Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) is a successful American screen-writer in the Hollywood of the 30s and 40s. However, his outspoken support for labour unions, and his membership of the Communist Party of the USA, draws the contempt of staunchly anti-Soviet entertainment industry figures, such as columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) and actor John ‘Duke’ Wayne (David James Elliott). J. Parnell Thomas (James DuMont) heads the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Trumbo is one of 10 screen-writers ‘subpoenaed’ (summoned) to testify before the United States Congress, regarding alleged Communist propaganda, in Hollywood films. They refuse to answer questions directly, confident that even if they are convicted, a liberal majority among the judges of the Supreme Court will overturn the convictions for contempt of Congress. Actor Edward G. Robinson (Michael Stuhlbarg), a Liberal Democrat who supports the cause, sells his prized painting, the Portrait of Père Tanguy, to raise money for their legal defense fund.

The unexpected passing away and subsequent replacement of a liberal Supreme Court Judge condemns each of them to spend time in prison. In 1950, Trumbo serves eleven months in prison. As the Hollywood Blacklist expands to exclude more liberals from working in the industry, Trumbo and his comrades are abandoned by Edward G. Robinson and producer Buddy Ross (Roger Bart), who are keen on protecting their careers. Even after serving his prison term, Trumbo remains blacklisted, resulting in a financial crisis.

Aware that he will be unable to sell any scripts himself, he offers his screenplay for Roman Holiday to his friend Ian McLellan Hunter (Alan Tudyk), to take credit and keep 30% of the fee. The film bags an Academy Award for Best Story, but it goes to Hunter. Selling his idyllic lakeside home and moving to a house in the city, he goes to work as a pseudonymous screenwriter for the low-budget King Brothers (John Goodman and Stephen Root) Productions, also farming out the writing of B-movie screenplays to fellow blacklisted writers.

King Brothers' agree to produce a quality film titled film The Brave One, an original story by Trumbo under a pseudonym, and it receives an Academy Award he cannot claim. But word does get around, and two major offers come up: actor Kirk Douglas (Dean O'Gorman) recruits him to write the screenplay for his epic film Spartacus (directed by Stanley Kubrick), and director Otto Preminger (Christian Berkel) recruits him to script Exodus (based on the novel by Leon Uris).

James Dalton Trumbo was born in Montrose, Colorado, on December 9, 1905. He indulged an early interest in writing by working as a cub reporter for a local paper. Trumbo continued his journalistic pursuits while attending the University of Colorado.  When his father died, Dalton took a job in a bakery, where he worked for nearly 10 years, but continued writing, short stories and novels, which were never published. In the early 1930s, Trumbo’s stories started appearing in magazines like the Saturday Evening Post, Vanity Fair and the Hollywood Spectator. He was appointed managing editor of the Spectator in 1934, a year that also saw him publish his first novel, Eclipse. The same year, he found a job as a script reader in the Warner Bros. story department. Then, in 1935, Trumbo was given a contract with Warner, as a ‘junior writer’.

Road Gang (1936) was his first screen credit. A Man to Remember, Kitty Foyle (Academy Award nomination, best adapted screenplay), and Thirty Seconds over Tokyo followed. Trumbo did ultimately receive a long-delayed Academy Award for The Brave One, and he was posthumously given an Academy Award for Roman Holiday (1953).

Three Trumbo publications were in circulation before his life was developed into a film: a collection of his letters during 1942-62, Dalton Trumbo: Blacklisted Hollywood Radical, by Larry Ceplair (author of The Marxist and the Movies: A Biography of Paul Jarrico and Anti-Communism in Twentieth-Century America: A Critical History) and Christopher Trumbo (son, recently deceased; TV writer, screenwriter, and author of the play Trumbo: Red, White and Blacklisted) and a biography by Bruce Alexander Cook, which is largely the basis of the film. Cook, who died in 2013, was an American journalist and author, who also wrote under the pseudonym, Bruce Alexander. His first book was a non-fiction work, The Beat Generation, published in 1971 while his first novel was Sex Life, in 1978.

Trumbo has been adapted into a screenplay by John McNamara, who has said that he had met several blacklisted screenwriters while a student at NYU. Trumbo’s surviving daughters, Niki and Mitzi, were heavily involved in the creation of the movie's script. Perhaps the only area which has just been skimmed and not fleshed out enough, is the USA communist party’s activities. Two, scenes, one in which Trumbo faces up to John Wayne, and another when one of the King brothers takes on an anti-communist in his own office, are remarkably well-written. Although quite a few weaknesses and questionable attitudes form part of Trumbo’s screen persona, some vested interests and some differing chroniclers have lambasted alleged liberties taken in order to portray Trumbo in a more virtuous light than he deserved. Others have questioned the idea of forming composite characters for convenience. Give them a hearing, if you like (see links below).

Taking liberties with history is not exactly unheard of. It is in sharp focus here, because the story is set in Hollywood, and some of the personalities are still alive. And those who have passed away, have middle-aged children, children with memories and memoirs. One will have to get beyond, “No, this can’t possibly be true,” “Was He really such a jerk?” “Wait a minute! Isn’t She the one who…?” and so on, to absorb the excellent narrative of the film.

The truth is that Communists, and even Communist sympathisers, were hounded and persecuted in post World War II America, and some even fled away to foreign countries. Even Trumbo had to relocate to Mexico, temporarily. Trumbo may not be the Closed Circuit Camera footage of the protagonist or the 30-odd characters in the film. Frankly, it doesn’t matter. There is a big, universal issue, of ideology---communism v/s capitalism--there is an effective recreation of the period it took place in, and of what drove the persons to do what they did. Good content, superbly delivered.

Director Jay Roach (Austin Powers trilogy, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers, Recount, Borat), whose all-time favourite films include The Party and Annie Hall, is in great touch here, balancing an ensemble cast and getting the best out of his leads. Casting Cranston and Mirren turn out to be twin tour de forces, while John Goodman and Stephen Root as the King Bros. could easily pass off as twins.

Bryan Cranston (son of small-time actor Lee Cranston; seen in Saving Private Ryan; scored with TV hit Breaking Bad) is seen here in his first big role, and he gets a very richly deserved Oscar nomination at age 59. There is a ton of method in his acting, yet not one wee bit is mechanical. Will an actor playing a real-life communist, who shows Hollywood’s legendary giants in bad light, go on to grab the Academy Award? Wait and watch. Cleo Fincher Trumbo had a talent for juggling water glasses, and Diane Lane juggles them too. As she does her part, without any fall. Helen Mirren (The Queen, Oh Lucky Man!, Excalibur, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Calendar Girls, Love Ranch) gave up skin show roles when she turned 65. Now 70, she shows you, if you had any doubt, that acting can be a captivating revelation of a different kind.

Louis C.K. as Arlen Hird (a composite character, representing Samuel Ornitz, Alvah Bessie, Albert Maltz, Lester Cole, and John Howard Lawson, all Jews) draws much sympathy. Michael Stuhlbarg as Romanian Jew, Emmanuel Goldberg, who changed his name to Edward G. Robinson, often gets confused with Roger Bart, who plays Buddy Ross, possible a symptom of the audience disease called ‘toomanycharacteria’ Alan Tudyk is sincere as Ian McLellan Hunter

David James Elliott as John Wayne is opinionated macho, Richard Portnow an opportunistic Louis B. Mayer, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje a forceful black prisoner who killed a white robber, but hates commies. Dean O’Gorman is effortless, while Christian Berkel is stylised, to suit the part. Elle Fanning (Niki Trumbo, the older daughter) is made from just the kind of clay directors love moulding.

Trumbo is a rivetting chapter from the history of American film industry. It is also a refreshing lesson in histrionics.

Rating : ****

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLuxQhdUqLY

Links for background reading

http://www.amazon.com/Dalton-Trumbo-Bruce-Cook/dp/0684147505

http://thetyee.ca/Culture/2015/12/04/Remembering-Dalton-Trumbo/