Must See Movie...

Lack of good storyline.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Towards the end of the film, Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston in an Academy Award-nominated performance) makes a profound statement during his acceptance speech for the Laurel Award for Screen Writing Achievement during a Writer's Guild of America ceremony (1970). He says (paraphrase) "It will do no good to search for villains or heroes or saints or devils because there were none; there were only victims (during the communist blacklist years of the 1940's and 1950's)." This part of his speech sums up well the point of this film which chronicles one of the few survivors of the communist blacklist scare during the two decades after the Second World War. Not only teachers, doctors, academics, factory workers, social workers and many others were targeted resulting in the devastation of careers and lives, but also people working in the entertainment industry in Hollywood, CA. Few congressional committees in Post-World War Two United States were more un-American than the House Un-American Activities Committee and the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security. The latter saw the rise of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's witch-hunts in which he accused people both within the US government and without but among the US citizenry as being communists in collusion with the then Soviet Union (USSR). As a result of these witch-hunts, friends turned on friends, usually fearing the wrath of the committee. If you didn't cooperate, the "scarlet letter" of communist or communist sympathizer was forever plastered onto you like a badge of shame. In addition, you might spend time in prison for being in contempt of congress. In the case of Dalton Trumbo, he experienced both indignities. Dalton Trumbo was one of the most brilliant screenwriters of his era. He wrote such classics as "A Guy Name Joe", "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo", "Roman Holiday", and even the b-film noire "Gun Crazy". He also wrote the screenplays to two great Hollywood epics: "Spartacus" and "Exodus". Despite his credentials, he was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee to testify about whether he was or had been a member of the Communist Party. Many of his Hollywood friends were also subpoenaed, some were sympathetic to the cause of rooting out "communists" while others who were appalled at the committees' actions but terrified of being blacklisted reluctantly cooperated. Prominent members of the entertainment community including Edward G. Robinson, John Wayne, and Ronald Reagan were brought before the committee. Trumbo was no exception. Will he cooperate or risk losing his career?A brilliant film with a tour-de-force performance by Cranston as Trumbo. Trumbo is not always the easiest of characters to like. He sometimes sacrifices the needs of his family to maintain his career. Cranston finds the difficult balance of finding the humanity of Trumbo while also exposing his many shortcomings, including writing in the bathtub! Trumbo was a brilliant writer who didn't deserve his treatment at the hands of the US government. At the same time, his family didn't deserve what they suffered either. As stated earlier, there were no victors but only victims.

I happened only 70 years ago and so many young people have never even heard about it. How can it be? And, how dangerous. Not to know will always put you at a disadvantage, oh yes, sooner or later. Trumbo feels like a story set in a totalitarian Country and yet...The spread of fear is a powerful weapon used by self-aggrandizing sociopaths. Joe McCarthy's success is still a mystery to me and Trumbo proves, in the most riveting way, how easily we can fall in that trap. Bryan Cranston is simply, sensational portraying a true American in all its contradictions. I never really thought of the actual degradation Trumbo and the other blacklisted writers went through until I saw it in Bryan Cranston's face. David James Elliott portrayal of John Wayne is chilling and disturbing, specially because id true. I've heard from people who knew him, what a nice man Duke was and yet...Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper was another chilling and unexpected portrait of utter ignorance. I've only recently found out that she was behind the forces that wanted Charles Chaplin out of the Country. Congratulations to director Jay Roach and to a spectacular cast. Let's hope everyone pays attention.

"Trumbo" was rightfully nominated for some of the bigger film prizes. It tells the story of Trumbo, a writer for movie scripts, that is persuaded by the government and ends on a blacklist of Communists that aren't in the position to work as ordinary anymore.While I really enjoyed most of the movie and it kept me interested throughout the whole playtime, there are mainly two things that prevent this film from being even more powerful in my eyes. Firstly, even though the humor carries bigger parts of the movie and I like the fact that Trumbo is quick-witted, it would have been nice to see a broader variety of emotions. There must have been some situations throughout that time that really left him desperate or sad and you don't really see that in the movie.Secondly, it would have been nice to also see what this policy meant for more common people. A screenplay writer is in a quite distinguished position and I could imagine that someone working in a more "exchangeable" job could suffer even more from the tensions. Of course that's not the fault of the movie, since it only tells the story of Trumbo but it is a false image to think that all you have to be is a good worker to be granted justice.All in all it is a very good, but not an excellent movie. Good movie for a more serious film night.

Greetings from Lithuania."Trumbo" (2015) is a very enjoyable movie about a legendary Hollywood writer Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted during the days for being a communist. Struggles he had during the period during which he wrote his arguably best movies are very involvingly, sometimes a bit movingly told. Writing of this movie was good as well as directing - the movie barely drags at running time 2 hours. But its the central performance by the great Bryan Cranston stand out in here - he embodies Trumbo in every sense (although i haven't see the real man of TV). Others were pretty good, but there are some performances of the famous movie legends that weren't that great in my opinion, like for example the actor who played young Kirk Douglas was just... not a Kirk Douglas - its more like a caricature then real performance.Overall, although some of the side performances in this movie looks like more of a caricatures, they aren't bad at all - it just shows how great lead acting B.Cranston in this movie is. And this is a good movie overall, the best biopic I've seen for sure, but a pretty entertaining one.