During the throes of American intervention in Vietnam, de Antonio produced a visceral anti-war document. Contrary to the dominant public opinion in the U.S., the filmmaker perceived Ho Chi Minh as a great patriot of the Vietnamese people and crafted a work which condemned the efforts of imperial powers to overthrow his regime. Inspired by the experimentation of musician John Cage, de Antonio employed collage techniques, combining archival footage of the war (borrowed largely from unwitting television stations) and interviews conducted by the filmmaker with ironically heroic musical pieces. A groundbreaking political work, In the Year of the Pig was greeted with great hostility upon its release including bomb threats and vandalism at theaters which booked the film.