| This is a fascinating film
over the battle of making Citizen Kane.
Coming to Hollywood as a celebrated boy
genius featuring a spectacular career
arc in New York including his "War
of the Worlds" radio hoax, Orson
Welles is stymied on the subject for his
first film. After a dinner party at Hearst
Castle, during which he has a verbal altercation
with Hearst, Welles decides to do a movie
about Hearst. It takes him some time to
convince co-writer Herman Mankiewicz and
the studio, but Welles eventually gets
the script and the green light, keeping
the subject very hush-hush with the press.
When a rough cut is screened, Hearst gets
wind of the movie's theme and begins a
campaign to see that it is not only never
publicly screened, but destroyed.
The following are comments on the imdb.com
website made by someone who had seen
the TV movie:
"RKO 281 is an extremely well-made
HBO original movie that has more than
enough quality to deserve a theatrical
run. Liev Schreiber (A Walk on the
Moon, Scream) stars as Orson Welles
a young genius who is preparing a
film everyone is waiting for. It's
a very private film about a publisher
obviously based on William Hearst,
played by James Cromwell (Babe, L.A.
Confidential). After many problems
during production the film is finally
finished, but word gets leaked to
Hearst who will do whatever it takes
to keep the film from being released.
The film was Citizen Kane widely regarded
as the greatest American film. The
film is always compelling and often
fascinating. Liev Schreiber delivers
a strong lead performance with several
great scenes. Great support is provided
by Roy Scheider (The Rainmaker, The
French Connection) as a top exec at
RKO, James Cromwell, and especially
John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire,
Portrait of a Lady) as the co-writer.
Highly recommended."
This television movie was shown in
the US on 20th November 1999.
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