The simply staged readings — in truth they are not performances but skilled interpretations — of Trumbo's prolific history of correspondence demonstrate how he befriended and challenged thousands of recipients, from fellow blacklist victims like Ring Lardner, Jr. to bureaucratic boneheads like an unarmed phone company manager who foolishly engaged Dalton in a battle of wits.
These readings conjure immediate, raw emotions from expressions typed decades before: Allen actually tears up reciting a note Trumbo wrote about one of his fronts on the occasion of his sudden death, and actor David Strathairn intones a touching, heart-rending letter aimed at the local school principle after Trumbo's young daughter could no longer tolerate her systemized mistreatment by parents and fellow students.
Askin balances the pain of blacklisting's endless ripple effect by including letters displaying the author's impishly playful side as Liam Neeson reads Trumbo's Seuss-like birthday poem written for his son Chris (sent to the lad from prison, no less), and Nathan Lane elicits roars of laughter as Dalton later sends Chris a sex manual extolling the comical virtues of self-satisfaction. The inclusion, order and pacing of Trumbo's letters remain throughout the film as unpredictable, iconoclastic and unfailingly human as the man who authored them. Wisely director Askin stages these moments sparely, providing table and chair against black backgrounds, and lets the actors' talents and Trumbo's words speak powerfully for themselves.
Yet the vintage film of Dalton Trumbo himself, interviewed numerous times later in his life, injects the most humanity into this story of the troubled and troublesome writer, husband and father. Indeed, additional comments and recollections by two of his children fill even more colors into the fractured spectrum of Trumbo's life. Good portions of Trumbo's own testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee illustrate the writer's original defiance to declare himself or anyone else a Communist, even at the cost of his own freedom.
That Trumbo would willingly and quite wilfully sacrifice his own career in unshakeable defense of the First Amendment and Constitutional rights of others — both accused and merely suspected — still rings truest in the fear-based political climate of today. TRUMBO isn't merely a history lesson, it's a cautionary tale which deserves and, sadly, needs renewal now. Communism was the convenient excuse, a crow bar leveraged against American citizens by their own government to peel away individual rights either by force or frightened willingness to surrender them. While the tune changes, the song remains the same.
The point is not Red, it is rights, and Askin's film (as with Good Night, And Good Luck reviewed at this site) reiterates the grave dangers we all face when those in power attempt to gain more of it by perversely tearing down freedom in the name of preserving it. Such a crusade is always swathed in the flag and dubbed with gut-punch terminology like Patriot Act in order to bypass any reasonable inquisition which would expose its Constitutionally tragic motive. Regrettably, yet fortunately, it takes men like Dalton Trumbo to fight for these rights on the front lines of conspiratorial accusation, public defamation and professional evisceration, sacrificing their own freedom in an attempt to secure the freedom of countless others.
TRUMBO does not glorify the controversial, cantankerous writer as a hero, and the author's own words preclude him from illusions of martyrdom. Dalton Trumbo simply couldn't bear to betray the principles of his beloved country by obeying the Congressional corrupters of its founding purpose. Perhaps above all else, Trumbo's own love for language aided him best in exposing the rhetoric of anti-Communist witch hunting for the bald-faced power grab it so insidiously was.
When the film arrives at Trumbo's own limited salvation — his surreptitious work under thirteen front personas, his original story for THE BRAVE ONE winning an Academy Award left unclaimed for years, and Kirk Douglas restoring Trumbo's honor by hiring him to write SPARTACUS will full screen credit — such hysterical persecutions are shown to be all the more absurd and arbitrary in their cause and effect. Trumbo acted rightly all along, yet it was the politics surrounding his destruction which finally flowed in the opposite direction to restore some semblance of his career and vindicate his honorable actions.
TRUBMO is currently in all-too-limited release to receive the viewership and recognition for its frightening yet inspirational story. So for now, FilmEdge encourages all moviegoers, film history buffs, teachers, students, parents and voters — let's call them Americans — to seek out this film in New York and Los Angeles markets. Your support may well win a wider distribution of Peter Askin's excellent and involving documentary so that others too may appreciate the message of this caustic cautionary tale. Embrace it, protest it, question it... do anything but ignore it, for TRUMBO's historical context and personal plot only couch the film in illusionary safety, as Dalton Trumbo's life and words live and fight on just as crucially today against the same injustice with a new name.
Watch the TRUMBO theatrical trailer and preview scenes from the film |
