Hearst essays

Hearst essays 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 Kanes life that, anyone with some knowledge of Hearst life, would set anyone thinking about the newspaper giants life. Shortly after the film begins, a reporter is seen trying to discover the meaning of Kanes last words rosebud. This reporter begins his search by going through the records of Kanes guardian Thatcher. The scene then begins to come to life in the midwinter that takes place at the Kanes house. Kanes 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. Hearsts 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. Kanes dying word, the name of his childhood sled Rosebud, is a town twenty miles east of where the Hearsts parents grew up. Everything from the newsreel at the start ...