9. Citizen Kane Declared War On A Real-Life Media Mogul
The Citizen Kane of... oh, wait, you can't use that here. Born in the fevered brain of cinematic wunderkind Orson Welles, the trademarked Best Movie Ever is renowned for its knife-twisting of a public figure to the extent that it's wink-wink nudge-nudge criticisms are probably the reason why it was ostracised at the Oscars. You might who the hell Welles had to criticise for his film to be blackballed so thoroughly, and I guess that's a fair question. The answer is William Randolph Hearst, the mogul to end all media moguls. Hearst was a defining voice in American journalism whose actions influenced the industry in all sorts of ways, but he was not without his critics. However, most critics don't have access to a film camera, never mind possess the storytelling talents of Welles. So with the film-maker having chosen his target, the longest suicide note in filmic history played out for all to see. Watching media mogul Charles Foster Kane decline from a noble-minded journalist into a vindictive, power-consumed shill was a riveting watch, but its hardly-complimentary tone inspired by co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz's insider knowledge of the man resulted in Hearst banishing all mention of the quasi-biographical film from his considerable arsenal of papers. Needless to say, Kane suffered.