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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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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Mexican-U.S. Relations: A Touch of Evil

By Robin Bates | Published: February 25, 2011

Film Friday I have been teaching an adult film class this semester in conjunction with a fascinating exhibit on fences that our college’s art gallery has mounted with help from the Smithsonian Museum. My contribution is to exhibit and talk about films that focus on fences, walls, and other types of boundaries. This past Tuesday […]

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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 […]

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The Greatest Generation’s Citizen Kane

By Robin Bates | Published: July 2, 2010

Charlie Kane sold to a bank Film Friday Several weeks ago I wrote about the impact that the movie Citizen Kane had on my father in the months before he was drafted into the army in 1942. I was so fascinated by his response that I collaborated with him on an article about what Citizen […]

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