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Courtesy of Wikipedia
Trumbo: The Documentary by Peter Askin
I've seen all eight of this year's Best Picture nominees for the 88th Annual Academy Awards, and enjoyed each of them. But, my favorite drama for 2015 is Trumbo, directed by Jay Roach. The film's omission from the Best Picture category is, of course, disturbing. Spectacle trumps story in this year's list.
I may not have seen Roach's film had I not been introduced to this storied story-teller by Peter Askin's Trumbo. Here is my review of that 2007 documentary:
“Trumbull,” Bette said when I asked if she had any new documentaries. Bette is the owner of Larkspur’s Bette’s Flicks, the last video store in my fair county of Marin.
“Wasn’t he the guy who did the special effects for 2001?” I naively queried, excited to see a film about that magician. “No,” she said, 'Trumbo' – t r u m b o. He was that Hollywood writer who got blacklisted.”
‘Oh,’ I thought, ‘I’m going to take another tour of this dark chapter of American history.’
I was wrong. I’d never really taken a ‘tour’ of the Blacklist. I’d simply seen and heard snippets about it, and saw that rare Woody Allen film not directed by Woody Allen, The Front, wherein our comedic hero plays the serious role of someone ‘fronting’ for a Blacklisted Hollywood writer.
I had no sense of this decades-long American Inquisition of free thought and free speech until experiencing it through the life and thought of one of its victims, Dalton Trumbo.
Trumbo is written by Christopher Trumbo – Dalton’s son – and is based upon his play, Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted. Director Peter Askin utilizes archival footage, contemporary interviews, and distinguished actors performing Trumbo’s letters, on-screen, to tell the story of this prolific, genius writer, an American patriot, a veteran, a loving family man who stood up to the Inquisition and paid almost the full price for doing so. I say ‘almost’ because several of the Blacklisted writers committed suicide.
Dalton Trumbo and his family endured years of loss and oppression. He was one of two writers imprisoned for practicing their freedom of thought. He emerged from The Blacklist triumphant with 60's era Exodus and Spartacus bearing his name in the writing credits.
After viewing Trumbo a couple of times I realized there is a connection between this seemingly ‘irrelevant’ subject and my ‘relevant’ concern for our ecosphere.
Our American government and society, via the 1950s Blacklist, squelched the freedoms and democracy it was supposed to nourish and protect, just as the countless scientists and journalists who have been warning of environmental catastrophe for more than 60 years have had their work distorted, buried, attacked and ignored.
In any case, Trumbo, in addition to its cautionary, if not horrific, tale, is a powerful film about a powerful man who confronts a powerful challenge. Both this documentary and Roach's narrative deserve viewing.
Note: I did not find an 'official' website for the film, so I've linked the documentary's title to its IMDB site.
The photograph is of Dalton Trumbo and wife Cleo Trumbo at a 1947 hearing by the then House Unamerican Activities Committee.
Don Schwartz