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Trumbo

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Dalton Trumbo was a leading screenwriter before his inclusion on HUAC's "Black List" brought his career to a standstill, and then drove him underground. However, as this documentary reveals, he was also a master letter-writer. During the years when he couldn't any longer openly write screenplays, he still wrote letters - beautiful, eloquent letters to friends and foes.

This documentary has some first-rate actors reminiscing about their acquaintanceship with Trumbo during those McCarthy-era years, and reading his letters. If you think sitting and listening to actors read letters would be boring - this DVD will change your mind. People such as Paul Giamatti bring Trumbo to life via these sometimes acerbic, sometimes affectionate, always literate letters.

The readings and reminisces are interspersed with footage of the HUAC hearings, showing the Hollywood celebrities who felt pressured to "name names," and those who refused and suffered the consequences. There is also home movie footage and photographs providing snapshots of Trumbo's family through some of the good times and the bad. We see Trumbo as being above all a family-man, sustained through the years of Black List ostracism by these relationships. So at its core, this turns out to be an unexpected love story.

Whether the people who were blacklisted had entertained Communist sympathies or not - this film puts a personal face on the ordeal of being blacklisted for one's beliefs - or suspected beliefs.

A sober reminder of the power of tryanny over the individual. An individual who will stands up, because he cannot stand down.
Thus it becomes a matter of priciple for Dalton Trumbo and the other Hollywood writers to make that stand. All they has to do was to inform on friends. Those who had participated in the crime of speaking their own minds.
I write this on Veteran's Day. A day many gave their lives so that others could speak freely, even if they themselves adamantly disagreed with there politics or religion. It was a matter of the American Spirit itself, forged in the crucible of war, where many died or were wounded just so that their sons & daughter could live "free". Trumbo and the others also took that symbolic stand. The Supreme Court, aka Supreme Denial, refused to hear their case when they were marched off to jail. Many subsequently committed suicide. It was economic warfare on the ten who dared speak against the power. Some crumbled. Those that survivived suffered divorces, poverty, and other degradations, as a consequence of not only talking American, but being American - not bending over to the tryanny, but standing up against the powerful for the principals upon which this country was founded.
Ironicaly, the Supreme Court, aka Supreme Denial, in Buckley vs. Valeo in 1976 ruled that Free Speech is $$$$, thereby guaranteeing economic capital's purchase of the peoples' political capital. Corporations, with remorseless impunity, could corrupt the peoples' elections, strangling anychance of meaningful representation of the poor/middle classes.
This documentary has Kirk Douglas, his son Michael, Donald Sutherland, Liam Neeson, and others reading the letters of those writers and Trumble. That is worth the price of admission alone. The archived films and portrayal of the times are very informative.
The film and its themes are timeless.

The struggle of people against power
Is the struggle of memory against forgetting.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED !!!!!

Today, along with the DVD under review , "Trumbo", I have written a review of the film "Revolutionary Road", based on the 1950s novel by Richard Yates, about the `trials and tribulations' of an upwardly mobile white middle class suburban couple who are dissatisfied with that existence but can't break out. "Trumbo", about the real trials and tribulations of a great American writer, Dalton Trumbo provides an interesting contrast from the same period of history, post World War II America. The two are joined together in an odd way. The unstated subtext of "Revolutionary Road" is that it is not wise to challenge the cookie-cutter norm, nor is it `wise' to defy the "security blanket" provided by capitalist America in its fight against "godless communism". And for proof, just ask Dalton Trumbo, (or any of the "Hollywood Ten" writers and others who had to endure the 1950s (and beyond) blacklists.

This aspect of the Cold War, now mainly forgotten, is the apt subject here. One of the commentators let the cat out of the bag concerning the "red scare" and its victims. These victims of America's post-war build-up of the Cold War against the Soviet Union were men and women who, at heart, were liberals in the old-fashioned sense but who between the horrors of the Great Depression, the rise of fascism and their own basically decent human instincts gravitated toward communism, or at least what they took for communism as presented by the popular frontist American Communist Party. In the post-war period when America was determined to be hegemonic that boded ill for those who had been previously favorably disposed to the Soviet Union.

This one and one half hour goes into detail about all of that, including some very interesting black and white film from the period that somehow seems to capture the moment better than any 'talking head' commentary. More than that though this is a "tribute" to Dalton Trumbo's struggle against adversity when he, honorably, said no to the government. No. He would not be an informer. No. He would not stand for the abridgement of his right to free speech. He went to jail, had a hard time getting work later (in the period of the "front" which Woody Allen made a very clever film, "The Front" out of), and much later was vindicated in a way by being recognized for his writing achievements, including a number of screenplays that were outstanding like "Spartacus". All of this is told through Dalton Trumbo interviews giving during various periods of his life, the voices of various actors like Donald Sutherland and Michael Douglas performing excerpts from his works, and by remembrances of his children and other survivors from that period.

Two things to finish up. You MUST read, if you want a top grade anti-war novel, Trumbo's savage indictment of the effects of war on the young, "Johnny Got His Gun" that is excerpted in this presentation. And, although other that the novel just mentioned and some films (including "Spartacus" and "the Exodus") that I had seen and that Trumbo wrote the screenplays for I was not that familiar with his personal story aside from his political problems. After viewing this film I have one abiding thought about the man. Dalton Trumbo was too good human material to have labored, and I think thanklessly, for the by then distorted Stalinized American Communist Party. We, of the anti-Stalinist, anti-capitalist, pro-communist left could have used his finely- etched pen to better effect.

Trumbo is both a biography of blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo and a set of readings from his letters. The film is a partial success. The man is fascinating, but his letters fail to hold the viewer's attention.

The film has some interesting moments. The excerpts from Trumbo's novels and screenplays make clear that he was talented. The story of the Trumbo family scraping out a living during the blacklist is fascinating. There are also many great photos of Trumbo, his family, and his friends.

Trumbo's letters take up too much of the film. Granted, he was a witty correspondent and some of the letters are brilliant. But I quickly started to lose interest. The actors' readings add little; the filmmakers could easily have used one anonymous narrator and gotten the same effect.

There is not enough about Trumbo's life story in the film. The viewer hears nothing of his early life or of his later years; the focus is on his time as a screenwriter. There are hints of alcoholism, profligate spending, and truculence, but the man never emerges. The most-frustrating aspect of the film is that it omits any discussion of Trumbo's true political views, which are at the heart of his life story.

Trumbo is not a bad movie, but I want to know more about him.

Christopher Trumbo wrote a play about his father, novelist and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, and it has been produced both on Broadway and by regional theater companies over the last 10 years. The story behind the elder Trumbo's blacklisting during the communist "witch hunts" in the 1950s is important and needed wider exposure. This film, which played briefly in theaters, is, thankfully now on home video. It is essential viewing for every high school student to show what can happen when people act, rather than think. And it shows how, for a period in the 1950s the words "freedom" and "fair trial" were not as common in the US as the Constitution says they should be.

Direct Peter Askin used the younger Trumbo's script as a jumping off point but opened up the story through creative use of archival film interviews with the screenwriter combined with well known actors (Nathan Lane, Donald Sutherland, Michael Douglas - whose father Kirk starred in "Spartacus", one of Trumbo's efforts and appears here briefly- and Joan Allen among others) reciting Trumbo's own letters to friends and colleagues. These letters are often quite long and are, in effect, short stories. The performances by the actors are truly stunning! We see brief excerpts for films that Trumbo scripted (whether he was given credit or not on the screen) to show how his values were reflected in the characters' words. These films include "Papillion", "Roman Holiday" and Exodus.

The only supplemental features are two deleted scenes of actors Paul Giamatti and Danny Glover reading letters that Trumbo wrote.

If you know the history of the blacklist you will find this film a reminder. If the word "blacklist" means nothing to you, then you owe it to yourself to see this film and show it to your family as well.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"

Just watched this on public TV .. still reeling emotionally ...
This presents in unflinching detail the devastating effect of the witch hunts of the McCarthy era as it impacted many talents in Hollywood, artists all over America and for Trumbo in particular. Movingly recorded and proudly - even defiantly - documented, it forces us to confront the inhumanity and shame of the "blacklist" and its consequences. We witness the shocking abuse of power and the shameful cowardice of betrayal as well as all the tragedy of its result. Presented in a true and fierce format by a variety of actors and by Trumbo himself...in his own brilliant and poignant words and in the words of his family... it shows these events with sharp clarity and without compromise. Congratulations to all the people who participated in this presentation. It was obviously created with passion for the truth and with dignity and fearlessness. This shameful chapter of history that assaulted the basic rights of American to free speech should never be forgotten or repeated and should be required viewing for everyone.

James Dalton Trumbo, a man for all seasons

What do you say about a man who stood his ground without reservation? A visionary who fell from grace, and found dignity to be different.

In 1946 thru 1960 Trumbo weathered the assault of the United States Government, a Senator from Wisconsin Joseph R. McCarthy, and hollywood's disgrace. The House on Un-American Activities, et al, imprisoned him for a year, and took away his only means to survive, writing. The man who gave us, "Johnny Got His Gun" was deprived by a man without intellect or judgment to render such opinion(s).


Dalton son, Christopher directed the film. In my opinion made it real, without error, and that is what Trumbo demanded. This film will make you cry, and laugh, and a little of both.

You are Spartacus, James Dalton Trumbo,
"Barcelona fell, and you were not there, and I was not there, and perhaps if we had been, the city would have stood and the world would have been changed and better. But we were here, and here together we remain, and our city won't fall, and if it should, better that we lie buried in its ruins than be found absent a second time."

JMHB

Most today have never heard of Dalton Trumbo, but his name was infamous in the 50s as part of a blacklist of Hollywood writers who refused to succumb to the anti-Communist hysteria of the times. Much of this documentary consists of actors reading from Trumbo's letters. He mostly only appears in a few sound clips as an old man, which is too bad because I would have preferred him in his prime. What was kind of astonishing is that he continued to write prize-winning scripts under the names of others, and no one knew. That could not happen today. Watch for a slice of Hollywood history.

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.