MovieChat Forums > Trumbo (2015) Discussion > So is this a pro-communist movie?

So is this a pro-communist movie?


Thoughts

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No, it's a pro-Free Speech movie. Just as everyone on this board should have the right to express his/her opinions (and they do), people in the arts--including movies--should have the same right. Agreed?

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Just recall that with totalitarian surveillence systems that stores things like political views etc and after collecting it sells that information to other nations/corporations it's a very real possibility that it ends up in what could have been your next employeers hands or on a blacklist (as it did in UK for people voting labour), be aware so that you know, but don't be scared to voice what is right - evolution allways favours progress.

Ignorance is only a bliss if you haven't reached awareness.
My imdb posts are getting altered.

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I am an old lady now. All my life I have read about the black listing and it was always freedom of speech for me. Even at 10 years old I understood that if we were going to have people in jail and ruin their lives and people 'reporting' on each other, we were not that far from Nazi Germany.
Some people chose to make it about whether Communism was wrong or right, when in fact, that was not the point.
I didn't like Nazi wannabees and KKK people making a stink, either as I grew up.....I hated them. But I would defend to the death their right to say their piece.
Today I cringe in horror as I see people getting fined, fired,boycotted and ruined because they state their beliefs.
Out forefathers would turn over in their graves

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Exactly, I have no love for commies. Back then when Uncle Joe was still alive a commie living in the West was at best a useful idiot. But this film is about freedom of speech and as much as I dislike communists I love freedom of speech much more.

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As anyone who loves freedom should do, but ask yourself if it's more likely or less likely for you to have freedom if few rich that have arranged the global economy to a ponzi scheme for their benefit have control over the normative power or if there is working democracy?

The golden middleway is what i prefer (which is alot further left than core liberalism), where what right you are allowed and what burden you are meant to carry is decided by the majority of people together - that requires real democracy to function. Right now USA has fascism (which is far right of right wing extremism in its powerstructure).
So we'll see how the USA election goes - my money is that there will be inconsistencies in the votes (weren't there allready cointosses in primary outcomes (?) - which is basically stating that democracy is worthless).

Ignorance is only a bliss if you haven't reached awareness.
My imdb posts are getting altered.

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like Communists believe in freedom in speech: Trumbo would have executed pro-capitalist screenwriters if he was in charge

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like Communists believe in freedom in speech: Trumbo would have executed pro-capitalist screenwriters if he was in charge

No, he wouldn't. He was never in favor of blacklisting others, much less killing them.

"I speak Spanish to God, French to women, English to men, and Japanese to my horse."

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If he wasn't a Soviet Communist he would have joined a different party, could have called himself a "liberal Democrat" like that other guy. But he backed Stalin

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If he wasn't a Soviet Communist he would have joined a different party, could have called himself a "liberal Democrat" like that other guy. But he backed Stalin

Show me in history where everyone knew about what a monster Stalin was at the time the blacklist was going on. Even the U.S. government didn't know that or even suspect it --because no one did, so how was a screenwriter to know?

We know from all of his writing (JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN in particular) that Dalton Trumbo didn't support murder, purges, etc.

Rather than spending your time berating someone who didn't have the benefit of your 20/20 hindsight --but still managed to be one of the best screenwriters in the history of movies, focus instead on where your own blind spots are and how best to change them.

"I speak Spanish to God, French to women, English to men, and Japanese to my horse."

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It was a known secret about the forced famine in the early 30's in Ukraine or the numerous political purges under Stalin. Even Walter Duranty privately acknowledged the truth about the millions killed in Ukraine.

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Oh look it's time for your rabies shot...

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kathiehansen: Tell us what your think about the CEO of Mozilla being forced from his job because of his opposition to same sex marriage.

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Not. I know some reactionaries will say it is, but they are reaching. The movie never even implies that communism is particularly great, it just asserts individuals' right to believe what they want, which is what a free society should do, so long as they promote their beliefs through reasonable, non-violent, non-hate-themed means.

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It is so sad that in the USA today the paranoia about Communists in the 40's/50's, has been replaced by paranoia about Muslims,and Joseph McCarthy has been replaced by Donald Trump.
"What Goes Around Comes Around,Same *beep*

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Isn't every Hollywood movie a pro-communist movie.

Except American Sniper maybe

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And Red Dawn and The Green Berets. And every movie Clint Eastwood and John Wayne have ever made.

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Not back then. Now.

Hollywood's always been plagued by commies, progressives and general perverts but it's only recently that they've taken over the whole outfit

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It's a pro freedom of speech and freedom of thought movie. Concepts closet Nazi Republicans have a hard time wrapping their heads around.

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It shocks me how passionately conservatives fight to defend free speech when they are being politically incorrect & just outright racist...& how quickly they call to silence speech that they disagree with.

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I left this topic because I was dealing with someone who became incredibly nasty, so I haven't read any posts but the one on top of me (Good post, BTW) I just wanted to post today's US Supreme Court decision:

"The Supreme Court decided Tuesday to fortify legal protections for public employees, ruling that punishing an employee for voicing political opinions isn't constitutional. Justice Stephen Breyer said in the ruling: “The Constitution prohibits a government employee from discharging or demoting an employee because the employee supports a particular political candidate." The 6-2 decision involves a lawsuit filed by New Jersey police detective Jeffrey Heffernan, who was demoted for carrying a campaign sign."

The campaign sign was carried at his workplace, but he was just bringing it from one place to another. He wasn't marching up and down in the police station telling people who to vote for and disrupting the station. I can't see how that would ever be legal.

It's only a matter of time before private employees are given the same 1st Amendment rights. If it's the 1st Amendment it'll apply to everyone. A 6-2 decision is very encouraging. In the past the Supremes extended civil rights protections to public places 1st, then private places. Those who want to keep others silent, because they hate that other person's political beliefs, won't be able to any longer and the principles of the democracy will right themselves. Congressional committees unconstitutional politically motivated behavior will finally die. I have never believed that political beliefs, no matter how awful, should be silenced. Illegal actions (not simply someone's beliefs) are what matter. I just couldn't believe that no one could express political beliefs without retribution. It was shocking to the conscious. The person I was dealing with spewed hatred and not facts to prove to me that I was not correct.

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One thing I had not sufficiently addressed was what happened to Mozilla's CEO. There is no question he resigned. Only inflammatory "hate" blogs will say that he was fired. Some prefer to believe that he was pushed out for his beliefs. There is no evidence of that. The resignation was his decision. It is very likely that he felt damage he had done would affect Mozilla's profits, but I am speculating. Firefox browsers alone are non profit but they do make plenty of profits over their ads, etc. He had choices and he alone choose to resign. The unsupported belief that he was fired exists in the minds of those who try to use that "supposition" to support their faulty arguments. They are sure that only one thing could have caused his resignation. No one knows what went on behind the scenes unless they were present when conversations took place. The paragraph I am posting is kind of mild. Most other reputable media organizations used the word "resigned".

The situation just proves that everyone has freedom of speech but they do not have the right to escape the consequences of their speech. They cannot be prosecuted for that speech except in very narrow cases (such as hate speech which is proven to be directly related to the physical harm of someone who was the subject of the hate speech. See KKK cases). In this case the consequence of the CEO's speech was a Twitter storm. I have no problem with the principle that others can react harshly to what you have said. Say anything you want and then see where the chips fall. Then decide what you want to do next.

"Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich stepped down Thursday as CEO, just days after his appointment. He left the nonprofit maker of the Firefox browser after furious attacks, largely on Twitter, over his $1,000 contribution to support of a now-overturned 2008 gay-marriage ban in California."

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