The controversy over the mural was significant because Rivera's communist ideals contrasted with the theme of Rockefeller Center, even though the Rockefeller family themselves admired Rivera's work. The creation and destruction of the mural is dramatized in the films "Cradle Will Rock" (1999) and "Frida" (2002). The reactions to the mural's controversy have been dramatized in Archibald MacLeish's 1933 collection "Frescoes for Mr. Rockefeller's City" as well as in E. B. White's 1933 poem "I paint what I see: A ballad of artistic integrity".