The Music of MANK With Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Synopsis

Mank captures the life of Mankiewicz between essentially 1933 and 1940, when America was in the midst of the Depression and watching uneasily, but from far, the gathering clouds of World War II. There is another presence that Fincher does well to focus on in his telling of the making of Citizen Kane, the candidacy of Left-leaning Upton Sinclair for the governorship of California, which sees the tinsel town gang up against him. As Sinclair is portrayed as promoting "anti-American" values, with MGM lending its might to a campaign that would now be described as fake news, Mank is forced to confront his own compromises and little lies. In a marvelous scene, Dance's Hearst recounts Oldman's Mank the "parable of the organ grinder's monkey", just after the latter has humiliated himself and Hearst in a drunken rant about the sold idealism of the newspaper baron. While the monkey thinks it is him running the show, Hearst reminds Mank, he has to "dance", "every time", the music plays. That realization is a glimpse of the bitterness that would eventually lead Mank to finding himself jobless in Hollywood, particularly after his decision to take on Hearst with Welles' backing. It would also lead him to Citizen Kane - while on the bed with a broken leg, away from friends and family and fighting for a drink despite alcohol slowly claiming him - as well as his only Oscar. As Mank explains it to a friend, "We have got a huge responsibility, to people in the dark willingly checking their disbelief at the door."