Trumbo (2008)

Just perfect...

How sad is this?

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

To say that this Hollywood, celebrity documentary (about a 15-year blacklisting of screen-writer, Dalton Trumbo) could've been a whole lot better would truly be an understatement.It was in 1947 that Trumbo was brought forward before those witch-hunters, the House Un-American Activities Committee, in order to testify against others in the film industry who were suspected of having Communist ties. Trumbo, of course, refused to cooperate (hence the blacklisting).What inevitably lost this potentially promising documentary (about pigheaded democracy) some serious points was the overall approach that it took towards its subject where irksome, grandstanding actors (all a bunch of annoying talking heads) read, out loud, letters that Trumbo had written before, during, and after his blacklisting. It was all a heap of totally redundant drivel, IMO.*Note* - In 1976 - Dalton Trumbo died at the age of 71.

Through a focus on the life of Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976), this film examines the effects on individuals and families of a congressional pursuit of Hollywood Communists after World War II. Trumbo was one of several writers, directors, and actors who invoked the First (rather than the typical Fifth) Amendment in refusing to answer questions under oath.We have insights from Donald Sutherland; we also have Michael Douglas, Nathan Lane, Brian Dennehy and Liam Neeson reading letters in their smooth, rich voices. What a great way to welcome audiences to the story of political persecution.Trumbo himself says that "people joined the Communist Party because they felt it was doing something". He never really comes out and embraces Communism, but the whole era was a mess -- America allied with the Russians in World War II, and once the Nazis were defeated, anyone with Communist sympathies was tossed aside.This film also has great archive footage of Walt Disney and others.

The one about the famous poet who constantly wrote his friends asking for money.Dalton Trumbo was one of the people who ended up on the Hollywood Blacklist for backing the wrong horse in the Cold War. Even though his Russian counterpart would have been shot and buried in a shallow grave, this guy whined because no one wanted to hire him.Hollywood is a business, and having "Screenplay by a dirty, stinkin' communist" wasn't going to sell your movie. Sorry, it just wasn't.So the movies is a bunch of spoiled Hollywood actors reading lines of Trumbo's whining letters about how life was so unfair to him as opposed to the 19 year old kid who got killed and buried in Korea somewhere. Or something. Oh, yeah, and he needed money. All the time.It's one of those documentaries where you kind of sympathize with the subject going in and end up hating him going out, and you don't really think that was the film maker's intent.

For those of us too young to remember first-hand the evils of that horrid period in American history known as McCarthyism and the rampant loss of freedom & justice during its barbaric witch-hunts, this is a profoundly important film to watch.At a time when terms like "patriot" are increasingly misused, abused and bastardized, the story of writer, Dalton Trumbo, and others like him who suffered grave injustices in the hands of their own fellow countrymen, needs to be heard far & wide and esp. by the young in this country.I wished they would add this film & others like it to every high-school history-class curriculum, as they are just as relevant today. An immensely moving and heartbreaking story & an absolute must-see (be sure to read the closing credits.) ~NN