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Trumbo
- A Biography of the Oscar-Winning Screenwriter Who Broke the Hollywood Blacklist
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
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Trumbo
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Summary
A central figure in the Hollywood Ten and one of the most successful screenwriters in Hollywood history, two of Trumbo's screenplays earned Oscars (Roman Holiday and The Brave Ones) while he was blacklisted and unable to receive public credit for his work. Trumbo was also the author of Johnny Got His Gun, winner of the National Book Award and one of the most powerful antiwar novels ever published. He epitomized the spirit of American capitalism, yet he went to jail refusing to talk about his membership in the Communist party.
As a result of his relentless fight for political freedom and the right to work for those blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee beginning in 1947, he ended the blacklist era in 1960 by earning proper screen credit for his work on the blockbuster films Exodus and Spartacus. An extraordinarily complex character, he was, as author Bruce Cook states, "an exemplar of a certain set of American virtues: toughness, independence and persistence". Dalton Trumbo was the central figure in the Hollywood Ten, the blacklisted and jailed screenwriters. One of several hundred writers, directors, producers and actors who were deprived of the opportunity to work in the motion picture industry from 1947 to 1960, he was the first to see his name on the screen again. When that happened, it was Exodus, one of the year's biggest movies.
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What listeners say about Trumbo
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Devaki Khanna
- 13-07-18
a fascinating biography
interesting biography of the screenplay writer who broke the hollywood blacklist of the 1950s. well worth a listen.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- David Lee
- 08-04-24
Great narration
Great audio book with very good narration and a great summary of an incredible and complex talent.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 05-03-16
Disappointing
I had high hopes for this but have decided I'll stop at the end of part 1 and not bother (for now) downloading the second part.
As others have said, the voice the narrator has chosen for Trumbo may well be accurate, but it's no great pleasure to listen to.
More of a problem though is how the book is written. It's quite an old biography (late 70s?) and maybe this was more the style back then, but Bruce Cook puts himself very much centre stage in this. It reads almost like a collection of magazine interviews and there is so much padding around these encounters it becomes very frustrating - Bruce describes the person he's interviewing, he asks a question, the person thinks about their answer, gives their answer (usually saying what an amazing person DT was), Bruce confirms that's in line with what he's heard from other people, etc etc
The result is the actual thread of the narrative - which I'm sure is fascinating - gets lost behind this flood of unwanted detail. Let's hope somebody else does a better biography of Dalton Trumbo, I'm sure he deserves one.
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1 person found this helpful