Lifestyles of the Rich and Communist

Movies: Trumbo

We like to think that we learn from past mistakes, but clearly we don't. Here we are on the verge of 2016 and the frontrunner of the Republican Party is calling for a ban on a particular group of people entering the country, as well as a database to keep track of those same people who are actual US citizens. We're scared shitless of Muslims, y'all, and so we look to the very bullies and blowhards who took our lunch money in elementary school for protection. LOL. We're not any different than we were 60 years ago, when we were scared shitless of communists and allowed bullies to trample First Amendment rights in order to "protect" us from...what? Ideas? Different decade, same bullshit.

Trumbo isn't a great movie. It's very on the nose. Its protagonist, Dalton Trumbo (played with equal parts grit and intellectual snobbery by Bryan Cranston), speaks more in soundbites than actual dialogue. And it asks us to look with pity upon rich, Hollywood people. It's hard to feel bad when actor Edward G. Robinson, whose walls are decked in paintings by Monet and Van Gogh, moans about being out of work for a year and then see a note at the end of the film detailing how average Americans who were suspected of communist activities also lost their jobs. School teachers lost their jobs, for pete's sake--and I bet most of them didn't have Monets to sell.

But although Trumbo isn't a masterpiece, it does do a very good job at pointing out the absurdity of attempting to criminalize and punish people for their political beliefs in a country that also prides itself on the democratic process. We're all about that freedom of speech--until someone says something we don't like. And this desire to censor and chastise others transcends party lines. Conservatives and liberals--they're all annoying as fuck when they get "outraged" over whatever stupid thing someone else says, or does, or jokes about. But outrage is one thing. Systematically hunting down, categorizing, and labeling people based on their beliefs--be they political beliefs, religious beliefs, whatever--and threatening violence against them, denying them work. Well, now that's just plain un-American. And the very people doing this hunting and punishing claim to be the most patriotic of them all.

Oh my, I feel just as much of an angry old coot as Dalton Trumbo was (at least as portrayed by Cranston). Trumbo was a screenwriter, hailed as a genius (he won Oscars for writing Roman Holiday and The Brave One), who ended up blacklisted for his allegiance to the Communist Party (which still exists, btw. Take a look). He and his fellow communist screenwriters tried to take on the House Un-American Activities Committee and were found to be in contempt of Congress. Trumbo served a year in prison. After he got out, he took to writing screenplays under pseudonyms to pay the bills...but also to, you know, stick it to the man. Eventually, with the support of Kirk Douglas, Trumbo was billed as the screenwriter of Spartacus under his own name. While some people boycotted the film, it was too good and too popular--JFK himself made a public show of support by seeing the film. The blacklist was effectively over.

Trumbo has a lot of excellent actors, but the show is 100% stolen by Helen Mirren, who plays gossip columnist Hedda Hopper--a flashy broad with a strong hatred of communists and a surprising amount of power to wield. She brings so much to this film. Although she's ostensibly one of the "bad guys", she's such a fabulous bitch, you almost want her to win (especially when she tells Louis B. Mayer that she's going to fuck him over). She also adds depth to the anti-communist viewpoint. She feels so strongly for the young American soldiers (including her son) who are fighting communists in Europe, that she allows herself to hate people who have similar political beliefs in her own country. Her character humanizes the antagonists, something many "message" films fail to do. Filmgoers aren't used to being encouraged to sympathize with the bad guys, as well as the good guys. But as Trumbo says in a speech at the end of the film, there were no heroes and villains during the time of the blacklist--only victims.

I think this message--that a culture of fear and suspicion hurts us all--is a good one to remember in current times. The United States has a peculiar history of being freakishly open to diversity and also freakishly paranoid of whatever group du jour we're supposed to be afraid of--witches, communists, black people, Muslims, gays. Jesus Christ people, calm the fuck down. Go see Trumbo (or better yet, rent it from Redbox, since it's just an OK movie) and remember that the beauty--and the agony--of being an American means that because you get to have your beliefs and your opinions, others do as well. And it could just as easily be you who Donald Trump wants to put in a database.

Grade: C