citizen kane

Citizen Kane: Hearst or Welles
“Any man who has the brains to think and the nerve to
act for the benefit of the people of the country a
radical by those who are content with stagnation and
willing to endure disaster.”(48 Williams) This quote
applies to two men, who in their lives were enemies, but
were more alike than either thought possible. Two men
whose names are recognizable even today, years after
both of their deaths. Two kings of the trade who used
different methods in trying to exploit the other.
William Randolph Hearst and Orson Welles were both
powerful men in history in their own right. One was a
pioneer of journalism, while the other revolutionized
the movie industry. The film Citizen Kane, one of Orson
Welles’ and the film industries greatest
accomplishments, could be said was a film that used the
main character to exploit the personality of Hearst,
which can easily be pointed out, but it was also a film
depicting the personality of Orson Welles, as well. “It
is hard to see one’s self as to look backwards without
turning around.”(57 Williams)
William Randolph Hearst was born on April 29, 1863.
His father was a multi-millionaire miner named George
Hearst. His mother, Phoebe Hearst, was a school teacher
from Missouri. George Hearst became a multi-millionaire
by traveling through the West and becoming partners in
three of the largest mining discoveries in American
history.
As a repayment of a gambling debt, George Hearst, in
1880, accepted a small newspaper. During the
mid-1800’s, William Randolph Hearst, now a student at

Harvard University, wrote to his father demanding to
take over the newspaper. His father, on the other hand,
preferred William to manage his mining industries, but
William overlooked his fathers wishes and took over the
San Francisco Examiner in 1887. William Hearst showed a
lot of adaptability and was determined to make the
Examiner popular and a big selling newspaper. Hearst
used his wealth to create a very powerful newspaper. He
hired the best writers and acquired the best equipment
possible at the time. He went on to publish and expose
corruption and stories filled with drama and
inspiration, or sensationalism.
In the late 1800’s, Hearst ended up into a
head-to-head circulation war with his former mentor
Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World. To
increase their popularity, they both started to include
about the Cuban insurrection. Many stories in both
newspapers greatly exaggerated their claims to make
their stories even more sensational, such as stories
publishing the images of Spanish troops placing Cubans
into concentration camps where they suffered and died
from disease or hunger. Hearst beat out Pulitzer in the
circulation race, when he published a story of how the
Cubans sunk the U.S.S. Maine. This was only days after
Hearst was quoted saying that if you want war, you will
get one. This kind of publicity for the American
entrance into war, caused Congress to declare war on
Spain. This showed the world the power that one man
had.
Years went by, and Hearst met and soon married a want

to be star named Marion Davies. Marion Davies would
have never been known if she was never married to
Hearst. With his money, he tried to make her a star,
but the talent just was not there.
Orson Welles was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on May
6, 1915. His father was a well-to-do inventor, his
mother a beautiful concert pianist. He was gifted in
many arts, such as playing the piano, doing magic, and
painting, as a child. Soon, however, two hardships hit
young Orson. His mother died, when he was only eight
years old. He ended up having to travel with his
father, but it did not last long forever. His father
died only four years later. He became the ward of
Chicago’s Dr. Maurice Bernstein.
In 1931, he graduated from Todd School in Woodstock,
Illinois. Several years later, recommendations from a
couple of significant people, gave Orson an admittance
into Katherine Cornell’s Road Company, with which he
made his New York debut as Tybalt, from Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet, in 1934. That same year, he married
and appeared on radio for the first time.
In radio, Welles became famous for his “War of the
Worlds”, where he created paranoia by making people
believe that there were aliens that were attacking the
Earth. Radio also helped him in movies. In radio,
Welles had developed a special technique using a variety
of voices, each saying a sentence or sometimes merely a
fragment of a sentence. This he carried over into film,
photographing the various speakers in close-up against a
blank background. Put together in quick succession, the

shots gave impression of a whole town talking.
Welles also pioneered the extremely efficient
technique of positioning the camera at a particular
angle to the character so that the character can appear
to be important or weak. By placing the camera below
the person, he would seem taller and more threatening.
If the camera was placed above the person, it would make
the character seem small and weak. He also created,
which was shown in the movie Citizen Kane, that shows a
character talking engulfed in shadows, instead of the
spotlight. These were just some of the techniques, that
Welles created, that helped to revolutionize the film
industry.
The film had great writing, great directing, and had
especially great actors. The actors were all extremely
talented and worthy of the stage, yet most impressive
was the fact that most of them, including Welles, had
never set foot on a movie set before. They had the
voices that America had been listening to for years from
the Mercury Theater, which Welles became founder of in
1937, but whose faces were never seen before. This
great movies is Citizen Kane. A movie that was used to
exploit the personality of a journalism giant, or the
mind of a genius.
Citizen Kane was Welles’ greatest achievement and a
landmark of cinema history. “The narrative charts the
rise to power of a newspaper publisher whose wealth and
power ultimately leave him alone in his castle-like
refuge, Xanadu. Every aspect of the production marked
an advance in film language: the deep focus, deeply

shadowed cinematography; the discontinuous narrative;
the innovative use of sound and score; the ensemble
acting forged in the fires of Welles’ Mercury Theater,
made this movie great.”(19 Murray)
Citizen Kane is, what some would consider, the
greatest film ever made. It is about Charles Foster
Kane, a wealthy and powerful man who owns the Inquirer.
It tells the life of Kane from his childhood to his
death. The movie starts with the death of Kane, and
with a group of people who want to know what Kane meant
with his dying words, ROSEBUD. While they are looking
for the answer, they come across several friends of Kane
and former wives, and the audience is told the story of
Kane’s life through these people.
“Citizen Kane is a brutal portrait of newspaper
magnate William Randolph Hearst.”(19 Murray) There are
many things in common with Charles Foster Kane, who is
played by Orson Welles, himself, and the media Mongol,
William Randolph Hearst. Both, for example, were born
into wealth. Hearst’s father was a millionaire because
of his mining industries and Kane was given, as a child,
to a wealthy banker. Their education was also similar,
in that both attended the distinguished Harvard
University, even though Kane was also in many a student
at many other distinguished universities, having been
expelled from many of them. Many similarities come when
these two are adults as well.
“This above all: to thine own self be true. And it
must follow as the night the day, thou canst not be
false to any man.”(40 Williams) This is one thing that

both Hearst and Kane did not do. They put on a show for
people, never showing who they really were. Hearst did
it by wanting to destroy the movie, Citizen Kane, not
wanting anyone to know that he was like the main
character. Kane showed it by always telling people his
truth, making them think that he was an “honest man,” as
his friend Leland said. Even their negative qualities
were similar.
Hearst was married and then cheated on his wife for a
younger woman who had dreams of becoming a star, Marion
Davies. Kane was married and cheated on his wife with a
younger woman who also had the dream of becoming a star,
Susan. Both gave up doing what their guardians told
them to become to become publishers of newspapers. The
two men bought the best writers in the world and used
sensationalism to sell their newspapers and to enlarge
their circulation. Finally, the last thing these two
men had in common was that they named their children
after themselves. Hearst’s son and Kane’s son were both
juniors.
Another person that Kane can be used to represent is
the man who played Kane, Orson Welles. “People only see
what they are prepared to see.”(59 Williams) The
people, at the time when Citizen Kane first came out,
only thought that the main character, Charles Foster
Kane, was a portrayal of William Hearst. Kane, however,
is also a representative of Orson Welles. There are
many similarities between the two, but the movie must be
closely watched to notice them.
One of the many similarities between Kane and Welles

is that both lost their parents. Kane lost his
parents because they gave him to the wealthy banker
and Welles lost both of his parents because of their
deaths. Kane and Welles were both very cocky and
headstrong. They both believed that they were able to
make people do think the same way that they do. Kane
had his newspaper which he used to try to get votes
when he ran, he used it to boosts Susan’s career, and
he used it to create wars and make news happen.
Welles had his radio and movies. He used radio to
cause chaos when he broadcasted his “War of the
Worlds”, he used Citizen Kane to exploit the
personality of William Randolph Hearst, and he used
his techniques with the camera to make people think
who were the weak and who were the strong in his
movies.
Finally, the last thing that were similar between
these two characters were that they lost their
childhood and missed it more than anything else.
Kane’s last words, ROSEBUD, was the name of his sled
when he was a child, showing the audience that, though
he was rich and was powerful as an adult, the fact
that he lost his parents was still with him. Welles
lost his childhood as soon as his mother died. After
that, all he did was travel with his father, and then
his father died. Welles shows people that he misses
his childhood because he tries to have as much fun
with what he is doing. This is seen with the radio
broadcast, “War of the Worlds.”
Who does Charles Foster Kane represent? Is it

William Randolph Hearst or is it Orson Welles? The
answer seems to be that he represents both men. At
first, it seems that Kane is a portrayal of Hearst,
which in fact he is, that is what Orson wanted Kane to
be. Kane, however, has many traits that Welles has as
well. This shows us that two men, who in their lives
were enemies, but were more alike than either thought
possible, came to create one of the greatest movies
ever, with a very strong central character who has
qualities that both possess.