Trumbo movie quotes tell the true story of Dalton Trumbo, one of Hollywood Ten, a group of filmmakers who were blacklisted in the 1940s for connections to Communism. The biographical drama was adapted into a screenplay by John McNamara from a book by Bruce Alexander Cook. Jay Roach directed Trumbo, which opened in theaters on November 6, 2015.
In Trumbo, successful screenwriter Dalton Trumbo's (Bryan Cranston) life is turned upside down after his name was (accurately) published as one of several among Hollywood's elite who supports the Communist Party in the 1940s. This leads to Congressional subpoenas, hearings in front of the House and, eventually, Trumbo's conviction and prison sentences for contempt for refusing to answer these questions.
After he leaves prison, Trumbo is blacklisted in Hollywood and cannot work, at least under his name. But with a little convincing of small-time film studio head Frank King (John Goodman), a pseudonym and the support of others in the business (Louis C.K. and Alan Tudyk, among others), Trumbo goes on to write some of the best films in film history and change history in the process.
Costarring Diane Lane, Elle Fanning and Helen Mirren, Trumbo opened alongside other great films including Spotlight, The Peanuts Movie, Spectre, and Our Brand is Crisis.
Trumbo Movie Quotes,
Getting Us Could Make Them Famous
Ian McLellan Hunter: Why movies? Why us?
Dalton Trumbo: We work in a business with cameras aimed at us. Getting us could make them famous.
...
Hedda Hopper: My 35 million readers want these traitors fired.
Whether they like it or not, Hunter and Trumbo work in the public eye and will always be subject to living under a microscope. It doesn't help that those looking for attention or their own gain will be publicly flogging them as well.
Communism is Not Some Far Away Threat
J. Parnell Thomas: Communism is not some far away threat. It's most dangerous agents are here, in Hollywood. They need to be identified as the enemies they are.
J. Parnell Thomas made no effort to hide his feelings about communism and publicize his efforts to take communists down. Perhaps that made his already public targets of Hollywood's finest easy marks.
If We Can Get One Big Movie
Dalton Trumbo: If we get one big movie we can get all the big movies then this whole rotten thing ends.
Dalton discusses how it's just a matter of time and one example of success before the whole blacklist nonsense ends. He's also willing to fight for that, even if it means some concessions to his pride.
You Talk Like a Radical But You Live Like a Rich Guy
Arlen Hird: Ever since I've known you, you talk like a radical but you live like a rich guy.
Dalton Trumbo: Well, that is true.
Arlen Hird: I don't think you're willing to lose all of this just to do the right thing.
Arlen Hird points out what may be a bit of irony or hypocrisy in Trumbo's support of communism. While Trumbo talks the talk, his lavish lifestyle suggests that it might just be a front.
I Hear the Rumors
Hedda Hopper: Drinking alone?
Dalton Trumbo: Preferably
Hedda Hopper: And what are you up to these days?
Dalton Trumbo: You know, Hedda, another one of these and I just might tell you.
Hedda Hopper: Oh, then I'm buying. Usual, same again
Bartender: Yes, Miss Hopper
Hedda Hopper: Oh, come on! I hear the rumors. Show me you're still in the game fighting the good fight. Come on, rub my face in it. Whisper a movie you've written in secret. Maybe I've even heard of it.
Dalton Trumbo: Maybe you have
Dalton Trumbo runs into popular gossip columnist Hedda Hopper in a bar. When she tries to get some dirt out of him, he does whisper something into her ear, it's not exactly what she had in mind.
Have You Ever Been a Member of the Communist Party?
J. Parnell Thomas: Mr. Trumbo, are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
Dalton Trumbo: Am I accused of a crime?
When subpoenaed to appear before Congress, Dalton Trumbo is asked to answer if he's connected with the Communist Party. He declines to give them the answers they want and is sent to prison for contempt of Congress as a result.
We Work
Dalton Trumbo: What we're about to do is the one thing everyone says we can't. We work.
...
Dalton Trumbo: The blacklist is still alive and well, and so is the black market.
Trumbo knew that the fact that his name was blacklisted meant that he could no longer serve in his profession, as a brilliant screenwriter, at least under the name on said blacklist. Perhaps if he had a pseudonym, however...
That Oscar Belongs to You
Nikola Trumbo: Mind if I stick my nose in?
Dalton Trumbo: Please
Nikola Trumbo: He knows. He sees Kirk Douglas coming in and out of here, and Otto Preminger and his roles. He's an idiot but he's not stupid. Has he called the FBI, Congress? No, cause everything they can do they've already done. That Oscar belongs to you! Get it!
Dalton Trumbo: My god, you're nothing like me! You're worse!
Wise beyond her years, Nikola Trumbo encourages her father to step out from the shadows and claim the Academy Award that is rightfully his. The authorities can't charge him for the same crime a second time so what does he have to lose?
You Don't Want My Name on It
Frank King: Look, you're a great writer. We make s#!^. I don't see it.
Dalton Trumbo: Mr. King, I'm a screenwriter. If I couldn't write s#!^, I'd starve.
Frank King: Trumbo, we can't afford you.
Dalton Trumbo: Well, how much did you pay for the script of that, Bad Men of Tombstone?
Frank King: $1,200
Dalton Trumbo: All right, I'll write you a movie for $1,200 then.
Frank King: And you don't want your name on it?
Dalton Trumbo: No, you don't want my name on it.
Hymie King: You got that right, especially if you're still up to stuff. Are you?
Dalton Trumbo: Perpetually
When Trumbo approaches Frank King with the idea that he'll write scripts for the low-level film studio, King doesn't understand why. Hymie King, on the other hand, wants to know something else, what unsavory activities Trumbo has been involved with lately.
Fire Dalton Trumbo
Roy Brewer: We know, okay? It's a small town. The gossip's always true. Fire Dalton Trumbo or you've got pickets, boycotts and headlines. We will put you right out of business.
Frank King: We?
Roy Brewer: The Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, me and Ronald Reagan, Hetta Hopper, guilds, studio heads, John Wayne
Frank King: I love John Wayne.
Roy Brewer: Well, I'll introduce you. You guys could do a movie together.
Frank King: Aww, gee, that would be swell except, I don't think you and me are going to be pals. You want to keep me from hiring union? I'll go downtown and hire a bunch of winos and hookers. It doesn't matter. I make garbage!
After hearing that Frank King has hired blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, Roy Brewer tries to intimidate King to reconsider. King, care of a baseball bat, responds with some intimidation of his own.