A Savage Art: The Life & Cartoons of Pat Oliphant (A Documentary)

D. D. Degg Published: June 2, 2025 at 9:24 pm EDT 1 minute 6 comments

***_{A Savage Art: The Life and Cartoons of Pat Oliphant}***

Saturday, June 14 (2025) will see the world premiere of the documentary film by Bill Banowsky at the DC/DOX Film Festival of A Savage Art: The Life and Cartoons of Pat Oliphant.

Patrick Oliphant was a giant slayer, bravely taking on presidents, popes and the American corporate class with his mighty pen. An Australian transplant, Oliphant became America’s most renowned and feared political cartoonist for five decades. With his biting wit and masterful drawing skills, Oliphant attacked individual and institutional corruption, collusion, greed, hypocrisy and arrogance, no matter the size or status of his targets.

A SAVAGE ART tells the story of Oliphant’s life and celebrated career through interviews with Pat, his family, friends, and colleagues, alongside a rich trove of archival footage and hundreds of his cartoons. The film also traces the history of political cartoons, highlighting how influential and impactful cartoonists have been throughout the ages—and how, in today’s climate of political partisanship and corporate media control, voices like Oliphant’s are more essential than ever in holding power to account.

United States |2025 |89 min. |World Premiere

The DC/DOX Film Festival website.

Comments ⁶

Eric

He was one of my heroes, and I told him so when I was starting out. He also did some of JFK when he was still in Australia.

I’m pretty sure he did some of Biden when he was VP. He did very few of Trump.

I have all his books.

Paul Berge

January 23, 2013, for one example of Joe Biden in an Oliphant cartoon.
https://www.gocomics.com/patoliphant/2013/01/23

Jun 13,2025

Gigi

July 14 is the day of the happy birthday to me parade Trump is throwing. What a horrible day for the film festival! The city will be in chaos.

Jeff Stopple

Actually the parade is June 14, Flag Day and Trump’s birthday

Jun 03,2025

Nancy Beiman

I was a huge fan of Oliphant’s work when I wanted to be a political cartoonist. He influenced an entire generation of them. I’m still a fan.

Bob Englehart

Pat Oliphant made editorial cartooning look fun at a time when they were preachy, serious and “for grownups only.” I met him at a party once and he asked me, “Did you ever get over that Pulitzer debacle?”
I told him no, unfortunately it revealed the truth about that contest, that it was based on politics and not talent. He agreed.

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