Abstract: The campaign to criticize films was a most important area in “the great criticisms”. It was conducted by forces both from above and below. The one from above consisted of radicals led by Jiang Qing and “writing groups” affiliated with various work units. The one from below was made up of rebel mass organizations whose core members were some intellectual people. The first writing group appeared in Shanghai. After the Cultural Revolution began, writing groups mushroomed across the country. This was how a campaign to criticize a film worked: first, some people at the top would decide what topics to write; second, key articles were written by a designated writing group; third, accompanying articles were produced by the media. Close cooperation between media and writing group was therefore necessary. By the means of publishing newspapers and books, rebel organizations were often quite “imaginative” in their ways of criticizing movies. In contrast to rebel organizations’ often “blown up” approaches, those writing groups paid attention to data and evidence. What they did was to reshape facts and reinterpret a given historical event in accordance with radicals’ points of view.