During the late 1940s, just as what would go on to be known as the Cold War was just hotting up, anti-communist sentiment in the US was highly targeted and unrelenting in its pressure to stamp out the red mist in Hollywood. One of its most high-profile scalps was screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and the story of his clandestine attempts to take a stand against the blacklist put in place to stop him working in the film industry is showcased in the new biopic called simply Trumbo.
Release date
The film had a UK release date of the 5th February 2016, following its earlier arrival in the US on the 6th November 2015. It went up against the 2016 remakes of Point Break, Dad’s Army and Goosebumps, so it’s in the minority as a serious looking original drama. As a historical biopic it’s only being distributed in 2D, which is probably for the best.
Story
The plot picks up with screenwriter Dalton Trumbo as the squeeze on creativity was getting into its stride thanks to the increasing tensions between East and West. As a member of the US Communist Party he was called in to testify in front of the United States Congress in 1947, but when he refused to talk, along with nine others, they faced time in prison for contempt and a blacklisting that would prevent them from working in the film industry.
However, instead of this being the end of the story, it simply forced Trumbo to become even more creative, and he went on to write many film scripts using front writers and pseudonyms to go undetected. This included Academy Award winning classics like Roman Holiday and The Brave One, but it would be a long road for the blacklisting to eventually come to an end and for his work to be rightly credited to him.
Cast
Brian Cranston (Kung Fu Panda 3) stars as Dalton Trumbo and he’ll be supported by a cast that gives Hail, Caesar! a run for its money with Diane Lane (Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice) as his wife Cleo Fincher Trumbo and Helen Mirren (Hitchcock) as Hedda Hopper, an anti-Soviet gossip columnist. They’re joined by John Goodman (Transformers: Age Of Extinction) playing production company sympathiser Frank King, Elle Fanning (Maleficent) as Trumbo’s daughter Nikola, Michael Stuhlbarg (Doctor Strange) as actor Edward G. Robinson and Alan Tudyk (Zootopia) as one of his front writers, along with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Suicide Sqaud) and Louis C.K. (American Hustle).
Production
The movie has been directed by Jay Roach, who’s back catalogue is comedy-heavy having directed the Austin Powers movies and produced the recent Amy Poehler outing, Sisters. The screen play has been written by John McNamara, who is also one of the film’s producers alongside Michael London, Janice Williams, Shivani Rawat, Monica Levinson, Nimitt Mankad and Kevin Kelly Brown.
First impressions
Trumbo looks like a quirky take on the historical biopic in the trailer below, but with BAFTA and Academy award nominations for Bryan Cranston in the lead role it clearly goes deeper than a warm look back on a difficult time. The production values are uncompromising and while Jay Roach’s comedy background has definitely been added into the mix there’s more depth to it all than first meets the eye.
It’s a credit to the production to resurface points in history where international complexity and political wrangling got in the way of doing the right thing. It was a time of great pressure on both sides of the political divide and whether it’s the music of Shostakovich or the writing of Dalton Trumbo there were casualties in art, but the fact that they were both able to sneak a few gems past the watchful eyes is definitely worth remembering.
