New Netflix film Mank centers around Herman Mankiewicz, the writer who wrote the screenplay for Citizen Kane. We speak with Mankiewicz s grandsons Josh Mankiewicz and Ben Mankiewicz about their grandfather and family. Also, the congressional relief package includes $4 billion for New York s Metropolitan Transportation Agency. The MTA is in a deep financial hole because ridership and revenue plummeted during the pandemic. We talk to the CEO of the MTA about the pandemic s impacts. That and more, in hour one of
Here & Now s Dec. 21, 2020, full broadcast. You can find more at hereandnow.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram or join the conversation on Facebook.
Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz in Mank. (Netflix)
Herman Mankiewicz, the screenwriter commissioned by Orson Welles to pen “Citizen Kane,” is the focus of the new Netflix film “Mank.”
Mankiewicz, played by actor Gary Oldman, fiercely battled over writing credit for the film with Welles, the 25-year-old who in 1940 produced, directed and starred as Kane, a thinly veiled version of real-life media titan William Randolph Hearst. A great Hollywood feud ensued.
“Mank,” written by the late Jack Fincher and directed by his son David Fincher, comes down firmly on the side of Mankiewicz. So did critic Pauline Kael in an infamous 1972 essay after which director Peter Bogdanovich came to Welles’ defense.