RKO 281 (1999) Review

 

RKO 281 (1999)

So, I intentionally left out a lot of the true story behind Citizen Kane in my review yesterday, for this reason exactly.

RKO 281 is about the true story of the making of and the backlash that ensued from Citizen Kane, which was about the real William Randolph Hearst, who practically ran the media in America.
After a disagreement that Hearst and CK director Orson Welles had, Welles decided to risk his, and many others cinema careers by making a film that mirrored the life of Hearst and directly stated that one trades their soul for power. Obviously Hearst was outraged and did everything he could to make sure Citizen Kane never saw the light of day, even blackmailing the other major studios into attempting to buy all copies of the film and burn them.

It was extremely interesting getting to see the story that surrounds such a monumental film in history. On the flip side, seeing the story and the people that inspired the movie is also insane, with it seeming stranger than fiction but being all too real. All the tension and animosity between these two warring sides is spectacular and the historical accuracy presented is perfect.

Liev Schreiber as Orson Welles though is tremendous. He plays the young prodigy with so much youthful grit and determination, and brimming with confidence. Their recreation of classic scenes from the film, how things were done, and the spiral Welles endured, while maintaining a (usually) cool demeanor is done so well. The supporting cast is also stellar, with A-listers like John Malkovich and James Cromwell only adding to the stunning performance from Schreiber.

The imagery and parallelism that is present is also so neat, as it directly references Citizen Kane and Welles’ own life, as his film became a self fulfilling prophecy of his own life as he aged into obscurity, alone.

It’s a bit tricky when reviewing films based on real life, as it’s almost a critique of life itself and whether it decided to be interesting enough in this certain time and place. In the case of RKO 281 (which is in reference to RKO Radio Pictures and CK being their 281st picture), they did it just right, making my job juuust a bit easier.

7.5/10