when spartacus was asking those questions, i thought those are the questions i would ask when i was a. charlie: still do. bryan: he was a great guy. you saw the movie. it had some wonderful comments but he said he had one criticism. he said, i don't understand why the filmmaker did not select him to play kirk douglas. charlie: that is a good point. lbj -- what have you learned from this deep dive into lyndon baines johnson? it is an important period of american history -- the voters right act of 1965, civil rights act of 1964. it was landmark legislation that changed how we live, and it also forced us to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, "look at what we have been doing to a cross-section of american citizens. look how we have been treating them." how dare us. the unmitigated disgust of how we were treating other human beings. it was not a pretty picture to look at. there was a lot of resistance to it. he did it, not because he thought it would leave a legacy of greatness. i truly believe he thought it was the right thing to do. he had an experience when he was a young man, fre

you will see -- >> "spartacus." the great example of the slave guy being a better man than these elite romans. >> exactly. and the fact that by sticking together as a group great things can happen. >> i'm spartacus. >> right. >> tony curtis. by the way, my kids still love that conversation between him and lawrence olivier. all the double entendre. >> nails versus -- >> that was a real giggle. >> but that's one of the great things about those guys, they were funny too. they were deadly serious but they also had great wit, which helped expose the lunacy of the blacklist. >> let me ask you, what are you doing now? now that we've got you here. >> well, we just -- >> because i know you've got a great answer. >> jay and i just finished doing the hbo version of the play "all the way" that i did on broadway. >> about lbj. >> about lbj. >> and what's so great is before the vietnam war made everybody get mad at him this amazing man was able to take the moment of the kennedy assassination and produce probably the six months gr

>> "spartacus." we get one big movie, we can get all the big movies. >> if there is another writers' name on it, do not believe it. >> fire dalton trumbo. >> i do not think you and me are going to be pals. >> do you have to say everything like it is going to be chiseled into a rock? whispers will be written in secret -- your movie name in secret. maybe i have heard of it. bryan: maybe you have. charile: it is great to have you back at the table. bryan: good to be here. thank you. charile: who was dalton trumbo -- beyond what we saw in the trailer, why he is a name that somehow stands for principle, resistance to efforts to shut him down? bryan: well, he was, as you mentioned at the top, the highest-paid screenwriter in hollywood in 1947. he was a nonconformist. he was aggressive, prolific, really -- a wordsmith. he loved holding court. he was a wreck on tour. he enjoyed it. he was flamboyant. he smoked constantly, always through a cigarette holder, just speculated a lot, and he loved life. you wantso

. >> in real life kirk douglas did a very heroic thing, much like the parallels of spartacus where a man stands up for what is right and, by doing so, others will stand with him. and it's a noble thing. and kirk, who risked a lot because he put his own money and reputation at risk. >> rose: and a lot of lives were financially destroyed by -- >> he could have been ostracized easily if it didn't work, but at one point he just felt that it wasn't right, it wasn't fair, and he wouldn't be who he thought he was as a man -- i'm talking about kirk douglas -- if he allowed a different name, a phony name to be on spartacus, of all things. how can you allow, you know, a hidden name to be on that movie? >> rose: for those principles. for those principles. and he said, no dalton trumbo's name is going to be on it. it was the first time in 13 years dalton trumbo saw his real name on a screen. >> rose: look at. this here it is. >> when i think of all the movies i've done, so many of the characters that i've played, it's like a part of me. when i think of spartacus, you know, this great fighter for

only in 1960, with his scripts for the blockbuster films "spartacus" and "exodus," was trumbo able toenly again. bryan cranston, who plays trumbo in the new film, is perhaps best known for playing walter white in the tv drama, "breaking bad." he and "trumbo" director jay roach joined me to speak about the film and the man it was based on. i asked cranston what attracted him to the script. >> i wasn't used to being scrutinized like that in the film industry. the ripple effect the eventual blacklist had was profound. the character himself, dalton trumbo, was just bigger than life, dramatic, flamboyant. hi was a contrarian. he could be very irascible. he was a pretty hard drinker and a chain smoker. >> brown: constantly. >> constantly. >> brown: you have to take this individual and look into real history. >> yeah. >> brown: how much did you know and how much did you fill? >> it's more about extracting from this incredibly complex story, a 13-year story, and distill it down to something. it's our great screen writer who told the story of john mcnamara. he had done a few things to make it

put his name on spartacu s, 13 years after he went to prison, and saw his name on the screen for the first time. >> stephen: so douglas, does he get any credit. >> he gets a lot of credit. so does otto priminger. he directed exodus at the time. >> stephen: in the movie, trumbo-w seems like a larger-than-life character. >> is he. >> we have a clip here from the movie. it is awend louis ck who is playing another writer, i understand. >> he plays my friend arlen herd who is far left of my character's stance. >> stephen: and he's a little fruses traited with tru mbo because he is a very rich man. >> very healthy man but he also has great ideals. >> all right, jim, let's take a look. >> if i'm wrong, tell me. but ever since i've known you, you talk like a radical. but you live like a rich guy. >> that is true. >> well, i don't know that you-- i don't think you're to do the right thing. >> well, i des pies march ma tir-- martyr dom and i won't fight for a lost cause, so you're right. i'm not willing to lose it all, certainly not them. but i am willing to risk it all. that's where the radic

he wrote "spartacus" and "roman holiday," winning two academy awards while he was blacklisted.ple. the letters to his kids, to his enemies from jail, he was the opposite of the stereotype of a left-wing humorless apparatchik. a true one of a kind guy. some of his friends were much more hardline. c.k. playing the hardline guy, as funny as a person could be. mark: is there a lesson in the film? jay: to be wary of anyone trying to extrapolate from fear. ofthis world, instead communism it is terrorism. onyou can get people focused a threat that is not real, you can get people to do anything. mark: in times of war and fear, governments get people to do bad stuff. jay: not just governments. individuals. hedda hopper was a gossip columnist with 30 million readers, and she became a fearmonger and a very hateful person. she drove charlie chaplin out of the country, and to her deathbed warned people not to let him come back. john: before i ask you, i want to play a little of the movie. let's play a little. >> how long were you in show business? [laughter] [applause] ♪ dalton trumbo? >> y

trumbo wrote a lot of screenplays, spartacus. its cool to see how that history plays in.n i love movies about movies. its cool to learn history. reminuteed me of hitchcock. >>> next the new movie the 33. based on the story of the miner who were trapped underground in 2010 in the mine. here is the cool thing about this film we know the ending. we know that already but the beauty is that it suspends your disbelief so much that you forget how it ends and you wonder what will happen. that's the sign of good story telling one cool aspect is the way they shot it. they shot it in a real mine they wanted natural mine lighting. the actors had helmets on with lights on them so [inaudible] are in a scene together and on camera the other would stand across from him and light him with a helmet that's how they did the lighting. it's so well shot. it's so well executed, its moory is intense, it's very well done and a great family message. i though the movie was done well i gave it a four out of five. absolutely incredible actors in the movie. worth seeing even if you know the story. >>>