Film ReviewsTrumbo
Jun 23, 2015 Anchorage Press
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Dalton Trumbo is rolling in his grave.
Trumbo, the 2015 biopic directed by Jay Roach is star-studded, with Bryan Cranston playing Mr. James Dalton Trumbo himself, one of Hollywood's defining forces in post WWII cinema. Cranston was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Trumbo. This version of Trumbo's life is also depicted by the likes of Diane Lane as Trumbo's wife, Cleo; Louis C.K as Arlen Hird; and Elle Fanning as Nikola Trumbo, his daughter. Even the secondary and tertiary string of characters are embodied by first rate actors like John Goodman as Frank King, a stout and ballsy producer, and Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper, an actress and gossip columnist who embraced the House Un-American Activities Committee and was complicit in the witch hunt to oust her friends, foes, and colleagues. But all the Hollywood stars in the world cannot make up for a watered-down, squeaky clean and formulaic script and production-and this is the unfortunate reason that the real Trumbo is turning, like a rotisserie chicken, in his grave. After all, there are very few screen writers that match his genius, so it's with chagrin that this screen play is so un-Trumbo like.
Trumbo over simplifies a complicated time during which factions in the America gave in to fear, paranoia and fascist tendencies-sound familiar? Among many of the basic rights of people in America are the right to freedom of expression and the right to associate, Dalton Trumbo took these liberties to heart, believed in them and knew the extent to which he was, or should have been, a free thinker and writer. Under these protections, Trumbo was able to do many things that may seem contradictory, but clearly don't have to be; there's nothing like a rich, capitalistic communist artist. Even in the 1930s he was making $4,000 per week as a screen writer, to put it in context, $1 in 1935 is equivalent to $17.65 in 2016, putting his salary at over $70,000 per week, not too shabby for a working class chap, even so, Trumbo remarked at one point, "I never considered the working class anything other than something to get out of."
As America turned on its own values and allowed Senator McCarthy to go on witch-hunts to keep America safe, Trumbo and many in Hollywood came under scrutiny for the contents of their work and affiliations. Trumbo was not just blacklisted, he was part of the "Hollywood Ten," and its most infamous member. Jay Roach's Trumbo glosses over the real impacts of being blacklisted, and in doing so misses key information about Dalton Trumbo and his family's struggle, including their exodus to Mexico to seek out a new start. Trumbo also makes it seem like taking on pseudonyms was easy and lucrative, when in fact Trumbo went from $4,000 per week to $1,200 per script after his year in prison. In order to make ends meet he had to write the equivalent of six years of work in under two. Notably, however, this was not just a prolific time for Trumbo, but also an exceptional creative moment. Trumbo took on almost a dozen fronts to write iconic classics like Roman Holiday (1953, front: Ian McLellan Hunter), The Prowler (1951, uncredited with Hugo Butler), and The Brave One in 1956, front: Robert Rich. Robert Rich won an Oscar that remained unclaimed until the mid-'70s.
Trumbo is a typical modern Hollywood movie in which everything is shinier and well-selected to fit the altered reality; everyone is better-looking than the real people they portray, and the events are streamlined into simple storylines. A much better alternative to the 2015 saccharine Trumbo is the 2007 documentary of the same title by director Peter Askin because the real Trumbo is part of it, and it's also star-studded with folks like Michael Douglas, Liam Neeson, Nathan Lane and Kirk Douglas himself, among many. The 2007 documentary creates a epistolary structure with Trumbo's own correspondence and through it, viewers see aspects of Trumbo that the 2015 production completely misses-Trumbo's beautiful, thoughtful writing, his dirty sense of humor and his complicated love for America.
Trumbo shows at Bear Tooth at 8 p.m. on Monday, June 27.
Trumbo, the 2015 biopic directed by Jay Roach is star-studded, with Bryan Cranston playing Mr. James Dalton Trumbo himself, one of Hollywood's defining forces in post WWII cinema. Cranston was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Trumbo. This version of Trumbo's life is also depicted by the likes of Diane Lane as Trumbo's wife, Cleo; Louis C.K as Arlen Hird; and Elle Fanning as Nikola Trumbo, his daughter. Even the secondary and tertiary string of characters are embodied by first rate actors like John Goodman as Frank King, a stout and ballsy producer, and Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper, an actress and gossip columnist who embraced the House Un-American Activities Committee and was complicit in the witch hunt to oust her friends, foes, and colleagues. But all the Hollywood stars in the world cannot make up for a watered-down, squeaky clean and formulaic script and production-and this is the unfortunate reason that the real Trumbo is turning, like a rotisserie chicken, in his grave. After all, there are very few screen writers that match his genius, so it's with chagrin that this screen play is so un-Trumbo like.
Trumbo over simplifies a complicated time during which factions in the America gave in to fear, paranoia and fascist tendencies-sound familiar? Among many of the basic rights of people in America are the right to freedom of expression and the right to associate, Dalton Trumbo took these liberties to heart, believed in them and knew the extent to which he was, or should have been, a free thinker and writer. Under these protections, Trumbo was able to do many things that may seem contradictory, but clearly don't have to be; there's nothing like a rich, capitalistic communist artist. Even in the 1930s he was making $4,000 per week as a screen writer, to put it in context, $1 in 1935 is equivalent to $17.65 in 2016, putting his salary at over $70,000 per week, not too shabby for a working class chap, even so, Trumbo remarked at one point, "I never considered the working class anything other than something to get out of."
As America turned on its own values and allowed Senator McCarthy to go on witch-hunts to keep America safe, Trumbo and many in Hollywood came under scrutiny for the contents of their work and affiliations. Trumbo was not just blacklisted, he was part of the "Hollywood Ten," and its most infamous member. Jay Roach's Trumbo glosses over the real impacts of being blacklisted, and in doing so misses key information about Dalton Trumbo and his family's struggle, including their exodus to Mexico to seek out a new start. Trumbo also makes it seem like taking on pseudonyms was easy and lucrative, when in fact Trumbo went from $4,000 per week to $1,200 per script after his year in prison. In order to make ends meet he had to write the equivalent of six years of work in under two. Notably, however, this was not just a prolific time for Trumbo, but also an exceptional creative moment. Trumbo took on almost a dozen fronts to write iconic classics like Roman Holiday (1953, front: Ian McLellan Hunter), The Prowler (1951, uncredited with Hugo Butler), and The Brave One in 1956, front: Robert Rich. Robert Rich won an Oscar that remained unclaimed until the mid-'70s.
Trumbo is a typical modern Hollywood movie in which everything is shinier and well-selected to fit the altered reality; everyone is better-looking than the real people they portray, and the events are streamlined into simple storylines. A much better alternative to the 2015 saccharine Trumbo is the 2007 documentary of the same title by director Peter Askin because the real Trumbo is part of it, and it's also star-studded with folks like Michael Douglas, Liam Neeson, Nathan Lane and Kirk Douglas himself, among many. The 2007 documentary creates a epistolary structure with Trumbo's own correspondence and through it, viewers see aspects of Trumbo that the 2015 production completely misses-Trumbo's beautiful, thoughtful writing, his dirty sense of humor and his complicated love for America.
Trumbo shows at Bear Tooth at 8 p.m. on Monday, June 27.