I saw an amazing movie last night - "Trumbo". It's a documentary version of a play by Christopher Trumbo, about his father, one of the "Hollywood Ten" blacklisted during the Red Scare.
It's made up mostly of letters written by Dalton Trumbo during his exile, read by Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Brian Dennehy, Joan Allen, Michael Douglas, Paul Giammati, David Stathairn, Liam Neeson, and Josh Lucas. The letters are eloquent, witty, scathing telegrams from the hell to which self-professed patriots had sent him.
I'm ashamed of how little I knew about Dalton Trumbo before I saw the movie. I knew that he wrote a lot of great movies, was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee by Joseph McCarthy, was blacklisted, won an Oscar under an alias, and that Kirk Douglas had demanded that the studio give him credit for "Spartacus".
I also knew ephemera such as he often wrote in a bathtub and had a totally bitchin' mustache. Right off the bat, he's my kinda guy.
What I didn't know was how much he, and the others tainted by the Red Scare, suffered and endured fighting for the Constitutional Rights those selfsame "patriots" had sworn to uphold. I had a nebulous understanding that his case represented the Samuel Johnson maxim "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." But I didn't know what a clarion voice Trumbo was for the very ideals upon which this country was founded. I had a vague sense of the parallels to today, but it took his words to light them in such stark relief.
I wonder how many times America can make the mistake of silencing its true patriots before the American dream stinks like rotten meat or explodes. I wonder how many times we can hear the bugle sound alarm before we answer its call.
Dalton Trumbo is the America I want to believe is still possible. Dalton Trumbo is the me I want to believe is still possible.
Stand up!
