The Social Network and Citizen Kane

Power can corrupt many things, including friendship. Not everyone is affected negatively by power, but it is the case in most films. This can be seen in two very different, yet similar films; they are The Social Network and Citizen Kane.
Both of these films have women playing a large role. In the Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg creates a website at the beginning of the film as part of his frustration and revenge from being dumped by a girl; Charles Kane in Citizen Kane, always acts to keep women close by, especially with the character Susan Alexander. Even Mark’s friend Eduardo had girl problems! Also, the way the two main characters started out, was only intended to be local, but their power continued growing. Mark expanded his network to other schools, then to other countries, while Kane started out with his local newspaper, but became well known for his marriage, as well as running for office and all of his other political bits. Something interesting is that both main characters had some sort of problem. Mark was socially impaired; Kane was needy and had problems about love. The most important, and noticeable similarity is that they both ruin their friendship because of their power. Mark betrays Eduardo, and Charles fires Jedidiah out of anger, and not wanting to face the truth. Both films also continuously go back and forth in time by the stories that are told by characters.
There are also many differences in these films. The most obvious one is that they’re in completely different time periods. Although, one big difference is that in The Social Network, Mark is led astray by the character Sean Parker. Kane’s problems basically all occur by his own means and want for power. Also, as both films progress, The Social Network revolves more about the business of Facebook, while in Citizen Kane, it becomes more and more about Kane’s personal life. Lastly, Kane is publicly brought down, while Mark was brought down more privately. In Mark’s story, betraying Eduardo plays a bigger role, as oppose to Jedidiah being a character that was easily rid of for Kane.
Although both of these films are excellent examples of what power can do to individuals, they are very different stories of power. They both achieve this in a very interesting way, and in different times, with different characters; power is something difficult to handle well.