Film Review: Trumbo
In truth, I have been looking forward to this film since I first heard of it being casted.
I have watched the documentary, released in 2007 (same title) many times before. From the first viewing, I was enthralled with this cautionary tale from history and the man brought to the forefront of so many others who were made to feel low for standing up for what was right. Is right.
A group of powerful men were afraid and let that fear rule them.
With a great script (John McNamara - based on the book by Bruce Cook) and superb direction (Jay Roach), the story of the blacklist, McCarthyism is beautifully illustrated in all its idiocy and farce. As it is so clearly stated in the film, the purpose of the committee hearings was to find communists working to bring down America, make laws to prevent international spies and other related work - none of which was achieved. All it did was make a very large amount of principled law abiding people unemployed and hated by their neighbours and friends.
In this film, the focus is on one group of blacklisted people - the hollywood people. In particular "The Hollywood Ten" and the more well known "agitator" Dalton Trumbo.
Here brilliantly portrayed by Bryan Cranston. Mr Cranston virtually and completely vanishes into the character of Dalton, to the the point of absolute role takeover. This, this right here is what they rightfully nominate actors for. Leonardo di Caprio thoroughly disappeared into the role of Howard Hughes. Heath Ledger thoroughly vanished into the role of the Joker and they gave him the award. Mr Cranston well and truly deserves every acting award available for his performance here. (Except a razzie.)
Dalton is a screenwriter, as the film opens, the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood and a family man with a wife and three children. Diane Lane portrays his wife Cleo. He has friends, in the industry and as the film begins their political side is the one on show, going against the popular stride led by Hedda Hopper (brilliantly portrayed by Helen Mirren) and John Wayne (David James Elliott).
The hearings bring out the subpoenaed people, including Dalton Trumbo and his friends, colleagues in the industry.
Some come through, by dint of being too important and saying what the committee wants them to say and others - they say what needs to be said and are charged with contempt of congress. Those charged includes Dalton and his friend Arlen Hird (portrayed exceedingly well by Louis CK.) Mr Hird is an amalgam of other people in the era, here he is an everyman, there to say what the viewer would, and other statements which are worth stating.
It is also worth noting here that the film is many things, but one sided - definitely and categorically it is not. The people on either "side" are not comic book heroes and villains. Everyone involved is caught up in this rapidly tangling poisonous and dangerous web and every one of them acted on what they thought to be the right thing to do.
Some named names, because they couldn't see any way out,because they could see no other avenue in which to find employment. Edward G. Robinson (portrayed superbly by Michael Stuhlbarg) is one who is caught in the middle. There is a point when Ms Mirren's character sees the tide turning again and the expression on her face shows beautifully the decisions that have come before and what they have brought her to.
Alan Tudyk is another friend and colleague, there are many others, not just the Hollywood Ten, they are charged, they seek appeal from the supreme court and are still found guilty as charged. They are all sentenced to one year in various Federal prison penitentiaries around the country. Here Dalton encounters what the prison system is like in the fifties, and Virgil Brooks, here portrayed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.
Out of prison and aged in more ways in one by the experience, he returns home and is quickly faced by the reality that being blacklisted means. His material wealth shrinks entirely and he chooses to work on the black market, working under fronts and false names to sell work and make a living, a process he involves his family in, and a very exhausting process to write so many scripts in a much shorter period of time, for a fraction of the price he was previously working for. He works for the King Brothers (here portrayed by John Goodman and Stephen Root) and gathers the rest of his blacklisted friends, to also work for them.
It is a punishing schedule and his family takes the emotional brunt of it, vocalised by his wife and his eldest daughter Nikola, here portrayed for the latter part of the film by Elle Fanning who has certainly grown into her own.
When the tide turns, Dean O'Gorman (portraying the great Kirk Douglas) and Otto Preminger (Christian Berkel) are part of the wave that help break the vicious cycle.
Like I said, there are no heroes and villains here. Here is simply a superbly and brilliantly made film that shows human nature on display when faced with one of the wars of the era, the cold war.
I have watched the documentary, released in 2007 (same title) many times before. From the first viewing, I was enthralled with this cautionary tale from history and the man brought to the forefront of so many others who were made to feel low for standing up for what was right. Is right.
A group of powerful men were afraid and let that fear rule them.
With a great script (John McNamara - based on the book by Bruce Cook) and superb direction (Jay Roach), the story of the blacklist, McCarthyism is beautifully illustrated in all its idiocy and farce. As it is so clearly stated in the film, the purpose of the committee hearings was to find communists working to bring down America, make laws to prevent international spies and other related work - none of which was achieved. All it did was make a very large amount of principled law abiding people unemployed and hated by their neighbours and friends.
In this film, the focus is on one group of blacklisted people - the hollywood people. In particular "The Hollywood Ten" and the more well known "agitator" Dalton Trumbo.
Here brilliantly portrayed by Bryan Cranston. Mr Cranston virtually and completely vanishes into the character of Dalton, to the the point of absolute role takeover. This, this right here is what they rightfully nominate actors for. Leonardo di Caprio thoroughly disappeared into the role of Howard Hughes. Heath Ledger thoroughly vanished into the role of the Joker and they gave him the award. Mr Cranston well and truly deserves every acting award available for his performance here. (Except a razzie.)
Dalton is a screenwriter, as the film opens, the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood and a family man with a wife and three children. Diane Lane portrays his wife Cleo. He has friends, in the industry and as the film begins their political side is the one on show, going against the popular stride led by Hedda Hopper (brilliantly portrayed by Helen Mirren) and John Wayne (David James Elliott).
The hearings bring out the subpoenaed people, including Dalton Trumbo and his friends, colleagues in the industry.
Some come through, by dint of being too important and saying what the committee wants them to say and others - they say what needs to be said and are charged with contempt of congress. Those charged includes Dalton and his friend Arlen Hird (portrayed exceedingly well by Louis CK.) Mr Hird is an amalgam of other people in the era, here he is an everyman, there to say what the viewer would, and other statements which are worth stating.
It is also worth noting here that the film is many things, but one sided - definitely and categorically it is not. The people on either "side" are not comic book heroes and villains. Everyone involved is caught up in this rapidly tangling poisonous and dangerous web and every one of them acted on what they thought to be the right thing to do.
Some named names, because they couldn't see any way out,because they could see no other avenue in which to find employment. Edward G. Robinson (portrayed superbly by Michael Stuhlbarg) is one who is caught in the middle. There is a point when Ms Mirren's character sees the tide turning again and the expression on her face shows beautifully the decisions that have come before and what they have brought her to.
Alan Tudyk is another friend and colleague, there are many others, not just the Hollywood Ten, they are charged, they seek appeal from the supreme court and are still found guilty as charged. They are all sentenced to one year in various Federal prison penitentiaries around the country. Here Dalton encounters what the prison system is like in the fifties, and Virgil Brooks, here portrayed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.
Out of prison and aged in more ways in one by the experience, he returns home and is quickly faced by the reality that being blacklisted means. His material wealth shrinks entirely and he chooses to work on the black market, working under fronts and false names to sell work and make a living, a process he involves his family in, and a very exhausting process to write so many scripts in a much shorter period of time, for a fraction of the price he was previously working for. He works for the King Brothers (here portrayed by John Goodman and Stephen Root) and gathers the rest of his blacklisted friends, to also work for them.
It is a punishing schedule and his family takes the emotional brunt of it, vocalised by his wife and his eldest daughter Nikola, here portrayed for the latter part of the film by Elle Fanning who has certainly grown into her own.
When the tide turns, Dean O'Gorman (portraying the great Kirk Douglas) and Otto Preminger (Christian Berkel) are part of the wave that help break the vicious cycle.
Like I said, there are no heroes and villains here. Here is simply a superbly and brilliantly made film that shows human nature on display when faced with one of the wars of the era, the cold war.
Comments
Post a Comment