Actor and political activist Tim Robbins wrote and directed this sprawling drama set in the Great American Depression and featuring Orson Welles' left-leaning musical drama at the controversial Federal Theatre Project and the attempts made to stop its production. Intercut into the screenplay are stories featuring Nelson Rockefeller and Mexican communist painter Diego Rivera, whose mural for the tycoon was sledgehammered after it featured a portrait of Lenin. Despite its worthy intent, this is never less than an entertaining piece of work.