There's something funny about a film with no definitive cut (directed by fabulist Orson Welles) dealing with the many lives of one man. That man is aging crime lord Mr. Gregory Arkadin, a force of evil who hires young hoodlum Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden) to track down the origins of Arkadin. The twisting plot and timeline is so complex as to make a summary pointless, but the film is essentially a journey in which Van Stratten attempts to extricate Arkadin's history from the webs and spiders. Despite the film's use of Van Stratten as a protagonist, Arkadin (and his own attempts to erase all past connections) remains the fascinating center of the film. The legends we hear about Arkadin suggest many things, with the only constants being immorality and power. By the time he finally appears (behind a mask at a ball held in his castle), Welles has built the film's antagonist to a theatrical level. Arkadin is an imposing figure visually and verbally, with heavy makeup contributing to Welles's forceful performance. Add to this Arkadin's sinister anecdotes and shots that rarely lets us take in the villain from a normal angle and Arkadin becomes one of Welles's most menacing constructions.
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There's something funny about a film with no definitive cut (directed by fabulist Orson Welles) dealing with the many lives of one man. That man is aging crime lord Mr. Gregory Arkadin, a force of evil who hires young hoodlum Guy Van Stratten (Robert Arden) to track down the origins of Arkadin. The twisting plot and timeline is so complex as to make a summary pointless, but the film is essentially a journey in which Van Stratten attempts to extricate Arkadin's history from the webs and spiders. Despite the film's use of Van Stratten as a protagonist, Arkadin (and his own attempts to erase all past connections) remains the fascinating center of the film. The legends we hear about Arkadin suggest many things, with the only constants being immorality and power. By the time he finally appears (behind a mask at a ball held in his castle), Welles has built the film's antagonist to a theatrical level. Arkadin is an imposing figure visually and verbally, with heavy makeup contributing to Welles's forceful performance. Add to this Arkadin's sinister anecdotes and shots that rarely lets us take in the villain from a normal angle and Arkadin becomes one of Welles's most menacing constructions.
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