Trumbo

What do you want, Rocco?

What we all want.

To not die young, poor or alone.

Manny...

These guys, they...

I don't give them what they're after,

they'll kill me.

Hold it, Rocco.

We don't fight these guys.

Sure, maybe you get that... (CLATTERS)

Shit. God damn it. SAM: Cut!

(LAUGHS)

Props! Cut.

Sorry, everyone. (TRUMBO COUGHS)

We're going again, Eddie. I don't know what happened.

Sorry, Sam.

Of course, the one day the author is among us.

Among us. Sure as hell ain't one of us.

What's my brilliant line, Trumbo?

Oh! I've got it right here.

"Hold it, Rocco. Now if... If we don't fight these guys,"

"sure, maybe you get that long, happy life we all want."

So, what do you got me fighting for then?

Well, peace on Earth. Good will toward men.

Well, you can't do that. This is America.

All right. How about sex and money?

There you go. Two things we all love.

Well...

One of your little sermons on citizenship.

All right, going again.

Mayer lined up the A Team.

Sam Wood to shoot, Dalton Trumbo for rewrites.

I had no crew, I couldn't work.

So, good, fingers crossed.

You wouldn't work.

God forbid you cross a picket line for set builders.

What the hell do set builders have to do with writing?

What writers write, builders build.

What they build, you shoot.

Now, you make all the money you possibly can.

So do I. Why shouldn't they? And why can't we help them?

Listen to you, the swimming pool Soviet.

Oh, for God's sakes, you won!

Sam, the strike is over.

And you just might try being a gracious winner!

You know, it's never over with you people!

Strike after strike after strike!

"You people"?

Whatever it takes to seek justice!

Hey, you know what?

We've all... SAM: Laugh it up.

Why don't we all take six months off?

Oh, come on, Sam!

I'm gonna go on strike... Good for you.

Against people who go on strike.

Sam, Sam...

And I won't cross your picket line either.

Oh, give me that, Trumbo! You're just...

Sam! Sam!

You know what? You know what?

I've spent a hell of a long time... What?

You're not helping... Eddie...

Sam, Sam. We gotta talk about those scenes tomorrow.

Disaster. Who the hell wrote that crap?

But, uh, first...

Whoa, whoa! May I have this dance?

Eddie... You're spilling my drink.

Having fun?

Eternally. (CHUCKLES)

Miss Hopper.

Dateline, Hollywood.

The offices of top columnist Hedda Hopper.

Greetings from our film capital,

where all is sun and fun.

Or is it? You see the famous faces here?

Danny Kaye, Humphrey Bogart, his dishy bride Lauren Bacall.

All of whom have declared solidarity

with film crews picketing for higher wages

in walkouts that quickly turned violent.

Because these strikes were, in fact,

the work of dangerous radicals.

Here, we see actor Edward G. Robinson,

star of Double Indemnity.

And this is writer Dalton Trumbo,

who is, like many of those strikers and their supporters,

a registered communist.

Who exactly is behind these walkouts?

You actually create something...

And why?

And they reap all the profits.

Now, is that fair?

No! No!

Our elected leaders will find out.

Congressman J. Parnell Thomas

and his House Un-American Activities Committee.

Communism is not some faraway threat.

Its most dangerous agents are here,

controlling the airwaves and movie screens.

Taking over its employees and their unions.

They need to be identified as the enemies they are.

Communists, their goal:

World domination.

The front line of a new kind of war.

A cold war.

A conspiracy to corrupt democratic values

and bring about the overthrow of this nation.

Mitzi fell asleep.

Hey! That you in the news reel?

Yes, it was.

(CROWD EXCLAIMS)

Traitor.

Oh, my God! Honey.

No, I'm all right, I'm all right. No harm done.

Are you sure? Oh.

Come on. Let's go.

Dad? Mmm.

Are you a communist?

I am.

Is that against the law?

It is not.

The lady with the big hat said you were a dangerous radical.

Are you?

Radical? Maybe.

Dangerous. Only to men who fling Cokes.

I love our country.

And it's a good government.

But anything good could be better, don't you think?

Is Mom a communist?

No.

Am I?

Well, why don't we give you the official test?

Mom makes your favorite lunch.

Ham and cheese.

Ham and cheese.

And at school, you see someone with no lunch at all.

What do you do?

Share.

Share?

Well, you don't tell them to just go get a job?

No.

Oh. You offer them a loan at 6%. Oh, that's very clever.

Dad.

Ah, then you just ignore them.

No.

Well, well. (CLICKS TONGUE)

You little commie.

Trumbo, as usual, you only make sense to you.

Now, let them call you a communist, me a Democrat.

They're both legitimate parties.

Yours is just meaner and duller,

but there's nothing illegal about any of it.

Yet... EDWARD: Hunter.

Tell your friend to dial down the paranoia and have a drink.

I don't think he's being paranoid enough.

(SIGHS) Not you too.

You're out of ice.

Now, I have taken the liberty of drawing up a pamphlet.

Congress unaware of a little thing

called the First Amendment.

They're aware of it. They just don't give a shit.

All they care about is this nice new war of theirs.

These guys love war and this is a great one,

'cause it's vague and it's scary

and it's expensive.

Anybody for it is a hero

and anybody against it is a traitor.

Exactly, thank you.

Arlen, not near the paintings.

And if you think this is about the movies, you're an idiot.

Which is why

I'm going to have a little chat with the other side.

You don't mean the Alliance, do you?

I do.

Are you out of your mind?

Eddie, they're all actors

and writers and directors, just like us.

They're Nazis. They're just too cheap to buy the uniforms.

They invited Congress out here.

And are they all Sam Woods and Hedda Hoppers?

Please, let's not demonize people we don't really know.

I say we go for it.

And you know who you're gonna be talking to there, don't you?

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. John Wayne.

I wanna say one thing about a place I love.

No, not Hollywood. (AUDIENCE LAUGHS)

I like Hollywood, but I love America.

And when we talk about America,

I'm talking about freedom.

The kind of freedom we just fought a world war to save.

You want to be a communist? Go be a communist.

But some friends of mine in Washington

think you got some questions to answer.

I never knew he was this good.

You still want to be a commie...

'Cause he's not acting. That's him. Go be one in Russia.

But off you go and enjoy the Bolshoi Ballet.

Excuse me, sir, would you like to read

about the First Amendment?

Sir, a little education. You know your rights?

Pamphlet on the First Amendment.