Film as an art form is allied, even shackled to the sequential: this happens, that follows. In the case of the blacklist era as it reverberated through the entertainment industry, that challenge is daunting. Context must be created scenically and dramatically. In making a historical film (or writing a historical novel) the audience has to know what’s at stake. It becomes, in effect, a father/daughter story. To my eye, the difficulty with the film is that TRUMBO shifts direction about half way through, steps away from the complexity inherent in the events, and becomes instead about the difficult adjustments obliged of the Trumbo family as they navigate his post-prison life. And yet the 2015 film–which will play at the Pickford Film Center May 2 nd at 6 pm–did not fare especially well critically or commercially. John Goodman’s has terrific fun with his role as the sleazeball producer of a schlocky Poverty Row studio. Helen Mirren’s performance as the asp-in-a-hat Hedda Hopper also garnered a lot of praise. His is a powerful, compelling performance. In 1950 they went to federal prisons.īryan Cranston was deservedly nominated for Best Actor Oscar and a Golden Globe in the title role. Finally, the Supreme Court refused to hear their case at all, thus all their convictions stood. For three years (and astronomical legal fees) they lost their appeals in higher courts.

They refused (often with witty repartee they were writers, after all) basing their actions on the First Amendment, that is, on the belief that Congress had no right to inquire into their political lives, much less their comrades. He was certainly the most famous of the Hollywood Ten, writers and directors who were called to testify before Congress that year to answer if they were, or had they ever been Communists. Dalton Trumbo, famous for his acerbic wit and fearlessness, was at his peak, the highest paid writer in Hollywood in 1947. Of the films that deal explicitly with the blacklist, Trumbo (2015) is the most successful. Your ticket also entitles you to a glass of champagne in a nod to old Hollywood glamour. I will introduce the film and talk about its connections to my novel, The Great Pretenders. Join me, for a showing of Trumbo! May 2nd at 6 PM.

The brave one 1957 film