Kane and enable

Rating: Null/10 (4 October 2015)

Orson Welles' great movie (justifiably called a masterpiece) is loaded with so many complex details that it is hard to sort them all out and make any one main point about it. But I think if we talk about the subject matter, or one of the most obvious sources of inspiration behind it, we can be a bit clearer and more direct.
Mostly, I feel the film itself talks around who Hearst really was. When I was in film school, a professor expounded upon the gimmick of Rosebud, as the hook that keeps the viewer going till the end of the story. But I think the real-life William Randolph Hearst, then still alive and known to all in the western hemisphere, was the true gimmick. Welles picked someone more well known than God to parody, knowing this thinly veiled spoof would at least appeal to the news tycoon's detractors, as well as those fascinated by his extravagant lifestyle. Not to mention his sordid relationship with his mistress.
It would be the same today if Oliver Stone made a film about Rupert Murdoch. We wouldn't expect it to be a documentary necessarily. But we would expect it to be about power and control over the media. And about a flawed human being.