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Trumbo

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Trumbo (2008)

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Reviews Counted:51

Fresh:41

Rotten:10

Average Rating:6.7/10

Consensus: Trumbo celebrates the life and work of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo with measures of humor and sadness.

Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for a sex-related commentary.

Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins

Genre: Education/General Interest

Theatrical Release:Jun 27, 2008 Limited

Box Office: $28,125

Synopsis: This documentary focuses on the Oscar-winning mind behind ROMAN HOLIDAY and THE BRAVE ONE. TRUMBO centers on Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter and member of the Hollywood 10 who vaulted from the A-list... This documentary focuses on the Oscar-winning mind behind ROMAN HOLIDAY and THE BRAVE ONE. TRUMBO centers on Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter and member of the Hollywood 10 who vaulted from the A-list to the blacklist and back again. This film features prominent actors Joan Allen, Michael Douglas, Liam Neeson, and more, and they contribute to the film in a variety of ways. [More]

Starring: Joan Allen, Brian Dennehy, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti

Starring: Joan Allen, Brian Dennehy, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, Nathan Lane, Josh Lucas, Liam Neeson, David Strathairn, Donald Sutherland

Director: Peter Askin

Director: Peter Askin
Producer: Will Battersby, Tory Tunnell, Alan Klingenstein, David Viola
Composer: Robert Miller
Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films

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Release:

Sep 15, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Widescreen - 1.78

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo - English
  • Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
  • Subtitles - Spanish
 
 
 
 

Reviews for Trumbo

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Like the great artist he is Trumbo's work speaks as loudly today as it did 50 years ago. Perhaps we should all listen.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
09/13/09
Bill Gibron
Bill Gibron
PopMatters

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.

Full Review Source: About.com | comment Comment
05/27/09
Jennifer Merin
Jennifer Merin
About.com
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Gerald Peary
Gerald Peary
Boston Phoenix

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.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
01/09/09
Stan Hall
Stan Hall
Oregonian

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.

Full Review Source: Film.com | comment Comment
11/10/08
Jonathan F. Richards
Jonathan F. Richards
Film.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
10/18/08
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
10/18/08
John Anderson
John Anderson
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
10/18/08
Patrick Z. McGavin
Patrick Z. McGavin
Screen International

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.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
10/18/08
Robert Koehler
Robert Koehler
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An amazing primer on how to stand by your principles even as the unprincipled knock you around.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
10/18/08
James Rocchi
James Rocchi
Cinematical

It's a pleasure to meet a truly moral man in a documentary that rightly heralds his name.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
10/18/08
Ruthe Stein
Ruthe Stein
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A ousing documentary as ornery, orotund and captivating as its subject.

Full Review Source: Philadelphia Inquirer | comment Comment
10/18/08
Carrie Rickey
Carrie Rickey
Philadelphia Inquirer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As the story of a fierce, beleaguered individualist, 'Trumbo' is stirring and informative, though perhaps not as thorough as it could be.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
09/28/08
Rossiter Drake
Rossiter Drake
San Francisco Examiner

Dalton Trumbo showed that it was possible, even within the Hollywood system, to deal seriously with issues like freedom and personal responsibility.

Full Review Source: Playback:stl | comment Comment
09/19/08
Sarah Boslaugh
Sarah Boslaugh
Playback:stl

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.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
09/12/08
Jeff Shannon
Jeff Shannon
Seattle Times

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.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
09/11/08
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

This biography is celebratory to a fault. There is scant context about the history and political climate that led to the blacklist.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
08/22/08
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Trumbo was initiated by two of Trumbo's children, but their attempt to personalize the film isn't quite personal enough.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
08/22/08
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

... a beautifully directed and passionate homage to the dignity of one man against the indignity of the times.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
08/19/08
Beverly Berning
Beverly Berning
culturevulture.net

A celebration of a large-hearted contrarian, and if it's over-worshipful, the film gets you in an indulgent frame of mind.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
08/15/08
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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