RKO281 - Any good?..

[maxrael]

hello all, i'm trying to find information about the film RKO281... firstly is it any good?

and secondly how accurate is it?

many thanks in advance,

max!

[LA]

Firstly: Not very.

Secondly: Not very. The film relies for it's "angle" on events that never actually occurred, for example, in the film, Welles decides to make KANE after attending a Hearst party. Hearst is portrayed as a victim, which isn't suprising when you realise that the film isn't based on fact, or on biographies of the people involved, but on the BATTLE OVER CITIZEN KANE documentary. If you've always wondered what BOCK would look like as a drama, then RKO 281 is the TV-movie for you.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

i had to force myself to watch it because i received it as a gift.

well, i watched, rewound, turned the cover inside out and banned it from my ORSON WELLES movie rack.

not because he wasn't in it did i do so. but it's just some hearst friend doing this as a favor. to make ORSON WELLES look bad.

and i ain't gonna watch it again.

[Obssessed_with_Orson]

on the accuracy part, a lot of reviews from magazine and newspaper articles usually had the same phrase that, "in the movie are things Orson wouldn't have done or said."

if you like a movie about wars, citizen kane and the so called subject, would be the ones to watch.

if you want to see a damned good movie, forget citizen kane, and find the other movies Mr. Welles has done. like chimes at midnight, and others. then let me know where i can get them.

:angry:
don't take my 'forget citizen kane' that seriously. if you've seen it as many times i have, you know it by heart, and are ready to see the others too.

[jaime marzol]

............

well, maxreal, you got the opinion of 2 hardcore welles fans, here is opinion 3, from another hardcore welles fan:

RKO281 is total hogwash. HBO can't be blamed for it being total hogwash. i aquired a copy of the screenplay about a year before HBO came into the picture, while it was still a ridley scott project, and it was hogwash then. but i enjoyed it. i've watched it several times.

i read somewhere that the director did not want to make a film in the style of KANE, so what they did was make sure that all the scene setups for what we see them filming, are true, and they did this well. i recomend you watch it at least once.

..............

[Le Chiffre]

Here's another hardcore fan's opinion:
I agree, RKO281 is decently made and worth seeing at least once. I actually like the Battle Over CK docu better, despite it's inaccuracies, because of all the good archival footage. In RKO281, I liked James Cromwell's performance as Hearst - he got the high squeaky voice just right. Liev Schrieber is rather dull as Welles. He doesn't do much with the part, although it's certainly a much more respectful portrait of Welles then the moronic loudmouth seen in Tim Robbins' Cradle Will Rock. My favorite depiction of Welles so far in a movie was by Vincent D'onofrio in Ed Wood. I've heard his voice was tweaked electronically to get the right pitch. Sounds like something Welles himself might have done.

[ChristopherBanks]

Despite the complete historical inaccuracy, I find the film very entertaining.

Hearst is painted as pretty nasty too, remember. I think the problem we have is that him and Welles are made to look as bad as each other in their own ways.

The sad victim in it all is Marion Davies. The film is worth watching for her (Melanie Griffith's) performance alone, I think, it is very moving.

Also, I do think it gives you a good sense of just how close one of the greatest films ever made came to never seeing the light of day. At least we get a happy ending there...imagine if they'd done one of these films about Ambersons?

[Steve Paradis]

It has Hearst proclaiming that he never tried to destroy anyone personally, without contradiction.
And I thought that I could hear the distant, bitter laugh of Roscoe Arbuckle.

[JMcBride]

Aside from other problems, Liev Schreiber plays Welles in RKO 281
as a dour ogre, as unfortunately is usual with depictions of him onscreen
(with the notable exception of Christian McKay in ME
AND ORSON WELLES, the closest yet to the actual Welles,
even if that film is flawed). Anyone who actually worked with Welles knows that
he was a lot of fun on the set -- he told jokes and stories
and even burst into old Todd School songs ("Finesse
the Queen" was a favorite), anything to
entertain and charm the actors, although he could be
tough on his crews and had the occasional angry outburst.
After going home each day, I would find my face hurting
from smiling so much. You don't get this sense from Schreiber.

A scene that would have been good in RKO 281 was described
to me by Paul Stewart. The first time he appeared before a movie
camera was the big CU in CITIZEN KANE of Raymond lighting a cigarette and saying,
"Rosebud? I tell you about Rosebud. How much is it worth to you?"
Right before the camera rolled, Welles said to him,
"Paul, just remember, when this scene appears, your face will
be forty feet high on the screen at the Radio City Music Hall." Paul
said that was the absolute worst direction he could have received
at that moment. When the camera rolled, he froze and went up
in his lines. He said, "Goldberg? I tell you about Goldberg. How much
is it worth to you?" Welles called cut, they all roared with laughter,
and after recovering, they shot the scene. That's how it was on Welles's sets,
and that's what is almost always missed in movies about him.