"Trumbo" (2015)

The one massive flaw in “Trumbo” is mentioned specifically in the movie. Why does a man want to be a socialist who is a rich? Well, just because you say it, doesn’t make it less hypocritical.

Bryan Cranston plays the character and real life screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. There is pretty much nothing this guy can’t do. He’s great in it. But the movie seems like a cheap costume party. The problem is…it really attempts to look and feel that squeeze of the hunt for Commies, but in essence, turns into a bland history lesson of people who’ve suffered. Much like my criticism of “Suffragette” it’s a matter of who-gives-a-fuck. While true, the blacklist buried a lot of Communist in bankruptcies, property loss, and loss of that Hollywood dream, it’s really hard to sympathize with a man whose talent is so far reaching (as were his fellow Communist writers) that even a blacklist didn’t prohibit them from ghost write. Tell that to anyone trying to break into the business. At this juncture, the people who know about the business…don’t care about whiny writers. The ones who don’t, don’t know what the big deal was.

Hollywood does have a blacklist that it refuses to admit. Jews helping Jews. Which is fine. No one is stapling you to the movie business. And for those who believe it’s unfair, tell that to the 6 million that died in the concentration camps.

Communist shit aside, I’ve MASSIVE respect for a man who raised a family on his writing alone. Especially a scene, which you KNOW had to be true, where he wrote one in 3 days. Prolific unknown writer. Pretty amazing.

For the anti-Communist thing that they were portraying…there’s a sense of whininess that comes from decisions that don’t pan out your way. Let’s say I decide I think guns are a terrible thing. But the Constitution supports it, and my opinion is null and void. So my neighbor, who could be a gun nut, decides to boycott my business. Leaving me bankrupt. My decision to stand by my morals put me in that position. Would anyone care if I whine at that moment?

I think this movie wants to paint Trumbo as some folk hero. He’s not. He wrote screenplays for money and did it in the shadows complaining about how he didn’t get credit. Then jeopardized his family for a cause that died a while ago. IF fair was fair, and he was alive, I would pester him to apologize to the greater hypocrisy of his socialist beliefs. I’ve got no beef with doing right for their fellow man. It just doesn’t have to revolve around our government. Even though, America is a generous uncle to the world.It’s shocking how capitalism isn’t seem more altruistic. But let’s not give too much credit where credit is due.