Hearst Essay Research Paper William Randolph Hearst

Hearst Essay, Research Paper

William Randolph Hearst and Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane has often been considered one the best film ever made. This film is about a conflict between two twentieth century icons, the publisher William Randolph Hearst and the prodigy of his time, Orson Welles. This movie was nominated for nine Academy Awards, but is booted off the stage with only one award, for Best Screenplay. This was due to the great pressure from one of the most powerful men in the nation, the man that Citizen Kane portrayed as a corrupt power hungry man, William Randolph Hearst.

There is no way that one cannot ignore the striking similarities between Hearst and Kane. Orson Welles included a few details about the young Kane s life that, anyone with some knowledge of Hearst life, would set anyone thinking about the newspaper giant s life. Shortly after the film begins, a reporter is seen trying to discover the meaning of Kane s last words rosebud . This reporter begins his search by going through the records of Kane s guardian Thatcher.

The scene then begins to come to life in the midwinter that takes place at the Kane s house. Kane s mother has come into one of the richest gold mines in the world, and at age twenty-five, Kane will inherit this sixty million dollar fortune. His mother becomes doubtful of the education system in Colorado; therefore she decides to send her son to study with Thatcher. Hearst s parents came by their money through gold mines, so both Kane and Hearst were raised with golden spoon in their mouths. Kane is devoted to his mother as Hearst was likewise to that. Both men pay heed to their mothers wishes while their fathers seem to be less powerful and were not as influential as their mothers. Kane s dying word, the name of his childhood sled Rosebud , is a town twenty miles east of where the Hearst s parents grew up. Everything from the newsreel at the start of the film on Kane s life matches almost exactly to that of Hearst s life. Kane ran many newspapers, had a well-publicized affair, tried to be elected to office, was completely careless with his money, and built himself a pleasure palace called Xanadu. Hearst also did all of these things over the course of his lifetime, which further leads people to be convinced that Hearst full life story was the intentions of Welles.

After the opening newsreel, the movie goes through the boyhood scenes of Kane s life where Thatcher takes him from his family. The movie then quickly shifts to when Kane is about to inherit his private fortune. Thatcher is concerned that Kane will not know his place in the world; his fears are affirmed when he receives a telegram form Kane stating that he would like to run a small newspaper, the Morning Inquirer. Hearst s father owned a newspaper, The Examiner, which Hearst took over to try and reform the dying paper.

Both Hearst and Kane begin to immediately revolutionize everything about their papers. Kane makes it quite clear that, from now on, it was going to report all the news, large or small. Hearst did the same thing, making his paper take on undignified topics . Here is where a classic similarity is shown; Kane almost completely quotes Hearst exactly. Kane exclaims: You supply the prose and poems, I ll supply the war which was a telegram that Kane sent to a man in Cuba. Hearst was very anti-Spanish during the Cuban revolution; this war would have never been fought if it were not due to his efforts to start it. Hearst would do anything for a headline, in which he would make up falsified tales.

In the next scene, Thatcher mentions to Kane his enormous losses, which have totaled to over one million dollars for the year, which is a staggering sum to be lost by one person. Kane however laughed it off as a joke, remarking that at that rate he ll have to close down in sixty years. All of these things were characteristics of Hearst as well. Hearst threw money away as though it literally grew on trees to him. A man with an income of fifteen million a year had no savings and sometimes had to borrow money from others, as did Kane.

Right after taking over the Inquirer, Kane ordered the editor to play up the less important stories of the newspaper. The kind of things the nation wanted to see and read about, not just boring old news. Kane then became more involved in the paper and realized that he wanted his main competitor staff from the Chronicle. He bribed these men with large sums of cash to move to his paper.

These tactics were very like Hearst maneuvers in many ways. Hearst loved to embellish and exaggerate the news to get a better response and circulation. Hearst was also constantly stealing talented newspapermen from other newspapers. Hearst also paid people any salary without care, because money was no issue for him.

The next scene opens with Leland, one of Kane s only friends. Leland explained how no one could understand Kane because of the contradictions in his life and his beliefs. Leland explained how Kane was a firm believer in law and government, but he stated that he did not see how either applied to him. Hearst was incredibly egomaniac and also shared the same beliefs as Kane did. Both were in constant conflict with themselves. This trait is one that Kane played out to full effect in the movie. Both were also firm believers in their own power.

There is one thing however, that Kane wanted