Trumbo (Cinema Review)

Starring: Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K., Elle Fanning, John Goodman
Directed By: Jay Roach
Running Time: 124 minutes
UK Release Date: February 5th 2016
BBFC Certificate: 15

Dalton Trumbo (Brtan Cranston) was a hugely successful screenwriter of the 1940s, 50s and 60s. A family man and an eccentric in many ways, he did much of his best work writing in the bath. He was also a Communist and one of the notorious “Hollywood Ten” who were blacklisted throughout the 1950s.

With a few notable exceptions, such as Martin Ritt’s Woody Allen starrer The Front and, more recently, George Clooney’s Good Night, And Good Luck, there are very few films about the anti-Communist paranoia which consumed the United States after the Second World War. This is largely because Hollywood was hit particularly badly by it and only now as the last of the surviving few participants die off is it becoming a generally acceptable topic for filmmaking. It remains a touchy subject though. Many careers and lives were ruined.

As shown here, everyone reacted to the witch hunts in different ways. Some, like Trumbo himself, reacted defiantly when accused. Bizarrely, being a Communist in itself was never actually an offence in the US. Those under suspicion were harassed by the authorities because they were suspected of plotting to overthrow the American way of life. Trumbo was jailed not for being a “Red” but for refusing to cooperate with the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee.

Others did cooperate. Some acted from cowardice, some only acted under the most intense pressure. Some, in fairness, were motivated by a genuine sense of patriotism and a slightly wrongheaded belief that they were doing the right thing. As Trumbo himself points out in the film, some of these were not necessarily more patriotic than those they accused. As a Second World War veteran himself, Trumbo confronts the conservative actor John Wayne (David James Elliott): “If you’re going to talk about World War II as if you personally won it, let’s be clear where you were stationed,” he reminds him, “On a film set, shooting blanks, wearing make-up.”

Others exploited the situation mercilessly, notably gossip columnist and right wing anti-Semite Hedda Hopper, played brilliantly by Helen Mirren. Cranston too, is on superb, perhaps Oscar-worthy form as Trumbo, undeniably a difficult man, whose family suffered as much as him.

But while slightly let down by some weaknesses (a character well played by the comedian Louis C.K. disappointingly turns out to be a composite drawn from a number of Trumbo’s comrades) this is an excellent and highly enjoyable piece of work.

Overall Verdict: Austin Powers director Jay Roach and Cranston vividly bring Dalton Trumbo, international man of history to life.

Reviewer: Chris Hallam