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The first circa half of this movie will probably be well-known to many a cinema buff, as it recounts the meteoric rise of actor/director Orson Welles from becoming a theatre buff at the quite liberal boys' school he went to to him making his mark as a young stage actor to him directing the first all black version of Shakespeare's Macbeth for theatre, to his radio adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the World to his magnum opus Citizen Kane that led to a feud with newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, who saw to it that the film would initially flop. But the film also sheds light on the attempts of film studio RKO to get rid of their erstwhile enfant terrible, how Hearst would try to use his political influence to hurt Welles, how Welles became involved in politics and fought for race equality, and how eventually the House of Unamerican Activities became involved and pretty much destroyed his career in America, at least temporarily, and how in 1947 he left the US for Italy ...

Now what's really fascinating about this documentary is that it doesn't limit itself to re-telling its story that's, as mentioned, rather well-known to film buffs but puts things into a larger political context, showing how things like race politics, president Franklin D. Roosevelt, World War II and the bombing of Hiroshima had to do with Welles' story. Doing this, the film often veers of in tangents, but always finds back to its main narrative while presenting the viewer with a knowledgable variety of talking heads but also enough archive material to keep things visually interesting. So if you're into Orson Welles or into American history, circa mid last century, or better yet both, you're bound to like this movie.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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