(AKA: RKO 281- The Battle Over Citizen Kane)
There are few films so universally considered thte best movie ever made than is "Citizen Kane"
But the story behind the film is as melodramatic as a daily soap, and as entertaining as it gets. If you don't know, Kane was based on real life newspaper czar William Randlolph Hearst. The man was nothing if not paranoid, and vengeful as the old testament God he espired to be. Welles was as he himself said (speaking of being a film director): "A kid with the best model train set ever made." Was there an agenda on Welles part? Probably.
Was there the devil of a man who hated above all any kind of hipocrasy. This film was his swipe at that, and what follows is what happens when you expose the lives of people who can buy and sell all of us, and have no compunction about doing just that. It is an ode to indepenent thought and the trouble it always causes.
Here is some of the cast:
Liev Schreiber . . . Orson Welles
James Cromwell . . . William Randolph Hearst
Melanie Griffith . . . Marion Davies
John Malkovich . . . Herman J. Mankiewicz
Brenda Blethyn . . . Louella Parsons
Roy Scheider . . . George Schaefer
Liam Cunningham . . . Gregg Toland
Fiona Shaw . . . Hedda Hopper
Anastasia Hille . . . Carole Lombard
Roger Allam . . . Walt Disney
Simeon Andrews . . . John Houseman
William Armstrong . . . Mr. Lewis
Jay Benedict . . . Darryl Zanuck
Ron Berglas . . . David O. Selznick
Will it live forever? Hard to tell. But if you love "Kane," you will love this tale. If you aspire to pull the rug out from under the rich and powerful, then you need to see this film.
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