In the Year of the Pig

United States

1968

103 Min

Black and White

1.33:1

English

Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
1
2
3
4
5

ED Helen Levitt, Hannah Moreinis

SOUND Jeffrey Weinstock

Cannes (Semaine de la critique), Berlinale, London (Treasures)

Synopsis

Celebrated and controversial documentary filmmaker Emile de Antonio made IN THE YEAR OF THE PIG, criticizing American involvement in the Vietnam War, during the height of its intensification in 1968. Like his other constructed documentaries, de Antonio takes newsreel and archival footage, along with existing interviews, and uses them to explore the history of Vietnam between the Second World War and the civil war that America would become involved with. Using the very words of those who escalated the conflict against them, de Antonio’s film condemns the American involvement in the war by providing disturbing footage of its terrible consequences.

Director

Emile de Antonio

Emile de Antonio (1919-1989) was a leftist documentary filmmaker who attended Harvard in the same class as John F. Kennedy and described himself as a “Marxist among capitalists.” De Antonio worked primarily with pre-existing footage, relying solely on editing (he disdained narration as “inherently fascist”) to create his stinging, often riveting critiques of the American establishment. He continually ran afoul of the government and the FBI and on one occasion, during the making of a film about the radical Weather Underground movement, received support in his battle for artistic freedom from a number of Hollywood figures including Warren Beatty, Hal Ashby, Mel Brooks and Jack Nicholson. —TCM.com