This HBO made film is very important to me, showing what responsibility filmmakers hold even today, and what respect integrity holds in even a slimey, dishonest industry like the Hollywood motion picture industry.

"RKO 281" simply put is the biogrpahical telling of young New York playwright, turned Hollywood filmmaker, Orson Welles and his battle to make and release "Citizen Kane," the picture American Film Institute has labelled the best American movie ever made.

The picture focuses on Welles attempt to make a picture with the sole purpose of exposing the hypocricies of media giant of the time William Randolf Hearst.

Welles finally gets his script green lighted, after battling with rewrites from alocholic screenwriter and friend Herman "Mank" Mankiewicz, seduces the press to lay off his project until its finished. Then, after a rough cut screening for the media, Hearst catches wind that Welles' new movie is about him.

Hearst then spends the rest of the movie trying to influence all the Jewish and homosexual Hollywood executives in town to keep "Citizen Kane" from opening anywhere, including RKO, the now defunct studio which financed "Kane." Hearst spends Act Three going bankrupt.

"RKO 281," which refers to the studio's production number for "Citizen Kane," is a very matter of fact picture, which doesn't attempt to add much insight to the facts in the story.

The picture is based in part on a documentary titled "The Battle Over Citizen Kane," by Richard Ben Cramer and Thomas Lennon. "RKO 281" was penned by John Logan (Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Aviator), but I do not feel it reflects his best work.

Although the picture highly interesting, it doesn't deliver from its monster build up. There's hardly any big fight between renegade filmmaker and the media giant. Hearst simply goes bankrupt and loses his power over Hollywood cause he doesn't have any more money to influence people with.

Otherwise, the picture was dark and kind of mysterious, giving the story a feeling of importance and a more entertaining quality than the script allowed.

Liev Schreiber (The Manchurian Candidate) play Welles well, capturing the man's young demeanor, while making the role his own. It definitely shows Schreiber's strength as an actor, and I'm surprised this role isn't spoken of more in regards to his ability.

John Malkovich plays Mank with a voice unlike I've heard him do yet. His performance was fun to watch. James Cromwell ages himself well to play Hearst, but his co-star Melanie Griffith as his mistress Marion was fucking horrible.

I can't stand this woman in film. She has her one stupid blonde way of playing every role I've seen her in, and it only worked for one of them, being "Working Girl." Otherwise, as with this picture, Griffith drags the entire production down when she's on screen.

If you're interested in stories about filmmaking and Hollywood history, "RKO 281" is one you should definitely check out.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?