So is this a pro-communist movie?

There certainly WERE communists. So yeah, in that respect, McCarthy may have been right. Heck, my Grandfather was a Communist. As a Russian Jew, he had absolutely nothing but hatred for the USSR. But he still was a Communist. But you can be right, and still be totally criminal and anti-democracy. These people who were blacklisted, fired from jobs, or forced to leave the country in some cases, were nothing but patriots. For the most part (and I'm sure you are right, that there were Soviet Spies in the country), these were simply people trying to improve working conditions and rights for those who sweated for their country. It was persecution, pure and simple, and thus totally immoral and evil.

Democracy means that all citizens have equal rights under the law, regardless of their beliefs. IF you abandon that principle, you become a fascist, and fascism is more dangerous than communism. With pure communism, you get a Kibbutz. With Fascism, you get a Musolini. We just fought a war to eliminate fascism, and McCarthy brought it into the United States congress, and made it the de facto law of the land. He was a fascist who had infiltrated the government of the U.S., and thus, by his own terrible logic, he himself ought to have been blacklisted and deported.

Honestly, is this thread real or a joke?

Its 2015 and communism died almost 24 years ago. The war is over and we won. You all can come out from under the bed now and stop seeing commies everywhere. (I realize that the current crop of conservatives long for the day when the Red menace was a guaranteed way to scare people and defame the other side...but that went out with tube TVs.)

Regarding this movie, Dalton Trumbo was one of the greatest screenwriters to grace Hollywood and also a true American patriot. He understood the importance of the Bill of Rights and refused to go along with the hysteria and demagoguery from the right wing. Whether he believed in Communism is not the issue - he was a US citizen entitled to his political beliefs without harassment. He committed no crimes, was never accused or charged or convicted, yet was forced into exile and (almost) destroyed. A sad, despicable blemish on our record. We are supposed to be free, especially free to believe something that is not liked by the majority. There is no freedom if you must conform to everyone else.

Regarding Mr. McCarthy, he was just a sick, manipulative politician who used the Communist scare (and his infamous "list") to gain publicity and fame and higher office and power. He had no real list and had no knowledge of the Venona intercepts (which were Top Secret at the time). His staff later admitted that his "list" was a blank sheet of paper. But the scare he started was picked up by the HUAC and the Hollywood right wingers, who milked it as far as they could. In the process, they trampled the civil rights of many innocent people (just watch the movie "Good Night, and Good Luck" to see how horrid the whole affair was).

Luckily, Dalton Trumbo lived to see his name cleared and to receive his recognition from the Academy, when, in 1975, he received an Oscar for "The Brave One". In 1993 he finally was recognized posthumously for "Roman Holiday", the movie that launched Audrey Hepburn. He wrote so many other great scripts and so deserves the recognition as one of the truly great writers of Hollywood's Golden Age.