← Back to Reviews
in
Trumbo - Trouble in Hollywood
Our latest outing was to see Trumbo, an excellently witty film about the eccentric writer Dalton Trumbo, a prolific movie writer who was driven out of Hollywood and blacklisted during the McCarthy era for communist associations. It follows his years “ghosting” movies and his eventual return to being credited under his own name. Trumbo, like many idealistic people in the 1930’s, had dallied with communist sympathy at a time when many in the US were in sympathy with the communists during the horrific Spanish Civil War in their losing fight against the Facists, who were a proxy for the Nazis. Some years later, Trumbo joined the Communist Party USA when the US had an alliance with the Soviet Union during WW II, but he was never really very interested in global politics.
A few years later, however, when the Red Scare hit, Trumbo found himself being written out of Hollywood by the likes of Hedda Hopper, John Wayne and other actors who “gave up names” and wrapped themselves in flags in order to save themselves. In a moment, Trumbo found himself unemployable, disgraced and in federal prison. Ultimately, the purge netted exactly zero people convicted of any crimes like espionage or sabotage, but many people’s lives were ruined by the blacklisting and publicity. During his ban, however, Trumbo and a number of other writers made a modest living by writing movies that were credited with fake names, often low-budget cheapies. This film re-enacts that period, up to when Trumbo got his name back with visible support from Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger. Trumbo went on to write some of the classics of that era, including Spartacus, Exodus, Roman Holiday and Hawaii.
Trumbo is portrayed quite accurately, doing most of his writing in the bathtub with an IBM typewriter on a platform, accompanied by cigarettes, a 5th of whiskey and a bottle of amphetamine. He was a six pack per day smoker. He wrote in marathon, sleepless binges and could crank out a film in several days. To call him eccentric would be an understatement.
Portraying a character like this would be an interesting challenge. The job went to Bryan Cranston, a guy who’s been around in a lot of movies and TV shows over the years, but is best known for his troubled father roles, where he’s a smaller than life/larger than life kind of guy. We’ve seen him change from the hen-pecked dad in Malcolm in the Middle to the cancer-ridden business failure Walter White and then seen him morph into the uber-badass Heisenberg, king of the New Mexico meth market in Breaking Bad. In Trumbo, once again, he’s trying to keep his family supported while he indulges his eccentricity, seemingly a perfect role for Cranston who jumps in and chews the scenery. I do hope he gets an Oscar nomination. The supporting cast includes Diana Lane as his long-suffering, but loyal wife Cleo, Helen Mirren as the disgusting harpy Hedda Hopper and Louis C. K. as a fellow blacklisted writer Arlen Hird. Real characters portrayed include Edward G. Robinson, John Wayne, Otto Preminger, Louis B Mayer and Kirk Douglas, often interspersed between actual cuts from their movies. Jay Roach was the director, who’s known for producing and directing comedies like the “Fockers” movies, Austin Powers, Borat and others.
I really enjoyed this movie. It could have been a preachy morality tale, but I can’t imagine how you would do that with such an irreverent character as Dalton Trumbo. He seemed to think of life as a bad movie script, maybe a comedy or tragedy but also maybe trashy junk, best taken without too much high drama but a lot of booze and tobacco. It would kill his spirit to make him into a heavy character or a victim. Roach and Cranston really make that work. The film keeps the tone light, while not missing the inherent horror of those times, keeps up the pace and is quite enjoyable. It had the feel of a story that needed to be told; you want to applaud at the end; some people in the theater did. Most of the blacklisted characters in the movie are largely forgotten now, and mainly were writers. Most of the actors of that time managed to do what they needed to do to stay in the business, often at the cost of betraying friends in sworn testimony. It was not a good time, but it makes for an excellent movie that never loses its light touch.
Our latest outing was to see Trumbo, an excellently witty film about the eccentric writer Dalton Trumbo, a prolific movie writer who was driven out of Hollywood and blacklisted during the McCarthy era for communist associations. It follows his years “ghosting” movies and his eventual return to being credited under his own name. Trumbo, like many idealistic people in the 1930’s, had dallied with communist sympathy at a time when many in the US were in sympathy with the communists during the horrific Spanish Civil War in their losing fight against the Facists, who were a proxy for the Nazis. Some years later, Trumbo joined the Communist Party USA when the US had an alliance with the Soviet Union during WW II, but he was never really very interested in global politics.
A few years later, however, when the Red Scare hit, Trumbo found himself being written out of Hollywood by the likes of Hedda Hopper, John Wayne and other actors who “gave up names” and wrapped themselves in flags in order to save themselves. In a moment, Trumbo found himself unemployable, disgraced and in federal prison. Ultimately, the purge netted exactly zero people convicted of any crimes like espionage or sabotage, but many people’s lives were ruined by the blacklisting and publicity. During his ban, however, Trumbo and a number of other writers made a modest living by writing movies that were credited with fake names, often low-budget cheapies. This film re-enacts that period, up to when Trumbo got his name back with visible support from Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger. Trumbo went on to write some of the classics of that era, including Spartacus, Exodus, Roman Holiday and Hawaii.
Trumbo is portrayed quite accurately, doing most of his writing in the bathtub with an IBM typewriter on a platform, accompanied by cigarettes, a 5th of whiskey and a bottle of amphetamine. He was a six pack per day smoker. He wrote in marathon, sleepless binges and could crank out a film in several days. To call him eccentric would be an understatement.
Portraying a character like this would be an interesting challenge. The job went to Bryan Cranston, a guy who’s been around in a lot of movies and TV shows over the years, but is best known for his troubled father roles, where he’s a smaller than life/larger than life kind of guy. We’ve seen him change from the hen-pecked dad in Malcolm in the Middle to the cancer-ridden business failure Walter White and then seen him morph into the uber-badass Heisenberg, king of the New Mexico meth market in Breaking Bad. In Trumbo, once again, he’s trying to keep his family supported while he indulges his eccentricity, seemingly a perfect role for Cranston who jumps in and chews the scenery. I do hope he gets an Oscar nomination. The supporting cast includes Diana Lane as his long-suffering, but loyal wife Cleo, Helen Mirren as the disgusting harpy Hedda Hopper and Louis C. K. as a fellow blacklisted writer Arlen Hird. Real characters portrayed include Edward G. Robinson, John Wayne, Otto Preminger, Louis B Mayer and Kirk Douglas, often interspersed between actual cuts from their movies. Jay Roach was the director, who’s known for producing and directing comedies like the “Fockers” movies, Austin Powers, Borat and others.
I really enjoyed this movie. It could have been a preachy morality tale, but I can’t imagine how you would do that with such an irreverent character as Dalton Trumbo. He seemed to think of life as a bad movie script, maybe a comedy or tragedy but also maybe trashy junk, best taken without too much high drama but a lot of booze and tobacco. It would kill his spirit to make him into a heavy character or a victim. Roach and Cranston really make that work. The film keeps the tone light, while not missing the inherent horror of those times, keeps up the pace and is quite enjoyable. It had the feel of a story that needed to be told; you want to applaud at the end; some people in the theater did. Most of the blacklisted characters in the movie are largely forgotten now, and mainly were writers. Most of the actors of that time managed to do what they needed to do to stay in the business, often at the cost of betraying friends in sworn testimony. It was not a good time, but it makes for an excellent movie that never loses its light touch.