who harmed him and many others brilliant pieces of writing.

Here there's testimonies of people who met him, like his son, some friends, Dustin Hoffman, Kirk Douglas (who helped Trumbo during the period when he couldn't write by giving Trumbo a screen credit for his work on "Spartacus") and we see archive footage of Trumbo himself in many interviews. This great man was a strong supporter of freedom of speech, a great liberal that was misunderstood in his time when many thought that he was Comunist because of the subjects and the way dealt with it on his films. But he was also a fighter who fought against all the problems he had, stood up for those who were his friends, a peaceful and funny warrior. To quote his own words: "I don't look for trouble but they look for me".

An interesting subject that appears here is all of Trumbo's works on movies during the Black List period using a fake name (The Front). He wrote many movies using a front, one of them is "Roman Holiday" and the other was "The Brave One" (under the name of Robert Rich). "The Brave One" won an Academy Award of Best Screenplay in 1957 and no one attended the Ceremony to pick the Oscar. Of course, Trumbo couldn't show up because he was forbidden to write, Motion Picture Association wouldn't let. But the Oscar was given to him years later. It's a very interesting thing that doesn't happen these days, screenwriters nowadays doesn't have that kind of experience to put into a screenplay. Trumbo did that, used his own hard experience in movies like "Spartacus", "Papillon" and "Johnny Got His Gun". If you pay attention to these movies when they appear in the documentary you will notice that the characters quotes are a reflexion over Trumbo's life but at the same time it's something that fit very well in the movies. Highly recommended! 10/10

For those of us too young to remember first-hand the evils of that horrid period in American history known as McCarthyism and the rampant loss of freedom & justice during its barbaric witch-hunts, this is a profoundly important film to watch.

At a time when terms like "patriot" are increasingly misused, abused and bastardized, the story of writer, Dalton Trumbo, and others like him who suffered grave injustices in the hands of their own fellow countrymen, needs to be heard far & wide and esp. by the young in this country.

I wished they would add this film & others like it to every high-school history-class curriculum, as they are just as relevant today. An immensely moving and heartbreaking story & an absolute must-see (be sure to read the closing credits.)

~NN

Through a focus on the life of Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976), this film examines the effects on individuals and families of a congressional pursuit of Hollywood Communists after World War II. Trumbo was one of several writers, directors, and actors who invoked the First (rather than the typical Fifth) Amendment in refusing to answer questions under oath.

We have insights from Donald Sutherland; we also have Michael Douglas, Nathan Lane, Brian Dennehy and Liam Neeson reading letters in their smooth, rich voices. What a great way to welcome audiences to the story of political persecution.

Trumbo himself says that "people joined the Communist Party because they felt it was doing something". He never really comes out and embraces Communism, but the whole era was a mess -- America allied with the Russians in World War II, and once the Nazis were defeated, anyone with Communist sympathies was tossed aside.

This film also has great archive footage of Walt Disney and others.