“Wellesnet,” the online Orson Welles news and fan site has noted that Donald Trump’s campaign is coming, more and more, to resemble the doomed election bid of Charles Foster Kane in the 1941 film. One will remember that things for Citizen Kane started to come unraveled when he threatened, at a big rally, to prosecute his opponent once elected.
“But here’s one promise I’ll make and Boss Jim Gettys knows I’ll keep it,” Kane says. “My first official act as governor of this state will be to appoint a special district attorney to arrange for the indictment, prosecution and conviction of Boss Jim W. Gettys.”
As Wellesnet recounts, in turn, “Gettys destroys Kane’s political aspirations by leaking a sex scandal involving Kane in the final stretch of the campaign.”
Other film references come to mind. I can’t be the only person who thought Sunday night’s debate was a sort of talentless remake of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolff?”.
