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Academic Research Paper on the Film “Citizen Kane." Name: Gan Chee Keat, Philip Abstract This is an in-depth research paper on the greatest film of all time in America, Citizen Kane. The objective of this paper is to help readers understand about the facts behind this film, the controversies and how it became the best-remembered and highly-rated film in history and as well as understanding the characters of the film. The beginning part of this paper will dwell on the history behind the two figures commonly associated to the film. Then, this paper will feature an analysis of the main and important characters in the film, mainly in the form of a behavioural analysis. Then, I will discuss two important scenes from the film that made a huge impact in Kane's life, the "breakfast table" scene and the "picnic" scene before concluding my research paper. 1. Introduction Recently named by the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles as the number one film in America, Citizen Kane is perhaps the world's most famous and highly rated film ever made. Even before the film was released in 1941, there was much hype and buzz surrounding the film and about the 'boy genius' that made it (The Battle Over Citizen Kane, 1996). That 'boy genius' was none other than the man who caused widespread panic among listeners of the radio drama War of the Worlds, thinking that Martians had really invaded New Jersey (Vivian, 1999, chap.15, pp 383-385), Orson Welles, who also wrote, produced and starred in the film. Welles had just turned 24 when he decided to take on this film project, inspired by the life of newspaper tycoon, William Randolph Hearst. It was because of this factor that the film failed to make an impact commercially because of Hearst's influences over the media at that time. Though nearly everyone present at a preview screening of the film realised that they had seen a work of brilliance, Hearst exerted much influence over the failure of the film, with many of Hearst-owned newspapers and other media outlets boycotting the film and attempts by Hearst to buy the film over to burn the negatives. Hearst claimed that the film was slanderous towards him but the film did indeed draw certain similarities between him and the film's Charles Foster Kane, which will be discussed in detail in The Real Charles Foster Kane section of this paper. What the film really was about was that it was just a fictionalised biography of Hearst in the form of a mystery cum investigative reporting genre. The film focuses on the word 'rosebud', uttered by Kane before he breathed his last. An investigative reporter was assigned to resolve the mystery of 'rosebud' so he set out on a search for the meaning. His search led him to interview people of Kane's past, which was revealed through a series of flashbacks but none was able to help the reporter solve the mystery of 'rosebud'. What really made this film famous was not because of its controversies but more because of the film's style and complexity of the film, which will influence many films in the future. Robert Wise, the film editor who later won Academy Awards for West Side Story (1962) and The Sound of Music (1966) (Emery, 1999), did a marvellous job to keep the film structure flow seamlessly and cohesively. It was not until 20 or years later that the film was revived - before Welles would gain popular recognition for having created one of cinema's great masterpieces (About the Program, The American Experience, 4). Despite the controversies and problems that Welles faced, it did not stop the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to award the film eight Oscar nominations, of which it only won one for Best Original Screenplay, which Welles shared with Herman Mankiewicz. The film was nominated for Best Picture (producer Welles), Best Actor and Best Director (Welles); Best B/W Cinematography (Gregg Toland), Best B/W Interior Decoration (Perry Ferguson and Van Nest Polglase), Best Sound Recording (John Aalberg), Best Dramatic Picture Score (Bernard Herrmann), and Best Film Editing (Wise) (Dirks, 2002). 2. The Real Charles Foster Kane The film Citizen Kane has always been known as a fictionalised account of Hearst's life though depicted a little differently. Hearst was born on April 29, 1863 in San Francisco, California, as the only child of self-made millionaire George Hearst and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. At age 23 and a student at Harvard University, he became the "proprietor" of the San Francisco Examiner, which his father had accepted as a payment for a gambling debt in 1880 (Wierichs, 2002, 3). According to Wierichs, the older Hearst was a US Senator and had very little interest on a newspaper. Though preferring his son to manage the family's mining and ranch business, he gave his son control of the Examiner at William's demand in 1887. Like young Charles Kane, the young Hearst proved to be versatile as he determined to make the Examiner popular. Thus, he began to purchase the best equipment possible and hire the most talented writers possible (Wierichs, 2002, 3). Hearst went on to publish exposes of corruption and stories that were filled with drama and inspiration just as Kane publishes stories of scandals in his newspaper. Inspired by the journalism of Joseph Pulitzer, his former mentor, Hearst turned the newspaper into a combination of investigative reporting and lurid sensationalism. In 1895, Hearst purchased the New York Journal and entered himself in a newspaper circulation war with Pulitzer's New York World, vowing to "out-Pulitzer" Pulitzer (Vivian, 1999, chap. 10, p. 264). Both papers began publishing articles on the Cuban Insurrection in an attempt to increase circulation; with most articles greatly exaggerated to make them more sensational (Wierichs, 2002, 4). The term "yellow journalism", derived from Pulitzer's Yellow Kid comic strip that Hearst copied as well as hiring Pulitzer's cartoonist, was used to describe the circulation war as they plastered New York City with yellow promotional posters of the comic strip (Vivian, 1999, chap. 10, p. 264). The term was then used to describe the style of sensationalised newspaper articles that both publications ran. Hearst then ran a series of powerful articles that he published about the Cuban Insurrection and several years later, blaming Spain for the bombing and sinking of USS Maine. The articles incited Americans to go to war with Spain, thus, resulting in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Hearst famously claimed, " …You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war" when one of his reporters visited Cuba and reported that there would be no war (Vivian, 1999, chap. 10, p. 265). Kane said a similar line in the film, too, in the scene where a telegram from Cuba arrived for him while he was with Thatcher. He told Bernstein to send a message to the reporter, saying, “You provide the prose poems - I'll provide the war.” For his leading role in inciting this war, Hearst was given the nickname "Father of Yellow Journalism" (Wierichs, 2002, 5). It was this type of stories that Kane revelled in as well in the film Citizen Kane. Hearst also did what Kane did on Citizen Kane; he bought over the writers from his rival in an attempt to out-manoeuvre him (Wierichs, 2002, 6). In 1903, Hearst married Millicent Willson in New York and she bore him five sons during their marriage together. During their honeymoon in Europe, Hearst decided to start his magazine Motor, which would become an international operation known as Hearst Magazines (Wierichs, 2002, 7). Hearst and Kane had many other similarities as well, not just in the paper business (Dirks, 2002). Both of them were also involved in politics, aspiring to become president of the country. Hearst was like his father, interested in politics, and he was elected twice into the House of Representatives but in 1906, he failed to bid for the seat as governor of New York (Wierichs, 2002, 8). Kane aspired to become president by also running to become governor of New York but he also married the president's niece in the film, Emily Monroe Norton. Both Hearst and Kane were also embroiled in affairs with other women. The only difference is that Hearst truly loved his mistress and there was no breakdown in his unmarried relationship with her. His mistress was a young and successful silent film actress named Marion Davies (Dirks, 2002). On the other hand, Kane had a souring affair with opera singer wannabe Susan Alexander, the primary cause of Kane's fall from grace. Unlike Davies, who was successful, Alexander suffered humiliating failure as an opera singer, attempted suicide and finally left Kane after she became fed up with him. Hearst and Kane also did their best to promote their mistresses' popularity, with Hearst buying a film studio and Kane buying an opera house (Dirks, 2002). The last striking similarity between Hearst and Kane was that they both own glorious mansions of their own. Hearst's mansion was dubbed 'Hearst's Castle (www.hearstcastle.com) and was situated in San Simeon, California. Kane's extravagant, palatial Florida mansion was called 'Xanadu' Both Hearst and Kane's mansion was also filled with expensive art collections as well (Dirks, 2002). Hearst died at the age of 88 on August 14, 1951 in Beverly Hills, California. All his five sons from his marriage with Willson followed their father's glory into the media business and became very successful (Wierichs, 2002, 9). 3. The Man behind Citizen Kane Orson Welles, the boy genius behind Citizen Kane was born George Orson Welles to Richard Head Welles and Beatrice Ives Welles, May 6, 1915 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He had one brother but his brother was sent away to school from home, making him, in essence, an only child. At the age of four, his parents were separated (A Welles Biography) During Welles' early boyhood, his father had become increasingly became an alcoholic and not inclined to work while his mother, a former pianist became sickly. His mother died when he was nine and his father, in 1930. Welles had found his early education to be very tedious but in 1926, rescue came in the form of enrolment in the Todd School. At eleven, he was introduced to the school's revered headmaster, the man who became his first real father, Roger Hill. It was here that Welles became an organiser of public entertainment, an impresario (A Welles Biography, 2002). Given free access to the campus theatre and printing press and encouraged by the Hills, Welles wrote, directed and performed a variety of roles, including that of the Virgin Mary in the school nativity play (A Welles Biography, 2002)! "Everybody told me from the moment I could hear that I was absolutely marvellous," Welles once told an interviewer (About the Program, The American Experience, 7) and marvellous indeed he was. According to The American Experience, "never one to shy away from trouble, Welles built his career on a streak of controversial productions--the more upset and swirl he could create, the better. His production of Macbeth (1936) was set in Haiti and employed an all-black cast. His Julius Caesar (1937) was also re-imagined as a contemporary drama about fascism and finally, his radio staging of War of the Worlds (1938), about Martians invading Earth, caused so much terror and uproar it might have ended his career. However, his talent and ferocious energy seemed to lift him above the fray, delivering him unscathed to his next challenge and when he graced the cover of Time magazine, he was only twenty-three years old" (About the Program, The American Experience, 14). The following year after War of the Worlds, Welles entered the Hollywood scene, having received the best contract ever for his first Hollywood film, a contract from RKO Studios giving him a complete free hand to write, produce and direct his own films (Lodge et al., (1991), p. 136). He famously declared "I don't want money. I want authority" (Orson Welles Biography, BBC Education, 14). Based on this declaration itself, we can see that Welles modelled Kane after himself very much. Welles wanted sole power to do things his way and do not like to be led by others and so was Kane, who did not like to be led under his guardian's leadership and he always does things his way without considering others. Moreover, according to BBC, the terms of the contract Welles accepted aroused resentment and his intention to "cause some disturbance in the industry" did nothing to endear him to Hollywood. In addition, according the American Experience, his first project was actually proposed by his co-writer, Mankiewicz whom suggested the story of Hearst and Welles seized on the idea as his last best chance to make a film that works (About the Program, The American Experience, 15). However, Citizen Kane proved too close to the truth for Hearst, who saw a portrait of him in the film. Nevertheless, Hearst's actions, which delayed the release of the film, had given the film wonderful publicity (Orson Welles Biography, BBC Education, 15). The film was finally released in 1941, the week of Welles' 26th birthday. But by this time it was released, Welles had already left Hollywood, having attacked the studios in Hollywood in print, citing having problems with the studio system and the fact that his other films did not garner box-office success. In 1947, he moved to Europe where he continued his career in theatre and filmmaking, most notably the play Chimes in Midnight.(Orson Welles Biography, BBC Education, 17). Welles' impact on cinema was both immediate and lasting, drawing from his experience in radio and experiments with wide-angle and deep-focus lenses to develop dramatic action within the frame. His career as a director was brilliant but erratic. His career was strewn with many unfinished projects. However, at his peak, Welles was regarded as one of the giants in cinema. Welles died in 1985 and was buried in Spain. 4. An Analysis of the Main Characters in Citizen Kane 4.1 Charles Foster Kane In the film, we are introduced to Charles Foster Kane, old and dying, lying on his bed in the castle-like 'Xanadu' (resembles the castle from Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), barely whispering the word 'rosebud' before he died. This set the premise for an exploration of Kane's life, from his boyhood, youth, life as a newlywed, middle age and old age, through a series of flashbacks. The "News on the March" newsreel sequence only offers a glimpse of the life Kane leads but in reality, the character Kane is one that is shrouded with extreme complexity that is difficult for one to comprehend. To illustrate this point, we have the scene where a defeated, old Kane walks past parallel mirrors, which multiplies Kane's reflection infinitely. His multiple reflections in this scene were used as metaphor to depict the complex nature and a lost of identity as well as a reflection of the complexity of his life. A powerful newspaper owner, Kane was many things to many people, both in life and, as seen in retrospective in the film, in death as well. He was considered a colossus, a titan, a man who considers himself superior from others, as depicted in the promotional poster for the film (Appendix I). This section will detail what Charles Foster Kane was to five different people in the film. Kane's boyhood was recounted in flashback through Walter Thatcher's memoirs. Here in the first scene, we see the consequences of young Kane's separation from his mother and father, and the decision that Kane be raised under the guardianship of Thatcher to prepare him for his inheritance. Themes of a loss and a stolen childhood comes into mind as we saw Kane's mother gave Kane away to Thatcher with a hope for a better life for him.
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