Herman Mankiewicz, Pauline Kael, and the Battle over “Citizen Kane” (newyorker.com)

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Full archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20201114113947/https://www.newyo...

I was able to get around the paywall by using "reader mode" in Firefox.

A horrible movie. The end of the golden era. The best era ever. Mank, David Fincher's new movie about that dispute will open on Dec 4. Mankiewicz was the original writer of Citizen Kane, about one if the most important fascists if those times, until Orson Wells butchered it.

The famous Kael piece about Mank is mandatory reading for every film lover.

I loved it too. But also interesting to watch the McKee documentary[0] if you can find it available.

[0]: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0996623/

I'd guess the way in which a persons screen-writing job normally concludes doesn't involve either quitting or being fired.