... a beautifully directed and passionate homage to the dignity of one man against the indignity of the times.
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08/19/08
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Trumbo (2008)
76 %
Reviews Counted: 33 Fresh: 25 Rotten:8 Average Rating: 6.5/10
Consensus:
Trumbo celebrates the life and work of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo with measures of humor and sadness.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
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 to the blacklist and back again. This film features prominent actors Joan Allen, Michael... [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Starring: Joan Allen, Brian Dennehy, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, Nathan Lane
Director: Peter Askin
Producer: Will Battersby, Tory Tunnell, Alan Klingenstein, David Viola
Composer: Robert Miller
Producer: Will Battersby, Tory Tunnell, Alan Klingenstein, David Viola
Composer: Robert Miller
Reviews
A celebration of a large-hearted contrarian, and if it's over-worshipful, the film gets you in an indulgent frame of mind.
08/15/08
Top Critic
Askin's dramatic camera angles are somewhat awkward, but the superb performances and the words eventually win out.
08/14/08
Step back to the good old days when anybody could be brought before Congress and interrogated about their beliefs, and meet one of the most famous of those who refused to answer.
07/27/08
By itself, the golden age of Trumbo's career would make for an inspired documentary. But, alas, history situates him in another story, a tragedy that nearly consumed him and many other members of Hollywood.
07/24/08
Top Critic
Trumbo is well worth seeing for what it tells us about the age in which this irrepressible individualist lived, loved, suffered and finally triumphed.
07/09/08
Top Critic
The substance of those letters, along with documentary footage and a touching appearance by Kirk Douglas, throws a baleful light on a bleak chapter of American history.
07/01/08
Top Critic
Trumbo's vivid archival footage and interviews share less-than-equal time, though, with an all-star cast ... taking turns reading from the writer's letters and speeches.
06/27/08
This hard-nosed look at the grim realities of the blacklist is as timely as ever.
06/27/08
What kind of international revolutionary whines about his family being made unwelcome among the tykes of the bourgeoisie?
06/27/08
Top Critic
Using Trumbo's letters, statements, speeches and scripts, director Peter Askin creates a rich portrait of a cantankerous, principled man of words.
06/27/08
Top Critic
Top Critic
It's Trumbo's words -- unfiltered and often unhinged -- that make this doc worth seeing.
06/27/08
Family home movies and photos and archival clips round out the film, which holds its hero-worshiping to fairly tolerable levels.
06/27/08
The film only comes alive with archival footage of the HUAC hearings and interviews with Trumbo himself. When the letter-readers come on, it slows to a snails-pace.
06/27/08
More successful at evoking sympathy for Dalton Trumbo than offering a detailed study of the Red Scare vis-à-vis the screenwriters known as the “Hollywood Ten,” it nevertheless provides a fascinating introduction to the always-relevant topic.
06/27/08
Peter Askin’s stirring documentary Trumbo gives you reasons to cheer but also to weep.
06/27/08
Top Critic
Trumbo emerges as a son's bittersweet valentine to his old man, and a tribute to the senior Trumbo's resilience, wit, and outrage in the face of a national disgrace.
06/26/08
unimaginative ... rendering a film that should have been impassioned and full of life and humor into something static and dull.
06/26/08
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