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Trumbo
EMAILPRINTSamuel Goldwyn Films, Red Envelope Entertainment

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 18 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by: Christopher Trumbo
Directed by: Peter Askin
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 27, 2008
Running Time: 96 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Language(s): Black and White | Color
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for a sex-related commentary
Starring Joan Allen, Brian Dennehy, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, Nathan Lane, Josh Lucas, Liam Neeson, David Strathairn, and Donald Sutherland
Trumbo is a unique, star-studded film about Oscar-winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and his heroic journey from Hollywood royalty to blacklisted writer to Academy Award winner. Set against the backdrop of tremendous political unrest, audience will be given a first, emotional account of how this turmoil affected one of Hollywood’s most prolific writers. Based on the play “Trumbo”, by his son Christopher, the film features brilliant readings of some of Trumbo’s extraordinary letters performed by an A list cast, interlaced with period and contemporary interviews, and, rare video shot by his family and friends (The Samuel Goldwyn Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Trumbo sexes up Trumbo's already dramatic story with a massive infusion of star power.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Peter Askin's powerful documentary serves as an important reminder of our First Amendment rights, and a tribute to one man who fought to preserve them in the face of Congressional intimidation.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
That's Trumbo's message -- that the true victim was America.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Family home movies and photos and archival clips round out the film, which holds its hero-worshiping to fairly tolerable levels.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
Trumbo is a terrific picture, a blend of interviews and archival footage and readings of Trumbo's letters and speeches.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Today few would dispute Trumbo's assessment of that very dark period: "The blacklist was a time of evil, and no one who survived it on either side came through untouched by evil."
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore
An invigorating, funny, and moving portrait of a Hollywood hero.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Trumbo, a rousing documentary as ornery, orotund and captivating as its subject (1905-1976), is an anatomy of irony.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Trumbo is welcome just to bear witness to the severe consequences meted out to one man who dared to do the right thing.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Trumbo never wavered in his belief that his persecution was only a horrible symptom. He understood the real victim of blacklist America was America itself.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
What becomes clear is that Trumbo's humor is only one thing that helped him survive the professional and personal hardships of the blacklist, which drove more than one of his Hollywood friends to kill themselves and took a toll on Trumbo's children.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Matthew Sorrento
This documentary's narrative feels deliberately chronological, as the storyline adheres to the major steps of Trumbo's career. Nonetheless, the film realizes many great moments to make the writer's story – often reduced to a footnote – into an intriguing one.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
An unconventional film about an unconventional man. Part documentary, part expertly staged readings, it focuses on the unquiet life and unforgettable words of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, someone who, as his son puts it, never had to go looking for trouble because it always came to him.
Read Full Review >Variety Robert Koehler
It will serve as a fine entry point for younger auds interested in learning about the price paid by moviemakers and their families swept up in the 1950s anti-Communist net.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Robert Wilonsky
The actors--most unshaven, wrinkled, so goddamned serious--steal the writer's movie, as they wring from his epistles every last drop of blood and sweat spilled by a man punished for believing his country was better than its behavior.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
Donald Sutherland's passionate rendition of a speech from Trumbo's 1971 film "Johnny Got His Gun" (based on his novel) is worth the price of admission.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Trumbo doesn't pretend to be tough-minded about its subject, and its failure to date the letters is an annoyance. But 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.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
The misleading documentary Trumbo paints a golden nimbus of holiness around the onetime highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood, Dalton Trumbo, an on-the-record hater of democracy, defender of authoritarian rule and avowed Communist.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
