Times of Fear

It is hot in Sydney! The third week night temperatures do not fall lower than 22 Celsius. And this only about 4 a.m. I never liked heat, but now it is difficult for me to go through days and be active in a normal fashion. My ways of coping with the high temperature are to play bridge in air conditioned rooms and go to movies. I can not complain as I like both very much. I am writing it in a way of an excuse, as if I needed one. I just came back home after seeing Trumbo and feel like writing about it sheltered from heat by my home air conditioning. 

The film is about Dalton Trumbo, a famous Hollywood screenwriter, who was blacklisted and jailed for his communistic political beliefs and declared an enemy of America. It is difficult to believe that Dalton Trumbo wrote the screenplay for Roman Holiday as a ghost writer and was not able to claim the academy award as his name was not included in the film credits.  They were olden days of forties and fifties of the last century.

Trumbo is a very good story. It is surprising how life writes stories that seem unbelievable. The Revenant seemed to me to be an inadequate fiction until I was straighten out and told that something similar really had happened.

Bryan Cranston is really brilliant. He became known through his role of Walter White in Breaking Bad. His role of an accidental drug dealer, he plays in the serial, is fascinating and he gained then a well deserved world recognition.  Breaking Bad is not my type of television. Too violent and the subjects of drugs and life threatening illness are not my favourite subjects. I would have crossed it out if it was not for a recommendation of a friend whose judgment I respect. Thank you Hans the Hiker.

Times of fear. This term was used in the film and I realized that this is a universal subject, still current in many countries. It is current in Poland. The new government clears the decks of many cultural institutions. Radio, television, films… and not only that of course. People are worried about losing jobs and finding new ones. This happens due to different political views and has nothing to do with skills, abilities, truck record or achievements.   Trumbo shows how devastating being on a black list may be for the people affected and their families.

Times of fear are horrible times. They destroy people and their characters. 

My personal rating of the film 9 out of 10.