His movies took the world by storm and set important conversations into motion #1[,] from criticizing domestic violence #2[,] which he had been a victim of #3[,] to advocating for free speech #4[,] a concept he fought tooth and nail for during the majority of his career.

4 commas, each bracketed, were used in this original passage

Ignoring any other minor grammatical errors in there (if any), I feel like at least two semicolons were needed, specifically in place of the #1 and #3 brackets

Could anyone kindly confirm this for me please, or is the entire passage fine as it is with 4 commas? Thanks


One of the functions of a colon is to introduce a list. It makes all the difference here. (I've taken the liberty of making some other minor adjustments too.)

His movies took the world by storm and set important conversations in motion: from criticizing domestic violence, of which he himself had been a victim, to advocating free speech, a cause for which he fought tooth and nail during the majority of his career.


Besides the colon recommended by Old Brixtonian, parentheses are also an option. Currently, the commas are providing both separation between the items of the list, and setting off descriptions of those items. You could instead have commas serving the first purpose, and parentheses the second:

His movies took the world by storm and set important conversations in motion: from criticizing domestic violence (of which he himself had been a victim), to advocating free speech (a cause for which he fought tooth and nail during the majority of his career).