RKO 281
– A film about the making of Citizen Kane. Orson Welles produces his greatest film, Citizen Kane, desp..
A film about the making of Citizen Kane. Orson Welles produces his greatest film, Citizen Kane, despite the opposition of the film's de facto subject, William Randolph Hearst.
20 Nov 1999
English
Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.
Benjamin Ross
John Logan, Richard Ben Cramer (documentary "The Battle Over Citizen Kane"), Thomas Lennon (documentary "The Battle Over Citizen Kane")
Liev Schreiber, James Cromwell, Melanie Griffith, John Malkovich
Coming to Hollywood as a celebrated boy genius featuring a spectacular career arc in New York including his radio hoax War of the Worlds, Orson Welles is stymied on the subject for his first film. After a dinner party at Hearst Castle, during which he has a verbal altercation with William Randolph Hearst, Welles decides to do a movie about Hearst. It takes him some time to convince co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz and the studio, but Welles eventually gets the script and the green light, keeping the subject very hush-hush with the press. The movie is about an aging newspaper publisher who controlled his enemies as ruthlessly as he controlled his friends; and whose mistress was destined for fame. When a rough cut is screened, Hearst gets wind of the movie's theme and begins a campaign to see that it is not only never publicly screened, but destroyed.
Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 13 wins & 27 nominations.
HBO Video