The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996)

THE BATTLE OVER CITIZEN KANE  (1996)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Michael Epstein, Thomas Lennon
An Oscar-nominated documentary about the lives of Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst, and how they converged and collided in Welles' 1941 masterpiece. An ironic study in life and illusion, filled with illuminating clips from "Kane", and commentary by Robert Wise, Jimmy Breslin, Peter Bogdanovich and others. Hearst the newspaper publisher and Welles the filmmaker were both larger-than-life characters with immense appetites and abilities, and in a clash of colossal egos, both miscalculated. Welles thought he could take on Hearst and get away with it. He couldn't. Hearst thought he could control the public's access to Welles' picture, if he had to, by destroying it. He couldn't do that, either. The only winner in the end was "Citizen Kane", which survives both men, and reflects both of their lives in ways neither of them could have anticipated or intended.