RKO 281 (1999) (TV)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Benjamin Ross

Writers (WGA):

Richard Ben Cramer (documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane) (in part) and
Thomas Lennon (documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane) (in part) ...

Release Date:

20 November 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot:

Orson Welles produces his greatest film, Citizen Kane, despite the opposition of the film's de facto subject, William Randolph Hearst.

Plot Keywords:

Hollywood | Wisconsin | Film Making | Film Industry | Anti Semitism

Awards:

Won Golden Globe. Another 7 wins & 15 nominations

Cast

Liev Schreiber	...	Orson Welles
James Cromwell	...	William Randolph Hearst
Melanie Griffith	...	Marion Davies
John Malkovich	...	Herman J. Mankiewicz
Brenda Blethyn	...	Louella Parsons
Roy Scheider	...	George Schaefer
Liam Cunningham	...	Gregg Toland
Fiona Shaw	...	Hedda Hopper
Anastasia Hille	...	Carole Lombard
Roger Allam	...	Walt Disney
Simeon Andrews	...	John Houseman
William Armstrong	...	Mr. Lewis
Jay Benedict	...	Darryl Zanuck
Ron Berglas	...	David O. Selznick
Paul Birchard	...	Top Brass #2

Also Known As:

RKO 281: The Battle Over Citizen Kane (USA) (video box title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some graphic sexual images.

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:M | Canada:14+ (Ontario) | South Korea:15 | Finland:S | France:U | Norway:7 | USA:R | Spain:7

Filming Locations:

Hollywood Sign, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Home Box Office (HBO)

Trivia:

The title refers to the production number given by RKO to Citzen Kane.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Welles is shown crossing out dialogue in the "Citizen Kane" script, he is actually marking up pages from the "RKO 281" script!

Quotes:

Orson Welles: Everything I am, everything I could be is in that picture.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 57th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2000) (TV)

Soundtrack:

I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You

Not the movie it should have been...

RKO 281 is based on the making of Orson Welles's masterpiece, Citizen Kane, but unlike the movie it portrays, RKO 281 lacks Welles's fiery signature of creativity. The movie itself is well-filmed, with elaborate backdrops and a captivating depth of the 30's period in which it was shot. However, the plot outside this remarkable backdrop, is sadly quite shallow.

Outside of the obvious battle between Welles (played by Liev Schrieber) and media magnate William Randolph Hearst (played by James Cromwell), we have no sense of any underlying motivation for the story. This is pretty sad considering the film they wished to portray was none other than one of the greatest films of alltime, setting many of the technical standards used today. Indeed, the viewer is given little more than a fleeting glimpse of Citizen Kane's production, and only a few of the most blindingly obvious innovations in the film (such as slanted camera angles). The disturbing part of these remarkably few revelations is that they come after 50 minutes of a historically unrelenting plot outlining everything from the land-lease law to Hollywood gossip rags of the 30's. I also found it odd that they never mentioned that Citizen Kane was booed at the 1941 Oscars, of which most he was snubbed.

The black-and-white confrontation of the movie is little more than grey-and-grey. Welles apparently doesn't want to make the movie because Kane represents the hollowness of greed, but because he feels that Hearst is a hypocrite. Hearst is not so much egnimatic and soulless as Kane, but more of a helpless withered shadow of a man. This attack of Hearst's character is never truly resolved, because the story never makes it clear that Citizen Kane was based on Hearst, but isn't about Hearst.

Sadly, there is one more note I wish to add. The actors in this movie seemed like 8th graders forced into a Shakespearian play, they either misunderstood the meaning of this picture, or failed to connect emotionally. As Shakespeare in Love taught us, even the Bard's works can be made interesting with the right mindset. This could have been a great movie, but fell far short.