The Battle Over Citizen Kane

This documentary makes an extraordinary effort to create similarities between William Randolph Hearst and Orson Welles. I'm not sure I agree. Hearst was a megalomaniac who was fixated on money and did anything to make it, ruining lives and public perception while at it. Welles was a child prodigy, talented beyond belief, fixated on creativity and perfection, who made some people miserable while at it and was perceived as a boy genius by the public (unless you count his War of the Worlds broadcast which freaked out the entire Eastern seaboard). Fundamental difference, there. This is not a documentary about the making of the film (for that listen to the two audio commentaries by Roger Ebert and Peter Bogdanovich on the DVD of the film itself), but a documentary about the personalities behind the film, creator and subject. It's certainly interesting to learn about these men, and in that respect it's a well-structured documentary. But when the basic premise falls flat, the weighty tenor of the narration becomes somewhat ridiculous. I would suggest instead watching the film and listening to the commentaries, because it is in fact the best film ever made.

year: 1995
length: 108 min.
rating: 2.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115634/combined