Overall, liked the film because it was a great example of one of the topics we have discussed in class multiple times: who authorizes and supports the production of art? This movie dealt with the idea of patronage and censoring whenever art is a danger to status quo. We saw how the government was trying to help a country devastated by the Great Depression, by putting artists to work on federally funded projects. The actors of the play The Cradle Will Rock are the main examples of people that were benefited by this project, and how art served as a platform to put people back to work. However, we also see the tension that exists between trying to help people that are homeless and hungry, and preventing certain ideas that could possibly give rise to a revolution from being absorbed by the people. I thought this was a very interesting conflict, which can be seen at the end of the movie when the actors are prohibited from performing because the government believed that this was a dangerous play. This was after all a very turbulent time in politics, with an ideological war between capitalism and communism. It was also interesting seeing the idea of patronage and how in the end, artists are at the will of the people with the money. The movie conveys this point by showing Rivera’s story with his controversial mural in Rockefeller Center. His inclusion of Lenin was again, seen as dangerous during this time, so in the end his mural ends up being destroyed. I really enjoyed the recurring idea of artist being labeled as “whores”, because it represents this idea of artist basically artists are selling themselves to the people with money.