Trumbo

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.

This episode of "American Masters" was originally a film and was later shown on PBS as part of this series. Interestingly, before this it was a play--all written by Christopher Trumbo and all about his father, the famous blacklisted screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo. Back during the Red Scare Trumbo was one of the infamous hostile witnesses who refused to cooperate with the House of Representatives and movie industry in their effort to ferret out suspected commies. As a result, his career was severely damaged...practically destroyed. How he learned to get around this blacklist as well as what he thought about all this is addressed in the film. How? Well, a variety of highly respected actors all recreate the writings of Trumbo and provide his voice (as he died back in 1975). Additionally, many people who knew him or knew of him contribute to this look at the very cranky writer's life and career. Well worth seeing--very well made and compelling today in this climate of political correctness--not exactly comparable to the blacklists and Red Scare but at times darned close!

I saw this at the Toronto Film Festival on September 12, 2007. During the post-screening Q & A, several audience members were saying that the producers should do everything they can to get the film distributed. It seems that they picked up on the idea that first amendment issues of fifty years ago still resonate. This excellent documentary includes many interviews of Dalton Trumbo who, as one of the Hollywood Ten, was blacklisted from 1947 to 1960--when he was finally given screen credit for the films Exodus and Spartacus.

The producers of those films were also interviewed: Otto Preminger in archival footage and Kirk Douglas in a recent (and poignant) interview. The best part of the film is the lively Trumbo himself in interviews from the 1940s to the 1970s. The entire package is elevated artistically by a cast of top-notch actors who give great performances using only Trumbo's words, from his letters and other writings. The best of these is Nathan Lane's reading of Trumbo's letter to his son on the subject of masturbation.

To say that this Hollywood, celebrity documentary (about a 15-year blacklisting of screen-writer, Dalton Trumbo) could've been a whole lot better would truly be an understatement.

It was in 1947 that Trumbo was brought forward before those witch-hunters, the House Un-American Activities Committee, in order to testify against others in the film industry who were suspected of having Communist ties. Trumbo, of course, refused to cooperate (hence the blacklisting).

What inevitably lost this potentially promising documentary (about pigheaded democracy) some serious points was the overall approach that it took towards its subject where irksome, grandstanding actors (all a bunch of annoying talking heads) read, out loud, letters that Trumbo had written before, during, and after his blacklisting. It was all a heap of totally redundant drivel, IMO.

*Note* - In 1976 - Dalton Trumbo died at the age of 71.

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