Citizen Hearst was a mostly unsatisfactory biography published in 1961 about media baron William Randolph Hearst. It was more caricature than revealing portrait.
The title, Citizen Hearst, has been reprised for documentary that opened in several theaters this week. The documentary â?? commissioned by the media company that Hearst founded 126 years ago â?? is no revealing portrait, either.
Hearst was an innovative yet often-contradictory figure, and this complexity is largely elusive in Citizen Hearst, an 84-minute film that had its Washington, D.C., debut screening last night at the Newseum. The director, Leslie Iwerks, introduced the film by saying it told â??the wonderful Hearst story.â?
The opening third of Citizen Hearst delivers a fast-paced if mostly shallow look at Hearstâ??s long career in journalism. After that, the film turns mostly gushy about the diversified media company that is Hearst Corp.
To its credit, Citizen Hearst steers largely clear of the myths that distort understanding of Hearst and his early, most innovative years in journalism.
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