Why is “Citizen Kane” Donald Trump’s favorite film? Perhaps because he likes the way that the film glamorizes a narcissist like himself. We need to be careful about falling into this fascination, however. Such people make neither good journalists nor good presidents.

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Donald Trump as Citizen Kane

By Robin Bates | Published: July 25, 2016

Donald Trump’s favorite film is “Citizen Kane.” Is he drawing on Kane’s campaign for governor in his demonization of Hillary Clinton?

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Why Did Vertigo Top Citizen Kane at #1?

By Robin Bates | Published: September 21, 2012

“Vertigo” is a film about how we are driven by desire and how to achieve it is to lose it.

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Citizen Romney–Is There Anything Inside?

By Robin Bates | Published: September 14, 2012

Mitt Romney, like Citizen Kane, is a cipher. What drives him other than a desire to appear big?

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Citizen Murdoch Anti-Elitist? Think Again

By Robin Bates | Published: July 22, 2011

Since the Rupert Murdoch scandal broke, a number of commentators have compared the media magnate to Charles Foster Kane of Orson Welles’s 1941 classic. The parallel casts light on one of Murdoch’s most galling claims: that he is anti-elitist.

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Kane: Sunny Pleasure Dome, Caves of Ice

By Robin Bates | Published: January 28, 2011

Film Friday I’m teaching Citizen Kane currently in my American Film class and am struck, once again, by the influence that Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” had on the movie. My father and I tried to make this case in an article that we wrote on Citizen Kane a number of years back (described here), and while the editors […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Kubla Khan", Film, Orson Welles, Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Comments closed