As a form of cultural expression related to ideology , film has never been unrelated to politics. During the Cold War, the United States also had the same "persecution delusion" as other countries in the world. "When the film encounters a sensitive period, it makes the journey of those talented filmmakers with different political views extremely bumpy. The American film "Trumbo" is adapted from the experience of one of the persecuted and crushed during that special period, the famous Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.
Trombeau’s own experience has certain legendary qualities and meets the needs of a biographical feature film. His life is full of pain due to the crushing of the times. From the end of the 1940s to most of the 1960s, He has lived a depressed, sad and heavy life, but the film did not over-exaggerate the heavy tone of depression and sadness. It only presented some fragments and the sequence of situations. The perspective tended to converge, and it seemed that he did not want to talk in a big way. In that gloomy era, the overall appearance was neat and tidy.
This kind of relative convergence is also reflected in the shaping of the character Trombeau, although Trombeau played by Brian Cranston has done a certain degree of character reduction with the help of makeup techniques in appearance, and he is spitting words. In terms of vocalization, Cranston has imitated Trumb's own way of speaking and intonation quite hard. Listening to recordings of some character prototypes, you will feel that Cranston's imitation is still reliable, but in other audiovisual materials Here, you can see that Trumbeau’s own words and expressions are more sharp and keen after the literati was injured, and the spirit of the word fighter still remains in his bones, and Cranston’s performance is more in line with a biographical film. The demand for character creation in the film, especially during the interview, the Cranston version of Trombeau’s speech into the microphone has a forbearance and wisdom after suffering, which is similar to wisdom. The great enlightenment of the rest of his life after the catastrophe, the calm and calm after the vicissitudes of life, is one of the "moving places" in the setting of the film, although it may not necessarily match the reality.
In view of the ups and downs of Trumbeau's life, the film selected the not-short period of time when he fell into trouble and overcome the difficulties. The main line of the story is the peak period of his career-a three-year signing with MGM. The contract for high-paying screenwriters began, and then life circumstances went round and round. He was ruthlessly suppressed because of his political status, and was terminated and unemployed. Then the situation turned sharply down to lawsuits and sentenced to jail. After being released from prison, he continued to face the dilemma of being suppressed. Livelihoods were created anonymously for the support of the family, and excellent works appeared frequently until the era of blacklisting disappeared... probably because the main line is not easy to dig and cultivate in every time period, so in the middle and late stages of the film, the way of presentation tends to drive the plot with emotion. Development, whether family affection or friendship, this part of the emotion that Trombeau strives to maintain has become the focus of the film.
A person who lives by writing cannot sign his own name on his work. This is a kind of spiritual punishment and plundering of writing workers. Under such a situation of being violated and oppressed, Trombo is not depressed and decadent. Instead, the typewriter is used as a weapon, and personal talents are used to win opportunities and opportunities for themselves, which makes the film look very inspirational. Among them, Trumbeau finds a group of friends who are also on the blacklist to serve as a gunman for the B-level film studio. It is full of sentimentality while being incapable of being laughed. A talented person must be a large number of people. The boring, vulgar script pays hard work in exchange for survival. The reality is always so helpless and helpless. Regarding this part, Trombeau in the film has a lot of lively and interesting lines, such as: "They need scripts just like the army needs toilet paper." Another example is "The lowest quality and the most quantity. When you don't think about the art in the movie at all. Passion, work can be completed in one week.” And this situation of screenwriters collecting and modifying scripts collectively seems to be a common problem of poorly qualified film and television companies, whether in the past or present, regardless of country.
Probably because Trombeau’s talent is too outstanding to be concealed by the darkness, his anonymous scripts "Roman Holiday" and "The Brave Man" won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. This light is enough to make Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger asked him to create the scripts for the films "Spartacus" and "Exodus". After many twists and turns, when the name of the screenwriter Dalton Trombeau finally appeared on the big screen, Trombeau in the audience could not suppress the excitement, but the excitement was only expressed by the tears flickering behind the lens. On the contrary, It's moving.
In addition to the excellent acting skills of Lao Bai in the film, the extreme columnist Heida Hopper played by Helen Mirren is also very brilliant. In the limited number of appearances, Mirren showed that pathological paranoia into three points. In addition, most of the supporting roles in the film are played, especially the bosses of the two B-level film companies. They can be called the bright spots in the supporting roles. They vividly portray the laymen who switched to film and television, and they are not allowed to use Trang when dealing with intimidation. In the face of the incredible "Hollywood Anti-Communist Organization" that Bo and others are screenwriters, their domineering style of driving away mosquitoes and flies is also in line with their status as people who have worked hard.
The soundtrack of the film complements the ups and downs of the plot, and the scenes and pictures also have a visually pleasant advantage. The documentary images at the end of the film add a lot of points to the film. The subtitles suggest that 18 years after Trumb’s death, it was because of the "Roman Holiday". The winner of the Best Screenplay Award Xiaojin was sent to his widow, which is unavoidable.
(Magazine manuscript)
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