Why Mank must kill it at the Oscars

Heres the thing about Citizen Kane 1941 Not too many people outside of film aficionados have seen it Theyve always had the chancechoice to Yet everybody sure as hell knows its the greatest movie ever made Whys that Chiefly for the advances achieved in crafttechnique mdash both cinema wise and in its storytellingExcept cinema itself advances so quickly that watching a work for its historical value seldom holds back sleep for those inclined to more cuttocut fastpaced entertainment Without context it only makes you question its anointed greatness Or so I once sadly discovered hosting a screening of Citizen Kane in a classroom full of bored media studentsWhat about David Finchers Mank 2020 Well the first thing that strikes you is how little or any at all you see of the director Orson Welles in a film that is ostensibly on the making of Citizen Kane Which is fair because it really is the story of Herman J Mankiewicz Gary Oldman on how he came to write Kane Which in turn was inspired by the life of William Randolph Hearst mdash a media mogul so huge that he could make and break governmentsHow relevant is Hearst himself Youve heard of yellow journalism as pejorative for sensationalism in news media That term comes from a battle for eyeballs between Joseph Pulitzers paper New York World and Hearsts New York Journal mdash named after the cartoon character Yellow Kid that appeared in bothThe backdrop for Mank is the ongoing elections for Californias governor And how Hollywood under the watch of studio bosses like Luis B Meyer and on the pay of Hearst had been shamelessly coopted to push a party line mdash through what would now be called a disinformation campaign or fake news Sense parallelsSpeaking of Meyer Hearst its just incredible to spot the addon cast of characters in every studio room in Mank who make for a history of Hollywood mdash writers Ben Hecht Sid Perelman Manks brother Joe top producers Irving Thalberg David O SelznickWhat would the role of the writer in Hollywood of the 40s be like mdash very much then as now the most capitalistic therefore feudal of arts Is the significance slightly exaggerated because Mank in the eponymous movie is after all screenwriter MankiewiczOr would the writers role not have automatically even if temporarily elevated itself with Hollywood still transitioning from silent cinema In talkies you would need some literary flourishimagination for characters that must now talk Either way it is evident that Hearst liked Mank for his company This love was clearly not mutual mdash because of political concerns rather than personal tasteWhat would a major media baron anyway have in common with a totally washed up alcoholic screenwriter mdash later forced into confinement so he can finish a script Theres a lovely old grinders monkey parable that Hearst quotes to show Mank his place Mank in turn does a hit job on Hearst that became Citizen Kane mdash undoubtedly a piece of both cinema and history Indeed Hearsts surviving legacyThis raises the question of ethicsintegrity over how much a fiction writer can lift from those living around him mdash without the lack of kindness becoming a collateral damage in the case of few othersFor instance Hearsts warm mistress Marion Davies Amanda Seyfried whos also Manks friendsource if you may This screenplay mdash original draft written by Finchers late father Jack mdash about a screenplay essentially alternates between the screenwriters world and the wordsscenescharacters they inspiredThe bigger question among certain movie buffs was if the film would take sides between Mank and his director Welles Which is what film critic Pauline Kael famously did in the formers favour mdash in a 1971 New Yorker essay titled Raising Kane raising quite a storm then Im toldThere is much said about how Finchers masterpiece Fight Club 1999 for instance was deeply misunderstood because it ended up making Tyler Durden and therefore the violence in the movie really cool Just as Oliver Stones Wall Street 1987 was a critique rather than about how greed is good likewise Martin Scorseses Wolf of Wall Street 2013The point with Mank is You barely see the 24yearold wonderkid Welles in the movie So theres no question of taking sides mdash as much as it is about showing just one Yes Welles and Mank did fight over writing credit They shared it And its the only Oscar the greatest movie ever wonLegend has it that such was Hearsts hold over Hollywood that Citizen Kane was entirely ignored at the Academy Awards Heard of How Green Was My Valley That was Best Picture in the year of KaneMank on Kane has for Oscar baits David Fincher plus Black amp White film recall Steven Spielbergs Schindlers List Alfonso Cuarons Roma also produced by Netflix which is also totally biographical Academys favourite genre That it should grab golden statuettes given its subject alone would be poetic justiceMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to 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