That many, huh?
In case you couldn't tell, I was lamenting the fact that other than film students and general movie snobs, Orson Welles is not remembered much outside his Citizen Kane masterpiece. And to those of you who disagree with my use of the word "masterpiece" to describe Citizen Kane, well, you can go off and write your own blogs refuting me, can't you? The fact of the matter is that Welles wrote that movie when he was 26. Let me repeat that because I feel you aren't paying attention: He was 26. Yeah, he made a movie that changed the face of the film industry when he was only ten years removed from getting his learner's permit... Think about that.
If you're hip then maybe you also remember Orson Welles from his fantastic trolling of the world one Halloween night when he broadcast H.G. Wells' book The War of the Worlds and people completely and legitimately lost their collective shit. They believed an alien invasion was happening right here on Earth despite the fact that none of them seemed to look outside the window and see a huge floating ship sucking the life-force jelly out of people... I guess it was a simpler time back then, back when there were shoe-shine guys on every corner and you could pay a penny for a newspaper and still get change back.
Anyway, I'm running up on blog space for the day, but I just wanted to let you know the story of Orson, because, like many epic legends and myths of our culture, I feel that it's an important one to understand.
So, you're a young guy who just finished making a movie that is a technical and revolutionary masterpiece and you would imagine that the world is, quite literally, your oyster. For real. Like, you could probably order a Whopper at a McDonald's and they'll give it to you. And why wouldn't they? You made Citizen Kane. You made this image...
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| courtesy of whitecitycinema.com |
Anyway, do you think anything like this happened to Mr. Orson? He had nothing but a bright future and the world ahead of him. If you were alive in 1941 and could transport yourself 40 years in the future, what would you imagine? Would you imagine Mr. Welles would perhaps have a statue in every major city by that time? Or maybe he would have made a dozen or so excellent and fantastic movies? Or maybe even he would have a house just for his Oscar collection?
You could guess that. But then you'd be wrong.
This is what happened to him.
Did you watch that video?
No?
Watch it.
Like, seriously, watch it.
Now, I could spend the rest of my time on this Earth watching this clip over and over, and I will do a breakdown of this in a future post (like, the next one, probably) but just like Beowulf who eventually falls to a fiery dragon, every hero must have a grand and glorious death. And this, my friends, is the most glorious end to the saddest story of a young genius. A man who was trained to be the best, was the best, peaked way too early, and had a slow, lingering fall into the ash pile of tears and regret.
Ah, the French.
