Citizen Kane: Exposing the Truth about William Randolph Hearst Essay

Citizen Kane Exposing the faithfulness nigh William Randolph HearstMany catch c all(prenominal)ed Citizen Kane the greatest cinematic achievement of all time. It is indeed a true masterpiece of acting, screen writing, and directing. Orson Welles, its young champion director, lead actor, and a co-writer, used the best talents and techniques of the day (Bordwell 103) to tell the st date of a newspaper giant, Charles Kane, through the eyes of the people who loved and hated him. However, when it came out, it was scorned by Hollywood and viewed only in the private theaters of RKO, the producer. nominal for nine Academy Awards, it was practically booed off the stage, and only won wiz(a) award, that for Best Screenplay, which Welles and Herman Mankiewicz shared (Mulvey 10). This was all due to the pressure use by the greatest newspaper man of the time, one of the most efficacious men in the nation, the man Citizen Kane portrayed as a get down power monger, namely William Randolph Hearst. One cannot ignore the striking similarities between Hearst and Kane. In order to make clear at the outset exactly what he intended to do, Orson Welles included a few details about the young Kane that, given even a rudimentary knowledge of Hearsts life, would have set one thinking about the life of that newspaper giant. in brief after the film opens, a reporter is seen trying to discover the substance of Kanes last word, Rosebud. He begins his search by going through the records of Kanes boyhood guardian, Thatcher. The movie comes to life in midwinter at the Kane boarding house. Kanes mother has come into one of the richest gold mines in the world through a defaulting boarder, and at age twenty-five, Kane will inherit his sixty million dollars (Citizen Kane)... ...r himself by abusing the most tight weapon and shield of his day, the free press. If I hadnt been very rich, I superpower have been a really great man. (Orson Welles, Citizen Kane) Bibliography 1)Bordwell, Da vid. Citizen Kane, Focus on Orson Welles. Prentice-Hall,1976. 2)Cowie, Peter. The film of Orson Welles. De Capo Press, 1973. 3)Citizen Kane. dir. Orson Welles. With Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore. RKO, 1941. 4)Mulvey, Laura. Citizen Kane. BFI, 1992. 5)Reflections on Citizen Kane. dir. Unknown. Turner Home Entertainment,1991. 6)Robinson, Judith. The Hearsts an American Dynasty. Avon Books, 1991. 7)Swanberg, W.A. Citizen Hearst. Scribner, 1961. Bantam Matrix Edition, 1967. 8)Zinman, David. l Classic Motion Pictures The Stuff that Dreams are Made Of. NY Crown Publishers, 1970. NY blaze Editions, 1992.