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Synthesis Paper Four


Emile de Antonio: filmmaker, activist, modernist

Emile de Antonio’s collected works provide a road map which explores and critiques the major figures, events, and issues of America during the Cold War. A filmmaker and political activist, de Antonio may be best described as a modernist as he (like composer John Cage and the subjects of his film Painters Painting) was constantly seeking out new formal approaches to filmmaking. His oeuvre reveals innovation at every step, affecting the form of documentary films in ways which can still be seen today.

De Antonio avoids cinema verité , going so far as to say that "objectivity is impossible unless you do abstract work." Furthermore, he insists that he is not interested in objectivity. Before making In the Year of the Pig de Antonio had a preconceived idea that the U.S. was wrong (in their involvement in Vietnam) and wanted to edify his belief with the film. In the Year of the Pig combines stock footage with original interviews with U.S. officials, intellectuals, and soldiers. Through the juxtaposition of these different sources, de Antonio’s arguments move forward while avoiding traditional voice-over narration, offsetting what he referred to as banal journalistic coverage of the war.

Point of Order also avoids conventional narration, but unlike In the Year of the Pig, there are no interviews. A compilation of the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, Point of Order relies completely on stock television footage edited down from hundreds of hours to just under two. This, De Antonio’s first film, successfully revived collage documentary and helped to assure that Joseph McCarthy would forever be seen as an immoral agitator.

Emile de Antonio was a brilliant filmmaker if for no other reason than his passion for doing things his own way. In the Year of the Pig may be dismissed as a propaganda film because it lacks objectivity, but what it is successful at regardless of its position is that it put the war in Vietnam in historical perspective. While de Antonio took a side with all of his work, he chose his filmmaking strategies very carefully, presenting the materials at his disposal and letting the audience decide for themselves, avoiding the façade of objectivity.

NOTES
1. see Douglas Kellner and Dan Streible’s introduction to Emile de Antonio: A Reader
2. quote taken from Inter/view with Emile de Antonio (1969) by Lil Picard, also found in Emile de Antonio: A Reader, p 214.
Point of Order, dir. Emile de Antonio, 1963, 97 min.
In the Year of the Pig, dir. Emile de Antonio, 1968, 101 min.
Painters Painting, dir. Emile de Antonio, 1972, 116 min.