That which is required

Rating: 10/10 (31 May 2006)

Power, control, conspiracy, manipulation, method acting, madness, malevolence, domination, dictators, and directors. We all at one point crave power, and some are lucky enough to get it. Inevitably that power will be abused as history teaches obsessed men no lessons, but on occasion great things can come from the obsessed mind. Orson Welles is such a character. His drive and determination to conquer every medium from radio to theater to film yielded one of the most superbly crafted films in history in Citizen Kane. The opening scene with the abundance of fences telling the audience that they are about to tread where few have gone before. Showing a man who has seemingly all the power in the universe only to be left in the end wishing for the simple life that could never be. Welles used every trick visually and narratively to get his points across and it shows to a somewhat heavy-handed "I'm going to beat you over the head with my brilliance" extent, but none the less gets the job done. Charles Foster Kane cannot simply be a larger than life character, he must really be larger than life as nearly every scene featuring him is shot in low angles and he always appears to be towering over everyone else. One must wonder if he was standing on a soapbox half the time. Citizen Kane is a film that tries to be many things at once; a serious drama, a hilarious comedy, a vicious satire, and it succeeds brilliantly. Just like Welles knew that war of the worlds would cause a panic he knew that Citizen Kane would cause controversy.....bravo. William Randolf Hearst was the most powerful man at the time, and what better way to get your foot in the door of the entertainment empire than to attack him. Hearst made a living out of destroying lives and for all intents and purposes he deserved to be ruined. Though Kane is loosely based on Hearst he seems to have more in common with Welles in the years of isolation and loneliness that awaited him in his latter days. Kane is a man who has this abundance of power and is obsessed with acquisition, but for what? In the end Kane has all this material wealth but he really has nothing; no friends, no family, living in exile without the warmth of human comfort. Citizen Kane is a portrait of self inflicted sorrow, and as shown in The Battle Over Citizen Kane, its director is as well.