TrumboUA

Plot Summary

Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) is a screenwriter whose talent places him among the elite of Hollywood. However, his outspoken support for organized labor, and his membership in the Communist Party of the USA draw the contempt of staunchly anti-Soviet entertainment-industry figures such as columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) and actor John Wayne (David James Elliott).

J. Parnell Thomas heads the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Trumbo is one of 10 screenwriters subpoenaed to testify before the United States Congress regarding alleged Communist propaganda in Hollywood films. They refuse to directly answer questions, confident that a liberal majority on the Supreme Court will overturn the convictions for contempt of Congress. Edward G. Robinson, who supports the cause, sells the Portrait of Père Tanguy to raise money for their legal defense fund.

The unexpected replacement of a liberal Supreme Court Justice condemns each of them to spend time in prison. In 1950, Trumbo serves eleven months in Texarkana prison where he meets J. Parnell Thomas who was convicted of tax evasion.

As the Hollywood Blacklist expands to exclude more liberals from working in the industry, Trumbo and his comrades are abandoned by Democratic actor Edward G. Robinson (Michael Stuhlbarg) and producer Buddy Ross (Roger Bart), who disavow them to protect their careers. Trumbo's prison term eventually finishes, but he remains blacklisted and his finances – and family life – become increasingly strained. He resorts to giving the screenplay for Roman Holiday to his friend Ian McLellan Hunter (Alan Tudyk), to take credit and a share of the money, and eventually the Academy Award for Best Story. 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 Productions, also farming out the writing of B-movie screenplays to fellow blacklisted writers. He puts his wife Cleo (Diane Lane) and teenage children to work as his support staff, adding to domestic conflict. King Brothers' film The Brave One, an original story by Trumbo under a pseudonym, receives an Academy Award he cannot claim. His blacklisted friend Arlen Hird (Louis C.K.) dies, destitute, but an attempt by Hopper's allies to intimidate the head of King Brothers to fire Trumbo fails completely.

Over time, industry suspicion of Trumbo's ghostwriting develops, but he is careful not to confirm it. In 1960, actor Kirk Douglas (Dean O'Gorman) recruits him to write the screenplay for his epic film Spartacus, and director Otto Preminger (Christian Berkel) recruits him to script Exodus for him; both publicly credit Trumbo as the screenwriter despite Hopper's futile efforts to intimidate Douglas into dropping Trumbo. By 1960, to Hopper's despair, the effectiveness of the Blacklist has been broken to the point where newly elected US President John F. Kennedy publicly endorses Spartacus and Trumbo and others are able to begin rebuilding their careers. Ten years later, finally receiving his due accolades from Hollywood, Trumbo speaks about how the Blacklist victimized them all: those who stood by their principles and lost their jobs, and also those who compromised their principles to keep them.

Positive Tweets:-

@bristola48 Ya some are very predictable. Hey I watched a great movie, I will recommend you watch. It's called #Trumbo. Jaw dropping.

— Jorge Rivera (@Wildfang135) February 4, 2016

Just watched #Trumbo. Decent performance by Bryan Cranston and Diane Lane, well...she's a total fox@TrumboMovieUK

— JonScoff (@jonainscough) February 4, 2016

Just watched #Trumbo #movie brilliant film and great performance by @BryanCranston

— Matt Angelo (@matt_angelo_84) February 4, 2016