It is hard to believe this actually happened. Just for speaking out in favour of film workers rights the whole Federal machine came bearing down on the hapless writers and numerous other film workers. I am at a loss just what Hedda Hopper (A great performance from Helen Mirren!) and John Wayne thought these film worker were going to do to 'overthrow the government?' They were never convicted of any crime but were charged with 'contempt of Congress' and jailed. Madness! Wayne and his fascist friends do not come out of this well. There is a great moment when Trumbo confronts Wayne and points out that he and a few other writers were in the war zones during the Second World War. ' Where were you Duke,' asks Trumbo, 'On a film set in Hollywood?' Quite so. Bryan Cranston is superb as Trumbo and a good cast make this a film worth seeing. My usual bugbear about true stories adapted for film. Why do they not stick to the truth? Here we have Trumbo out of jail and rushing around L.A speaking to the movers and shakers and being visited by Kirk Douglas among others. The reality is that Trumbo and his family decamped to Mexico City! They were there for a number of years. So any communication with Hollywood would have been by letter or telephone. Still ignore that and enjoy seeing American paranoia of the late forties and early fifties in all its awful glory.
Review of Trumbo
