• Offbeat

Business and show business intersect here to give you seven biopics that immortalized business leaders.

William Randolph Hearst
Citizen Kane (1941)

Browse, if you will, through any ‘Greatest Movies of All Time’ list and you will most likely find this film’s name hovering somewhere near the top. Citizen Kane is inspired by the dramatic rise and fall of American media mogul, William Randolph Hearst. The businessman, initially driven by an idealistic vision of journalism, bought The New York Morning Journal in 1896 and soon went through a transformation he didn’t see coming. Circulation battles with a rival newspaper, New York World, led to both publications sensationalizing news unscrupulously to increase sales. It was a period that brought yellow journalism to life. Hearst went on to acquire a host of other papers, forming the largest newspaper and magazine business empire of his time.

Charles Foster Kane (played by Orson Welles), the film’s lead character, is based on Hearst and shares much in common with the legendary newspaper magnate. Interestingly, when the film was released, Hearst forbade any mention of it in any of his publications. Plush with technical and artistic innovations, the film is remarkable for its unique camera angles and lighting, groundbreaking cinematic treatment and unconventional narrative style—qualities that deemed it way ahead of its time.

Yet, the story itself is simple at its core. It traces Kane’s string of business successes, marriage to the President’s niece, his scandalous affair with an untalented opera singer, and his eventual isolation, an imprisonment of sorts at his sprawling estate. It’s a touching account of a tycoon who built an empire but whose happiest moment lay in times far simpler and innocent.

Next: Howard Hughes, The Aviator ->>>