Review by ©
Jane Freebury
Only in
Hollywood where life is performance art could a flamboyant screenwriter tell a government
official to sod off in such style. Could it be only in America, the country of monumental
contradictions, that a thinking man working in Tinsel Town, owner of a fine
home with a garden lake, feels entirely comfortable in his conviction that he is
a Communist?
Dalton
Trumbo was such a man, both radical and rich, and it has been a pleasure to
meet him in a movie that is surely overdue. He was the figurehead of the
Hollywood Ten, practitioners blacklisted by their own industry in the
1940s-1950s on suspicion of being Communist sympathisers, and is played by the small
screen's very naughty bad boy, Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad.
Trumbo's
response to the famous question ‘are you now or have you ever been a member of
the Communist Party' at the House of Un-American Activities Committee hearing
was typically witty and informed, turning the question back on his
interlocutors. It was 1947 and the world was being catapulted into the Cold
War.
You can
watch the HUAC exchange on YouTube, complete with cutaways that capture
celebrities like Bogart and Bacall and the ripples of audience laughter that
accompanied it.
Just as
cheeky is his shirt-fronting of John Wayne (a fittingly lofty David James
Elliott) while campaigning for the freedom of speech enshrined in the First
Amendment. Trumbo was a man who was true to his working class roots, ready to
join the picket line in support of industry colleagues whose wages did not
reflect their contribution to Hollywood as it straddled success during its
golden era.
Trumbo was
a man who took on what was wrong with the system, a hero at any time. It is
easy to recognise that he was larger than life, though an enduring image from
this film will be of him writing in the bath, cigarette holder clenched between
his teeth, whiskey and amphetamines close at hand. Maybe it was the only oasis
of quiet in a noisy family home, but some scenes suggest he could be a petty
tyrant at home with his long-suffering wife (Diane Lane) and their children.
What
matters more, I think, is the film's portrait of the times that caused the
bizarre proceedings at the HUAC to take place. I doubt that director Jay Roach
is the man for this kind of subtlety, or of recognising the unique ability of
mass communication, whatever side of politics you are talking about, to deliver
propaganda and consensus in digestible form.
On the
other hand we would be disappointed if a movie by Roach, essentially a comedy
director, did not deliver. He had us bent over double with laughter in the
first and best Meet the Parents, and
has had the comic flair to make a success of the Austin Powers comedies.
Of the
talent working with Roach here, Helen Mirren is a stand-out as gossip columnist
and ideological enforcer Hedda Hopper. She seems to have had no trouble letting
the juices flow, while Cranston maintains a tight, pained presence for the
duration. The other great character is
Kirk Douglas, played so well by New Zealander Dean O'Gorman. What an
interesting man that actor was.
Some of the
key moments in this film about a wordsmith are weak. Note to screenwriter John
McNamara: sharing your sandwich at school does not make a Communist. However,
some excellent moments include the final speech that Trumbo gives when he is at
last formally acknowledged for his work is an absolute cracker.
Trumbo is
less a tribute to a fascinating man and his turbulent times, than it is
terrific entertainment, played more for laughs than for raising the inherent issues
about freedom of speech that are of relevance to us today.
4 Stars
Also published at www.janefreeburywriter.com.au