How to Watch Citizen Kane

Rating: 5/10 (8 December 2010)

Warning: spoilers
The first time I watched _Citizen Kane_, the movie seemed to aim for psychological depth in its treatment of Kane, but several of the supporting characters were exaggeratedly silly in a way now appropriate for a TV sitcom. The apparent inconsistencies resolve when one realizes that _Kane_, of course, is a hit job on William Randolph Hearst, and that the depiction of Hearst and his lover are as over the top as the actions of the lesser characters.
Heart's sin, apparently, was being an unrepentant capitalist and occupying media space that Welles thought would be better allocated to progressive voices. Whatever Welles' motivation, he was willing to trash anyone to get to his target. Hearst's lover, Marion Davies, was starring in films before she met Hearst. I suppose Davies' only sin was being near Hearst, but Welles turns her into a talentless vacuum to accentuate Kane's utter narcissism. The documentary _Movie Moguls_ claims that 'Rosebud' was Hearst's pet name for Marion's private part. This would explain why Rosebud appears in the movie as a sled, something for Kane to ride. It also puts a different slant on the final scene, where Rosebud is committed to the flames.
Welles gave his cinematographer the freedom to revive the expressionist lighting of the more experimental films of the silent era. This gives the visual aspects of _Kane_ a powerful role in presenting the film's themes. How to light a film isn't the big lesson from _Kane_. Orson Welles was freezing, personalizing and polarizing his target long before Saul Alinsky. _Citizen Kane_ showed filmmakers how to go for the jugular.