What did the poster say? "It's Terrific!"

Rating: 10/10 (8 December 2004)

I've taken my time before commenting on what is usually considered the great American film masterpiece, but at this point I feel up to it--having now watched the film eight times and read four books about it as well as watching the documentary "The Battle over Citizen Kane" twice. No, it doesn't take that much effort to understand the film, but research can embolden a person.
The first comment so many people now make is that "Citizen Kane" is not a work of genius, but they're wrong; it is a work of genius--four genii in tandem. Herman Mankiewicz was a self-destructive, crazy, egotistical Hollywood genius long before Orson Welles would define that phrase (though he was not, as some have contended in recent times, a Hollywood intellectual--he was a master of lowbrow screwball comedy in the 1930s--see Pauline Kael's book "Raising Kane"); Orson Welles really was a genius, for all the things he wasn't; Greg Toland is perhaps the most famous and celebrated cinematographer in history to this day; and Bernard Herrman wrote seemingly every memorable film score from 1940 through 1970 (including what I consider the greatest film score of all time, "Psycho").
"Citizen Kane" also did not receive bad reviews upon its release; it received unbelievable raves. I read over 20 contemporary reviews of the film and over half of them called it the greatest film of all time, and the least adulatory called it a "good film" but not quite a "great film." How we've had it come down to us from history that "Kane" received bad reviews upon release, I don't know; but it is patently untrue. It received fewer reviews than many films because of the Hearst boycott, but those it did receive were all adulatory.
Now that I've dispelled some annoying myths about the film, I'll speak of the film itself. Perhaps its most notable quality is its beautiful and strange look created by Greg Toland and Orson Welles (how much each did is a matter of some conjecture). It is loaded with brilliant high-contrast lighting; large, mostly vacant, stage-like sets; and odd camera angles that give it a distinctive look that would then be appropriated by the film noir genre.
However, what truly holds the film together is one of the greatest characters and performances in film history. Not truly William Randolph Hearst but rather an amalgam of big media types, including Hearst; Charles Foster Kane is an amazing character and Orson Welles's performance is nothing short of extraordinary--from the somewhat awkward dancing in the song scene to the unsure look on his face when Jed Leland asks for the Declaration of Principles to the way his physical mannerisms change as he ages, Welles crafts a wonderful performance. But if you're looking to define Kane by one moment in the film, it's not "Rosebud," it's the speech Jed Leland gives about him, saying correctly, "that's his story."
The other performances in the film are also top-notch, highlighted by Dorothy Comingore as Susan Alexander, Joseph Cotten (whose performance may even equal Welles's, though his part is much less showy) as Jed Leland, and the beautiful Ruth Warrick as Emily Monroe Norton.
Of all of this film's innovations, its use of music may be the most important. Music as a scene transition device was a radio trick, but since "Citizen Kane," it's become standard in film as well. Bernard Herrman provided a score that is mostly brilliant, if at times a bit over-dramatic.
"Citizen Kane" is fascinating and, above all, fun. It's loaded with great small pieces of humor ("Kane Elected"--"Fraud at Polls," for example) and has all of the intellectual and academic fulfillment one could want in a film. It's not, as are many "great" movies, something only for film-studying intellectuals; "Citizen Kane" is a wonderful work for the masses all the way around.