The Hollywood Blacklist: 1947-1960

This video is extremely moving - showing exactly what kind of horrors were forced upon Hollywood. At 2:15 Dalton Trumbo is being questioned, but when he inquires as to what grounds on which he is being questioned, he is laughed at and dismissed rudely! This act demonstrates to me the horror of the hearings - sanity was not even acknowledged, rather dismissed! Within this video, there are also small bits of interviews from victims of the McCarthy hearings, such as Ring Lardner Jr. He speaks about his personal experience and describes what life was really like for him and others in his position, something that historians can’t quite communicate. This video has an intense impact on me personally, as it really forces me to understand the damage that was really done to these people’s lives. Watching this video reminded me of the gay marriage issues around the world - before the supreme court ruling, people (in extreme situations) would be questioned and accused of very inaccurate and peculiar things. The way that the judge in the Crucible, Joseph McCarthy in the hearings and anti-gay marriage activists around the world act is quite similar and astounding to me. They accuse and argue and often don’t use a great deal of logic - the results of which are shown in the video above.

(The Creative Experience of Arthur Miller: An Interview