Hearst, a fact which upset Hearst to no end. In fact, a representative of
the Hearst Organization offered eight hundred and forty two thousand
dollars to RKO, the film’s producer, if they would burn it. This plot
having failed, RKO was blacklisted by the gigantic Hearst press and had to
show the movie in private theaters. And yet, Welles still claimed that his
movie had no intention of being biographical. He said, It is not based
upon the life of Mr. Hearst or anyone else. On the other hand, had Mr.
Hearst and similar financial barons not lived during the period we discuss,
Citizen Kane could not have been made.” (Zinmen 238)
In his life, Hearst ran many newspapers, as of course, did Kane. When
he was still beginning, he owned four, and at the time he committed all of
them to warring with Spain, as mentioned above. This singular, small event
was the turning point in the life of a brilliant man and indeed the turning
point of a nation. He had almost single handedly, using his power of the
press, sent one of the most powerful nations in the world to war. The
people of the United States had been manipulated wonderfully by the press
to believe that Spain was such a menace that they must rally for war, even
though it was all an invention by Hearst and his constituents to promote
the newspaper’s circulation. If the press could do that, he believed it
could do anything, even send a Mr. Hearst to the White House who had not
the slightest experience as a political leader. And it very nearly did
(Swanberg 245).
When he realized that his newspapers were a source of infinite power,
that he could manipulate the people to get what he wanted, Hearst changed.
His goals changed. His fight went from one for larger circulation to one
for personal power, as much as he could get. He stopped being physically
involved in his papers, as mentioned before, instead directing from his
throne at San Simeon. He entered the political arena, where the ultimate
prize lay, the ultimate investment of power in a single individual, the
presidency. And yet again and again, by the voters or the corrupt bosses
at Tammany Hall or by his many political enemies, he was defeated. His,
like the story of Kane, was a story of constant personal failure due, as
often as not. to his own faults
However, things for Hearst were not always as bad as they were for
Kane. Hearst did actually win public office once. He became a state
representative of New York. This he accomplished with the backing of the
Tammany Hall bosses and a Democratic constituency in the district. Beyond
that he hurled his newspapers and money into the effort, earning a colossal
victory over his opponent. However, Hearst was not content to be a
Representative. He wanted to be president, had wanted to be president ever
since he realized that he had a chance. He had wanted to be the biggest
newspaper publisher in America, and he was. He had wanted Ms. Davies, and
he had her and was devoted to her and spent millions for her entertainment.
Everything which he had wanted he had received, in any way that he could
think of at the moment.
Orson Welles’ criticism of Hearst was the way in which he went about
getting what he wanted, using his immense power over the people of the
country simply to gain personal power. This is the overarching theme,
portrayed so powerfully, in Citizen Kane. When Welles disclaimed any
biographical intent, he did not pretend he was not depicting the forces
that governed Hearst’s life. His newspapers changed drastically, and men
spoke to him with reverence and fear, for his darker side had come to
light. He enjoyed being king over his empire, watching his subjects squirm.
With the building of his palace at San Simeon he only made concrete what
many had known for a long time: William Randolph Hearst sat on a throne as
the king of an empire which controlled the country’s information.
As brought out explicitly by the movie, Hearst wanted love, but not
just the love of a few, the love of all. He needed whatever he wanted, and
he wanted the people’s love. While Hearst was not the loveless monster
Kane is portrayed as, he had many faults, the main one being that he often
seemed to believe he could buy love. Welles attacked this belief heart and
soul, claw and tooth in such scenes as when Leland returns the check with
which Kane had hoped to preserve their friendship, now torn into shreds.
Kane simply cannot fathom why he returned it, because he doesn’t realize
that there is more to loving that gifts. (Cowie 37)
Hearst gave lavish parties and demonstrations to try to win people over
to his side, and it often worked. He assailed his political opponents with
his newspapers, attacking them in whatever way he could, transforming the
newspapers from something he thought he loved into a tool with which he
could get things, a bat he could swing at his opponents, a way to quench
his thirst for money and power. Hearst was a man who discovered the power
he controlled and then proceeded to abuse it, a practice Welles found
intolerable.
All in all, Orson Welles directed, starred in, and helped to write
possibly the greatest film of all time, all to one purpose, to denounce
William Randolph Hearst and all men who were abusive of power and the
public trust. Why did he spend all this effort on this one man, an
apparent crusader for the people, for the working man? Simply, it was
because Hearst, for all his apparent love of the people, was only trying to
get love and power for himself by abusing the most potent weapon and shield
of his day, the free press. “If I hadn’t been very rich, I might have been
a really great man.” (Orson Welles, Citizen Kane)
Bibliography
Bordwell, David. “Citizen Kane,” Focus on Orson Welles. Prentice-Hall,1976.
Cowie, Peter. The Cinema of Orson Welles. De Capo Press, 1973.
Citizen Kane. dir. Orson Welles. With Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy
Comingore. RKO, 1941.
Mulvey, Laura. Citizen Kane. BFI, 1992.
Reflections on Citizen Kane. dir. Unknown. Turner Home Entertainment,1991.
Robinson, Judith. The Hearsts: an American Dynasty. Avon Books, 1991.
Swanberg, W.A. Citizen Hearst. Scribner, 1961. Bantam Matrix Edition, 1967.
Zinman, David. Fifty Classic Motion Pictures: The Stuff that Dreams are
Made Of. NY Crown Publishers, 1970. NY Limelight Editions, 1992.