The blacklist is a subject much discussed, analyzed and written about. I always thought that the best commentary on the blacklist came from Robert Redford's character in The Way We Were. They'll come a time when producers will need the talent they have ostracized and the wives of right wing producers will be screwing left wing writers and vice versa and no one will remember what it was really all about. The blacklist like Prohibition, like segregated baseball caved in under the weight of its own imbecility. The tragedy is so many lives had to be ruined.

The story of Dalton Trumbo's years in exile are told in the film Trumbo and it's lead Bryan Cranston who received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. He might have gotten the award had the Academy voters felt that Leonardo DiCaprio was overdue.

Dalton Trumbo in his life never spied for the Soviets, no American security issues were ever breached by him. Like so many he joined the Communist Party at a time when we were allies with the Soviet Union against the Nazis. He never hit it and thought this was what America was about, the right to think one's own thoughts express the same and not be penalized.

When things got hostile between the USA and the USSR that's when the forces of reaction came to the fore. The House Un-American Activities Committee which never passed a single law in its history was great at getting headlines. What better headlines than having movie stars of all kinds appear before that committee? So an investigation of the movie industry and the hidden Communist messages in films by writers of leftist sympathy.

Trumbo was one of the first to be blacklisted, a member of the so- called Hollywood Ten of writers. It might be an interesting exercise to look at his screen credits and try to see what could have the members of HUAC found in such films as A Guy Named Joe and Our Vines Have Tender Grapes that are Communist tinted.

The blacklist came and it was enforced by a group called the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. Heading it were John Wayne who during the years of the early 50s when the blacklist was riding high and he was number one at the box office. Wayne is played here by David James Elliott who has the height, but no one could ever capture that outsize personality.

Michael Stuhlbarg plays Edward G. Robinson who turned friendly witness after being a defender of the Hollywood Ten and who Trumbo worked with in Our Vines Have Tender Grapes. Unlike Trumbo and the writers who formed an underground cottage industry of writing under pseudonyms to keep bread on the table, actors could not do that. It was why so many like Robinson and Sterling Hayden for instance did what they felt they had to do to preserve their careers.

Even Wayne was a manipulated figure who thought he was doing a patriotic service. Hedda Hopper played by Helen Mirren was far more evil. She was right wing to the core and she did in fact as is shown in Trumbo chastise Wayne for being too soft when he wants to relent.

It was hard on the Trumbos, but Cranston and supportive wife Diane Lane and their kids held it together. The domestic scenes and the Trumbo household are very significant because it shows that other than the fact that dad was barred from working in the most glamorous of industries, they were as ordinary a family as you might find on Leave It To Beaver or The Donna Reed Show. Other than the fact these kids developed some severe social consciences as we see in Elle Fanning as Trumbo's older daughter. But many did who did not live and work in Hollywood.

I should single out John Goodman who really should have gotten a nomination himself in the Best Supporting Actor category as Frank King who was an independent producer of cheerfully admitted shlock movies who hired Trumbo and his colleagues under the table. What he does with one of Hedda Hopper's spies from the Motion Picture Alliance was priceless.

History records the blacklist ending when Trumbo is officially given credit for both the films Spartacus and Exodus. Both came out in 1960. If there are any villains in the story it was the large studios who caved into political pressure. Had any one of them back in the late Forties told HUAC where to go and what to do there would have been no blacklist. A whole lot like the integration of baseball when Jackie Robinson was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. When that great experiment was successful teams like the Boston Braves, New York Giants and Cleveland Indians all signed black players and in a decade every team was integrated.

So it was with Hollywood's blacklist. In 1965 the producer and star of Spartacus Kirk Douglas and the producer and director of Exodus Otto Preminger both worked with John Wayne on In Harm's Way. In 1969 John Wayne included in the cast of True Grit blacklisted actor Jeff Corey. It was all a bad dream.

But those who dreamed good dreams and fought the good fight for their freedom of speech and their right to work in expressing their speech were people like Dalton Trumbo for whom this picture and review is dedicated to. Sometimes the real heroes aren't in front of the camera.

Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) joins the American communist party in '43. By '47, the political landscape is changing. Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) is whipping up anti-communist sentiments with support from John Wayne. Trumbo is called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He, his friend Arlen Hird (Louis C.K.) and others become the Hollywood 10 who are sentenced to prison for contempt of Congress. Former supporters like Edward G. Robinson turn their backs on them. Trumbo returns to his wife Cleo (Diane Lane) and kids Nikola (Elle Fanning). He faces a tough time blacklisted as a screenwriter. He would write Roman Holiday under his friend's name Ian McLellan Hunter (Alan Tudyk). He starts writing for B-movie producer Frank King (John Goodman) recruiting other blacklisted writers. Eventually, Kirk Douglas comes to him with a little movie called Spartacus.

Bryan Cranston is great as well as many others like Louis C.K., John Goodman and Elle Fanning. This is a relatively by-the-book biopic. It is ironic that the story does need some punching up by the screenwriter. Helen Mirren has a real juicy part as the villain. This does have an added layer of fascination for people who loves old movies. The names and movies being dropped adds to the enjoyment. The only big drawback is the last scene. The speech is too overwrought. A simpler gesture would be much more compelling. In fact, the movie could have ended right before the speech.

I thought this was pretty good. Even though I still can't get Bryan Cranston's association with Breaking Bad out of my head. Dalton Trumbo, of course, was an impressive screenwriter of the early fifties and sixties. The problem was that he had socialist ideas as the Cold War progressed. He began to insist on the use of strike tactics when he was expected to toe the line. Eventually, Joe McCarthy began his witch hunt and Trumbo was stripped of respect from America, which had fallen prey to his messages. Cranston delivers this complex character to the letter, with his entrenched liberalism and idealism. The interesting thing is that others were harmed by his stance. Trumbo's bitterness at his being black-listed causes him to bring others down with him. Soon he is writing but being fronted by others. Kirk Douglas proves a real ally giving him writing opportunities. As things move along, the family begins to suffer from his excess of pique. It is a real film, pulling few punches as he fights for his dignity, even going to prison.