Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane (1941), regarded by many to be one of the greatest motion pictures of all time, was the first feature film directed by Orson Welles (1915–1985). Its innovative use of narrative structure, camera angles, and deep focus photography marked the film as a groundbreaking effort in cinematic history. At the time of its release, the film was highly controversial for its alleged portrayal of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst (1863–1951). Citizen Kane recounts the life and death of a similarly powerful newspaper owner, Charles Foster Kane. In the film, Kane's deepseated psychological flaws compel him to seek political influence through manipulation of the press, ultimately resulting in his defeat and disappointment.

Prior to his motion picture directorial debut, Orson Welles had received national notoriety for his 1938 Mercury Theatre on the Air radio production of Jules Verne's The War of the Worlds. This Halloween broadcast created panic among many radio listeners who thought the program's fictional news reports of a Martian invasion to be real. Because of his notoriety, RKO Pictures gave Welles an opportunity to direct his first motion picture and allowed him unprecedented artistic and thematic control. Welles utilized this opportunity to challenge the way classic Hollywood films were made. Welles studied the deep focus photography in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) and employed its cinematographer, Greg Toland, to incorporate the technique in Citizen Kane. This technique allowed Welles to tell the story with fewer cuts, by utilizing longer takes of a single shot where all of the action remained in focus.

Screenwriters Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz received Academy Awards for their work. The film's story centers on an investigation of Kane's deathbed utterance. During the course of this investigation, we learn of Kane's traumatic childhood removal from his parent's home after they strike it rich in silver mining, and of Kane's later establishment of a publishing empire. Seeking to substitute the public's love for that denied him by his parents, the adult Kane pledges to use his newspaper only to further the public good.

The increasingly influential Kane decides to run for governor but is caught in an extramarital affair with a young singer. Kane then uses his newspapers in an attempt to favorably recast the singer's musical ability. Ultimately, Kane loses the race, as well as his journalistic integrity. It is Kane's extramarital relationship that most nearly mirrored the life of Hearst, who also had conducted a long-term affair with a much younger motion picture performer, Marion Davies. Because of [Page 108]his displeasure at the film's depictions, Hearst mounted an intense publicity campaign against Citizen Kane, which resulted in mediocre box office revenues and denied it victory in all but one Academy Awards category. Over the years, however, the film has grown in reputation. In 1998, The American Film Institute named Citizen Kane the greatest film of all time.