Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 54
Fresh: 44 | Rotten: 10
Trumbo celebrates the life and work of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo with measures of humor and sadness.
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 2
Trumbo celebrates the life and work of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo with measures of humor and sadness.
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Average Rating: 2.5/5
User Ratings: 35,464
A documentary adaptation of the popular regional theatrical monologue -- in which such heavyweights as Paul Newman, Nathan Lane, and Joe Mantegna essayed the lead on various occasions -- Trumbo recounts the life and times of legendary Hollywood scribe-turned-HUAC scapegoat Dalton Trumbo. As with its source production, the film takes as its base material highly personal, detailed, and emotive letters written by Dalton Trumbo to his son, Christopher; the latter, in turn, molded the missives into a
Sep 10, 2007 Wide
Sep 15, 2009
$28.1k
Samuel Goldwyn Films
All Critics (56) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (45) | Rotten (10) | DVD (1)
The transporting power of this experience is in the passionate and almost outlandishly eloquent verbal expression Trumbo poured into his correspondence, and the vividly American principles he defends.
It will serve as a fine entry point for younger auds interested in learning about theprice paid by moviemakers and their families swept up in the 1950s anti-Communist net.
The film is an enlightening recap of '50s Red Scare politics, and a parade of actors giving meaningful, earnest readings of Trumbo's speeches and letters.
It's a pleasure to meet a truly moral man in a documentary that rightly heralds his name.
A ousing documentary as ornery, orotund and captivating as its subject.
This biography is celebratory to a fault. There is scant context about the history and political climate that led to the blacklist.
Like the great artist he is Trumbo's work speaks as loudly today as it did 50 years ago. Perhaps we should all listen.
An overdue vindication of a true patriot and a timely reminder to continue challenging authority in the face of the Patriot Act.
A portrait of Dalton Trumbo, the writer who defied HUAC. Joan Allen, Paul Giamatti, Liam Neeson, David Strathairn and Donald Sutherland, among others, read excerpts from Trumbo's letters. Moving and compelling. Must see.
Does a fine job of showing the emotional and financial toll the decadelong blacklist (plus a year's imprisonment for contempt of Congress) took on Trumbo and his family as he tried to scrape by writing anonymously.
Trumbo is hurt by an unwillingness to actually explore Trumbo's own politics and delve into his actual beliefs about communism, Stalin or Marxist ideology.
An amazing primer on how to stand by your principles even as the unprincipled knock you around.
As the story of a fierce, beleaguered individualist, 'Trumbo' is stirring and informative, though perhaps not as thorough as it could be.
Dalton Trumbo showed that it was possible, even within the Hollywood system, to deal seriously with issues like freedom and personal responsibility.
Although it glosses over a few relevant details, Trumbo also functions as a passionate defense of truth from a writer who embodied all of the virtues that America claims to value.
Of all the many narrative films and documentaries that have been made about the Hollywood blacklist, none has more intimately captured what it must have been like to live through that sordid time.
I don't often seek out documentaries myself but this one is well worth the extra effort if you can find it. A compelling narrative about a courageous and extremely intelligent human being.
January 10, 2009
Super Reviewer
In the beginning, there was the word and in the end, there was only the word, which in the case of the documentary "Trumbo" are the letters and screenplays penned by famed writer Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood 10, held in contempt of Congress(Not to be confused with contempt for Congress) for refusing to
August 12, 2010Super Reviewer
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