Trumbo (2015) (English Language)

Review

124min

Genre:      Fact-based, Drama

Director:   Jay Roach

Cast:        Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren…and more

Writers:    John McNamara, Bruce Cook

Bryan Cranston stars as Dalton Trumbo, legendary “golden age” Hollywood screenwriter who among many others was persecuted and marginalised by the US government for his political beliefs at the height of anti-communist Cold War paranoia in the 1940s and 1950s, only to continue fighting the system and writing award-winning films as a ghost writer in this biographical period drama from director Jay Roach.

Like many other biographical period dramas, ‘Trumbo’ is structured as both a history lesson on fascinating and relatively recent events, as a well as the personal human story of those involved and the consequences for them, their families and society as a whole.

Bryan Cranston delivers a strong and captivating central performance as a complicated character who became the focal point of anti-communist paranoia in Hollywood, a state of play that saw the US government create commissions that blacklisted, prosecuted and even imprisoned writers, actors and directors for simply identifying as communists.

There’s plenty to like in ‘Trumbo’ for cinephiles aside from Cranston’s performance, we’re treated to a fascinating look at a divided industry at the height of fear and paranoia about the spread of communism in America, with left-leaning artists being persecuted while right-wing players like Ronald Reagan and John Wayne worked to drive them out of Hollywood.

‘Trumbo’ is a personal look at one great figure’s struggles and principles in those times, after all this is one of Hollywood’s greatest ever writers who penned Oscar-winning scripts under pseudonyms while blacklisted.

‘Trumbo’ serves as a timely reminder of how democracy is threatened in extraordinary times and confirms the still relevant global truth that fear is a valuable political currency to be used and exploited.

But this is also a rather naive and idealistic portrayal of events in a complicated time in American history, a rather one-sided and simplistic depiction of the effects of the Cold War on American civil society and the US national psyche, ultimately ‘Trumbo’ is a film by Hollywood, about Hollywood, for Hollywood.

Rather ironically for a film about one of the great writers in film history, the narrative is the most disappointing element of the film. Despite the historical elements and the fascinating sociopolitical context, ‘Trumbo’ quickly begins to lose momentum with the efforts to humanize the story into a family struggle, the result is a rather familiar and underwhelming family drama.

The Bottom Line…

The fascinating sociopolitical context coupled with Bryan Cranston’s lead performance make this an enjoyable experience for cinephiles and history buffs, but the idealistic portrayal of events and a drawn-out family drama narrative will probably make ‘Trumbo’ less enthralling for a wider audience.

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Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Trumbo (2007)

Documentary on the effects of artist persecution at the height of anti-communist paranoia in Cold War Hollywood and its effects on the persecuted, their families and the industry as a whole, as seen through a focus on the face of “The Hollywood 10”, the Oscar-winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.

Directed by Peter Askin and starring Michael Douglas, Joan Allen and Donald Sutherland among others.

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