Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Michael Stuhlbarg, Dean O’ Gorman, David James Elliott, David Maldonado, John Getz, Alan Tudyk, Louis C.K., Richard Portnow, Roger Bart, Robert Stripling, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Ellie Fanning, John Goodman, Stephen Root, Christian Berkel.

The era of McCarthyism was arguably one of the most shameful times in American politics, one that to this day still sends a shiver down the spine and causes the heart to miss a beat or two as the scare tactics employed by the junior senator and those of involved with the committee hearings dealing with the House Un-American Activities. That shiver should be felt for all time, it should never relent and whilst Arthur Miller brought the nauseous feeling and rising anger superbly to the stage in the classic The Crucible, Trumbo makes it feel so much more modern and dastardly.

The politics of a nation can define its people in ways that music or art cannot compete with unless it uses the same devices at its disposal to fight back against the swings to the violent left or the insidious and corrupt right. Parody is a virtue, satire a weapon in which to grace any stage, piece of art or film an absolute must if we are to keep our elected officials in check, they do after all answer to us, not the other way round.

It is in this era of rising paranoia that a group of people who came together to fight the tide of Nazism and who the obvious choice was to become Communists, something they were cheered for during the war, somehow became enemies of the state and the jealousy that creeps into the heart of anyone who allows the black stain to corrupt their feelings and sense of proportion became an issue in which had to be addressed.

For Dalton Trumbo, played with absolute wit by Bryan Cranston, it became a matter of honour and unlike several of his fellow screen-writers, actors and artists, was one who felt both the full brunt of the American public, its officials and the likes of Hedda Hopper, performed with stunning guile and despicable charm by Helen Mirren.

American cinema is still trying to make amends for its shameful role in the hounding of such men and women, ordinary citizens as well as artists, who were blacklisted from employment just because they refused to have their conscious removed by the rising force of obsessive suspicion that was strangling American life after World War Two.

With excellent performances throughout by Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren, Diane Lane and Dean O’ Gorman as Kirk Douglas, Trumbo is a film of impeccable standing and one that timely reminds audiences not to be sucked into the realms of hate offered by Government.

Ian D. Hall