Despite Its Timeless Story And Impressive Photography, This Is A Highly Overrated Film That Fails To Maintain Audience Attention

Rating: 5/10 (14 December 2019)

Recently this year, I went to the shops to buy some Blu-rays (yes, I don't use streaming). There on the shelf, I spotted a title that caught my attention. It was an iconic movie by the grand name of 'Citizen Kane'. Knowing what it was, I immediately yanked it out of the shelf and examined it. I could feel the disc communicating with me. 'Please buy me', it begged. 'You know what I am. I'm the greatest film in cinema history!' The temptation was irresistible, so I gave in and bought it to discover whether it's worthy of its championed honour or not.
Orson Welles' highly respected 1941 classic tells the story of a millionaire named Charles Foster Kane (Welles) and his unexpected death. About to die, he spontaneously utters the word 'rosebud', leading to an investigation conducted by a reporter in order to find out what the word meant. Their search makes them encounter the divorced wives and close friends of Kane's. They explain to the reporter their perspectives of Kane and the experiences they faced with him, both positive and negative, to help him discover the mystery of 'rosebud'. These explanations also allow the audience to piece together Kane's extraordinary life.
To me, Kane is simply a 1940s version of Donald Trump (or any other celebrity really). What makes the story timeless is that the subplot involving Kane's life focuses not only on a celebrity's contributions and impact on society, but on his/her own personal life. Kane may have done many remarkable things and earned tonnes of cash, but his relationships with his friends and his wives deteriorated mainly because of his dominating and selfish nature.
For a film that is almost eighty years old, it does feature some very impressive cinematography (it was nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar but it didn't win, it only won Best Writing), but a good story and good photography don't just make the greatest film of all time - every other aspect of filmmaking (eg. acting, entertainment, screenplay) must be top-notch in order to deem it the honourable name. The biggest problem the film suffers from is its lack of entertainment - the movie drags, is very talky and induces sleepiness when viewed at night. I watched 'Kane' during the day but I had to force myself to continue watching this tedious picture. It has unlikeable characters (especially its protagonist) and the script is filled with unnecessary dialogue, which was probably done in order to make the movie seem sophisticated and to make those fibsters who awarded this a ten-star mock the people who found it dull by commenting that they are 'not intelligent enough' or 'just don't get it'. I must be honest, but if a professor or some college student needs to reveal the concealed meanings of the film to help me enjoy it, the film is clearly not the best. Now, (spoilers ahead!) to save two (more like four) precious hours of your life, I think I have the right to explain what 'rosebud' actually is: it is the name of the sled Kane rode as a boy. There, I said it. Sounds random, right? According to a few sources (such as Roger Ebert's review), it states that the sled is a symbol of the innocence of childhood - it made Kane think about a much purer time in his life when he died (hence why he said it). It's a nice little connection, but it's not obvious to work out.
So, is 'Citizen Kane' the greatest film of all time? Absolutely not. And it's not one of the best either - I've seen much better films in my life. Those critics and 'geniuses' that awarded this a perfect score have a lot of explaining to do to prove why it's so good. If a random person walks up to me and claims that this is the supreme movie of all, I instantly think that they clearly haven't seen it and they're just jumping aboard the bandwagon. It's a very boring movie that will disappoint and waste your time. It's a great example of a film that should've really been a short film or a book. If you are interested in it, just read the plot on Wikipedia: you will get as many thrills as watching it and it will only take you a twenty-fourth of the film's entire duration to do it. Skip this and try 'The Third Man' instead.
Rating: 5.5/10