Bleecker Street
Before the end of World War II, Communism wasn’t considered a villain for the US. On the contrary, the Communist USSR was a vital ally in defeating Nazi Germany, and the local Communist party members in the US were more about the support of workers’ rights than anything against democracy. They were rarely fascist, as this didn’t really jibe with the Communist ideal, but that soon changed by perceptions. As Cold War tensions arose, the USSR became the enemy of the US, and anyone associated with that was considered problematic.
This soon affected what were considered subversive elements in Hollywood, including Dalton Trumbo, who was a successful and award nominated screenwriter in the 1930’s and 40’s. But in 1947, it all changed.
Thus we tell the story of Trumbo, from director Jay Roach of the Austin Powers movies. Trumbo (played by Bryan Cranston) is unafraid of espousing his pro-worker politics and Communist ideals. His friends, such as fellow left-wing writer Arlen Hird (Louis C.K.) a pastiche of various left-wing Hollywood folk, real life screenwriter Ian McLellan Hunter (Alan Tudyk), and famed actor Edward G. Robinson (Michael Stuhlbarg) who is also — gasp! — a Democrat. Of course in those days that had a bit of a different feel.
Opposing them are the more right-wing and “traditional American values” Hollywood people like tough guy actor John Wayne (David James Elliott) and gossip writer Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren). Trumbo has a home life with his kids and wife Cleo (Diane Lane), but it’s pretty cushy. When he’s called to Congress to testify at the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Trumbo and nine others refuse to testify. So they’re held in contempt of Congress and are to be thrown in jail. We are the treated to a brief interlude of Trumbo’s time in prison, including some characterization of a random black convict (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje who did something better on Oz).
Bleecker Street
This was sort of a weak time in the movie, especially as it’s quickly forgotten for the “meat” of the movie. Because once out, Trumbo is “blacklisted,” which was a practice done by the main studio heads in Hollywood to not hire anyone with Communist ties. Meaning actors, writers, whoever. So Trumbo gets the idea to write under a pseudonym, even working for B-movie producer Frank King (a delightful John Goodman). The dramatics start to arise.
While Trumbo is overworked to provide constant terrible scripts, he occasionally tries to write something good to thumb his nose at Hollywood, like The Brave One. But his family life suffers, especially with his daughter Nikola. Soon enough we see more Hollywood allies as Trumbo’s fortunes rise again like Dean O’Gorman as legendary actor Kirk Douglas and Christian Berkel as director Otto Preminger. But will his family life survive?
So it should be clear that the movie is stuffed, yet it also moves very fast, essentially covering Trumbo’s entire life from his jail time to his final achievements. It’s hard to keep track of everything, and some scenes work like dynamite and others are just forgettable. Cranston’s gruff but lovable performance as the irascible Trumbo keep things moving, although that’s not to say the acting is solely good with him. Everyone is working well here, even the celebrity mimics, which is difficult. Michael Stuhlbarg in particular is great at showing a lot of depth with Edward G. Robinson. Diane Lane and Elle Fanning are also important here, because without them we’d find it hard to care about the home life problems of Trumbo.
One failing of the movie is the lack of hearing his award-winning dialogue. We see clips of some movies, so why cut it out? We are told constantly that Trumbo is amazing, and perhaps the production team took that for granted. But considering many people don’t even know who Trumbo is, I think that’s a mistake. The dramatics of the home life seem clichéd at times and hit hard at others — thus my feeling of unevenness throughout.
The message is pretty clear — art is important and shouldn’t be overrun by political furor. That said, it almost seems like this movie would’ve been more important ten years ago at the height of xenophobia and Patriot Act overreach. I like the idea, but this movie doesn’t quite live up to what it’s trying to do. I think Bryan Cranston does put forth one of the better performances of the year, but the movie? Not quite.
Share this post
