His Girl Friday and Citizen Kane

Both Citizen Kane and His Girl Friday, while entirely different films, share similar themes about the nature of those involved in journalism. Both films make reference to the humanity lost by its characters because of their obsession with their job. Citizen Kane is a portrait of a confident, intelligent, driven young man who is warped into a tired, soulless, selfish old man. His obsession with the Inquirer strips him of his humanity and leaves him an empty shell. It’s certainly a bleak view of journalism. His Girl Friday is a much lighter comedy, but it has just as bleak a view of journalism as Citizen Kane. Instead of showing the characters slowly morph into soulless people, His Girl Friday establishes the characters as selfish and greedy from the beginning. Instead, the story focuses on the relationship between Walter and Hildy, and Hildy’s attempts to leave the newspaper trade she loves for a chance at having the ‘real’ life that Walter could never offer her. They both talk constantly about how newspapermen are all scoundrels who only care about getting the story, them included. It seems that both filmmakers were concerned about the direction that journalism had gone in the 30’s and 40’s, and where it was headed. It’s interesting how two very different films made in the early 1940’s have a similar view of journalism, which is still resonant and relevant today with the 24 hr new cycle.