By Miriam Wollner – Eastside Radio Intern

Last Monday, Eastside Supporters had the chance to watch the American film TRUMBO in the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington.TRUMBO is a biographical movie based on the story of 20th century Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.

In the late 1940s, Trumbo is one of Hollywood’s best regarded screenwriters. While having a life in prosperity, he and some of his fellow colleagues are organized members of the communist party. It is the time of the “Iron curtain” and the beginning of the Cold War. The anti-Soviet approach in large parts of American society is steadily increasing. Trumbo and other similar minded artists do not only have to face the blaming conflicts with public persons like anti-Soviet columnist Hedda Hopper and actor John Wayne, but are also summoned and interrogated  by the United States Congress for allegedly spreading communist propaganda in Hollywood movies. They refuse to answer the questions about their participation in the communist party, claiming that the court simply has no right to ask about and to condemn them for their political opinion. Nevertheless, they are sent to jail and their names are put on a Blacklist, with an aim to make it impossible for them to gain a foot in their industry again.

The film largely follows Trumbo’s life after his time in jail, showing his work as an anonymous screenwriter because being blacklisted forbids him to deliver scripts with his real name credited. In addition to him getting mad about writing script after script in order to be able to earn money for his family (affecting his family life and his relationship to his children and wife negatively the film also shows how the American Government was trying to punish people for spreading another opinion than their official one and also explains how Trumbo and his fellow screenwriters manage to outsmart the system and in the end make the blacklist ineffective.

TRUMBO was directed by Jay Roach. The script written by John McNamara is based on the biography “Dalton Trumbo” by Bruce Cook. Starring famous actors like Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo, Diane Lane as his wife Cleo and Helen Mirren as Hedda Hopper. It is released in February 2016 in Australia having first shown at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie is well played and the cinematic effects, including, for example, black and white shots from time to time, as well as some of the actors’ similar appearance with the original people, stress well the movie’s historical background. If you are enjoying historical films that encourage thoughts and discussions, TRUMBO is one to watch!