Trumbo (2015)
Trumbo is an American biographical film drama by Jay Roach from the year 2015 . The leading roles are played by Bryan Cranston , Diane Lane , Helen Mirren , Louis CK , Elle Fanning , John Goodman and Michael Stuhlbarg . The film is set in Hollywood from the 1940s to 1950s and is about screenwriter Dalton Trumbo . It is based on his biography, Dalton Trumbo , written by Bruce Alexander Cook .
The film premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival , where it was shown at the Special Presentations . In the United States, Trumbo was released on November 6, 2015; The German theatrical release was on March 10, 2016. The film received mostly positive reviews, with main actor Bryan Cranston winning over the critics and being nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award . However, historical errors in content and inadequate representations of important personalities and events were criticized.
action
Dalton Trumbo is a very talented screenwriter from Hollywood. However, as a member of the US Communist Party, he was despised by many anti- Soviet leaders in entertainment during the Cold War , such as columnist Hedda Hopper and actor John Wayne .
One of the Hollywood Ten , Trumbo is summoned to appear before the United States Congress to speak to the Un-American Activities Committee on allegations of communist propaganda in Hollywood films. However, the Hollywood Ten , including Trumbo, refuse to testify directly because they believe that the Supreme Court will overturn any conviction by Congress for disregard of state authority. However, when a Supreme Court judge is unexpectedly replaced by a distinctly conservative one, each of the Hollywood Ten is sentenced to imprisonment. In addition, along with many other filmmakers who are said to have communist leanings, they become part of the so-called Hollywood blacklist . Many employers refuse blacklisted people to work.
When Trumbo leaves prison after serving his sentence, his name on the blacklist quickly puts him in financial straits. He gives his completed script for A Heart and a Crown (Roman Holiday) to his friend Ian McLellan Hunter so that he can sell it as his and receive a portion of the proceeds. Hunter even later received the Oscar for Best Original Story for the screenplay.
Trumbo sells his house on the lake and moves downtown, where he works under a pseudonym for the low-budget film company King Brothers Productions . He hires his wife Cleo and children as his assistants, which quickly leads to family problems. The King Brothers film Roter Staub ( The Brave One ), for which Trumbo wrote the script under a pseudonym, received an Oscar, which Trumbo was unable to accept. Meanwhile, Hedda Hopper tries to persuade the managing director of King Brothers Productions to fire Trumbo, but this fails.
Over time, rumors grow about Trump's activities as a ghostwriter , but he says nothing about it. 1960 actor Kirk Douglas hires Trumbo to write the screenplay for the film Spartacus ; Director Otto Preminger also gives him a commission for his new film Exodus . Although Hopper tried for a long time to get Douglas to fire Trumbo, he was named as a screenwriter in both films. Over time, the blacklist's effect waned until the newly elected President John F. Kennedy even publicly endorsed Spartacus . In this way, Trumbo and many others can build a new career for themselves.
Ten years later, after Trumbo received his due awards, he speaks publicly about the blacklist. He explains that it sacrificed them all: those who upheld their principles but lost their jobs as a result; and those who rejected their principles in order to keep their jobs.
background
On September 18, 2013, Bryan Cranston confirmed his involvement in the film and stated that he would take on the role of Dalton Trumbo .
Filming ran from September 5, 2014 to November 6, 2014.
The film, with a budget of $ 15 million, was distributed by Bleecker Street and premiered on September 12, 2015 at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival , where it was screened at Special Presentations . It was released in select theaters across the United States on November 6, 2015, before launching nationwide on November 25. The cinema release in Germany was on March 10, 2016.
criticism
Trumbo received mostly positive reviews. He has a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 132 reviews and an average rating of 6.6 / 10. The bottom line is: "Although Trumbo is an honorable and well-played tribute to a brilliant author, the film cannot quite keep up with the works of its namesake." On Metacritic , the film received 60/100 points, based on 33 ratings.
Thomas Vorwerk of the filmstarts.de editorial team gave Trumbo 3.5 out of 5 stars and said in his conclusion: "In Trumbo , director Jay Roach brings a decade and a half of Hollywood history to life in an entertaining way and with great actors." Jean Mikhail from kino-zeit.de said: “Trumbo as a whole is a successful mixture of nostalgic glimpses into Hollywood of the late 1940s and 1950s, political-critical commentary and joke - and a story that is worth it, despite some weaknesses in its staging to be seen. "
Historical content errors
Although the film received mostly positive reviews, it was criticized that some historical events and people were misrepresented. In the film, for example, the actor Edward G. Robinson betrays his friend Dalton Trumbo in front of the committee for un-American activities by exposing him as a communist . In reality, Robinson testified several times before the committee, but never referred to Trumbo as a communist.
The portrayal of Trumbo, who was a supporter of the dictators Joseph Stalin and Kim Il-sung, was also criticized on various occasions . Godfrey Cheshire of the Roger Ebert Journal saw Trumbo as too oversimplified, since he portrayed the screenwriter as innocent in every respect and also presented the Communist Party as completely uncritical as any other party. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , the film does not show that Trumbo was “not just a salon communist, but a party soldier who was loyal to the line, that he was defending Stalin's pact with Hitler and the Russian nuclear armament”. Roach also has no images for Trumbo's long process of resolving his Stalinist convictions before his death in 1976.
Awards
- Nominated for Best Actor for Bryan Cranston
- Nominated for Best Actor - Drama for Bryan Cranston
- Best Supporting Actress nomination for Helen Mirren
British Academy Film Awards 2016
- Nominated for Best Actor for Bryan Cranston
Critics' Choice Movie Awards Jan. 2016
- Nominated for Best Actor for Bryan Cranston
- Best Supporting Actress nomination for Helen Mirren
- Nomination in the category Best Acting Ensemble
Screen Actors Guild Awards 2016
- Nominated for Best Actor for Bryan Cranston
- Best Supporting Actress nomination for Helen Mirren
- Nomination in the category Best Acting Ensemble
Web links
- Trumbo in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Trumbo . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ↑ Age rating for Trumbo . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Mike Fleming Jr: 'Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston Will Next Play Blacklisted Scribe Dalton Trumbo ( English ) In: Deadline.com . September 18, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
- ↑ On the Set for 11/10/14: Star Wars: The Force Awakens Along with Angelina Jolie / Brad Pitt's By The Sea Wraps & More ( English ) Studio System News. November 10, 2014. Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
- ↑ Trumbo at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ Trumbo at Metacritic (English)
- ↑ Critique by Thomas Vorwerk on filmstarts.de . Retrieved February 12, 2016.
- ^ Criticism by Jean Mikhail on kino-zeit.de . Retrieved February 12, 2016.
- ^ Testimony of Edward G. Robinson before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, April, 1952 . US Government Printing Office, 1952
- ↑ Godfrey Cheshire: Trumbo Movie Review & Film Summary (2015) | Roger Ebert. Retrieved February 27, 2018 .
- ↑ Andreas Kilb: Film about Dalton Trumbo: The most famous communist in Hollywood . In: FAZ.NET . March 10, 2016, ISSN 0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed February 27, 2018]).
