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Versione 3
Rating: Trumbo or The Last Word - The True Story of Dalton Trumbo was screened in 2015 in the United States and in 2016 in Italy. The film is based on the biography Dalton Trumbo written by Bruce Cook, but it exclusively narrates the events that happened to the screenwriter and around him between 1947 and 1960.
The central and superficial story of the film is the resistance by screenwriter Dalton Trumbo against the war declared by the Committee on Un-American Activities against him and other dangerous extremists in Hollywood. To delve into other aspects of the film, one must be guided by the scenes.
It starts with captions that provide the historical background to the events depicted:
In the 1930s, in response to the Great Depression and the rise of fascism, thousands of Americans joined the Communist Party of the USA.
As the USA allied with the Soviet Union, many others joined the CPUSA.
Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, a long-time advocate for workers' rights, became a member in 1943.
The Cold War cast doubt on American communists.
Then, through the first sequences, the main traits of the protagonist are quickly outlined, and some celebrities of the anti-communist witch hunt are introduced, while the prelude to the battle that will see Trumbo, reluctantly, as a protagonist, is shown.
Activism and family are the guiding stars of Trumbo's life; writing is his obsession. In a few minutes, first, we watch him cut and move scenes and dialogue while smoking a cigarette, immersed in the water of a bathtub; then, we see and hear him typing continuously and at a rapid pace; finally, we observe him on set, reciting those words and discussing amiably and joyfully with a Hollywood star (Edward G. Robinson) about a line.
“Stop, Rocco. If we don't fight, perhaps you'll have the long and happy life we all wish for”
In this new climate, a brilliant line like this cannot work; we are in America, and, now more than ever, we don't fight for peace on Earth and the goodness of men, but for sex and money.
A line is the spark that ignites the nation's battle against one of its citizens. It is then a discussion about the rights of machine operators and crew members to have better wages (just as others, directors and screenwriters before them, have achieved) that increases the tension. Finally, it is the newsreel that triggers the witch hunt when it puts the monsters on the front page, namely those dangerous extremists Trumbo and Robinson who support strikes that lead to violent confrontations with the police.
The internal enemy has thus been created.
Some major stars voice the fundamentalist feelings of the anti-communists: the queen of the tabloids and voice of Hollywood newsreels, Hedda Hopper, and the star safeguarding American ideals, John Wayne.
As the story unfolds, the fierce witch hunt reveals the character of the men and women of both factions. There are those who betray, those who adapt while somehow preserving their ideals, and those who succumb in the name of these.
In this hateful climate, everyone loses something.
Dalton loses accolades and jobs, which will return later, but especially his freedom and the time dedicated to his family, which cannot be regained. Arlen Hird, his health, and with it his wife, but not his faith in his ideals and in his pen. Nikola Trumbo, the little communist, her father for her birthday. Cleo Trumbo, the husband she had chosen.
In this way, the film tells us that, in this war and in all wars, there are no winners. And, if the happy ending, narratively, consists in the reward the protagonist receives, Trumbo's final speech...
"Often, when I find myself together with the film community, there's an elephant in the room... me. And I feel I must talk about it. The blacklist was a real witch hunt. And none of the survivors emerged unscathed from that evil. It triggered a series of events that unfortunately went beyond the control of the individual themselves. Everyone reacted according to their nature, their needs, their beliefs. Everyone had to make choices they never wanted to make. It was a period of fear and no one was spared. Many people lost their homes. Their scattered families lost everything. And many... many also lost their lives. But... if one day we look back at that dark period, as we should all sometimes do, it won't help to search for heroes or villains. They don't exist... there were only victims. Victims, because everyone felt compelled to say or do things they otherwise wouldn’t have done or said. To inflict or receive wounds that in reality no one wanted to exchange. And now I look at my family sitting here. And I realize what they had to endure. And it's not fair. My wife... who somehow kept us all together, amazed me. So, what I want to say tonight is not meant to be offensive to anyone. It's aimed at healing the pain. At mending those wounds that we mercilessly inflicted on each other for years. Or worse, that we inflicted on ourselves. Thank you... thank you very much."
...reminds us that, for the authors, it consists of the end of the period of fear. But, unfortunately, alas, there's always another one that follows.
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