Widely regarded as the greatest film of all time by film lovers, but not by movie-goers

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 1999)

The first time I saw "Citizen Kane" was in a Film Theory class where none of the film's finer points escape the notice of class or teacher. From factors which include history of the period in which the story is told, camera techniques, and most importantly the ground-breaking work done on the film, by then novice filmmaker Orson Welles.
With the background story and attention to detail that a film class can illuminate for you, "Citizen Kane" can be an entertaining film to watch a number of times, as the camera angles and tricks employed are still interesting and appealing. What makes them more intriguing is to find out how unconventional they were at the time, and immediately recognize how truly commonplace they remain over fifty years later. It's hard for someone of my generation to appreciate unaided the finer qualities of this, the most stunning feature debut of all time.
It's probably equally difficult for any feature filmmaker to not compare their first work to "Citizen Kane", and wonder how it measures up. The truth is, most directors can enjoy a far more popular reception of their film quite easily in comparison, as "Citizen Kane" was not received well due to the glaringly obvious portrayal and insult to media mogul William Randolph Hearst. While widely regarded as the finest film ever made this century, it lost the Best Picture Oscar to "How Green Was My Valley", which also goes to show how the Academy can often miss the mark completely.
The truth is, "Citizen Kane" is a film lover's film. If you are not impressed by or aware of the technical details like lighting, editing, angles, tricks and bold innovations, you probably won't like it. There are other classic films that are perhaps more simplistic, which require not one iota of background explanation to understand, appreciate and enjoy the film. These are widely regarded as popular classics of a timeless nature, of which "Kane" doesn't seem to be.
In an interesting and ironic twist in reflection of the film today, "Citizen Kane" will always remain a colourless, unaltered masterpiece much to the chagrin of William Randolph Hearst emulator Ted Turner. Turner's attempts to have it colourized were met with failure as contract specifications as laid out by the late Orson Welles clearly prohibit any such action or tampering with the film. For those of you who feel they will never watch it because it's not in colour, that's fine. We don't need you and you wouldn't like it anyway.