A monument to film that will live forever

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2005)

Citizen Kane. Here is a movie that has been almost universally acclaimed by every expert worth his salt as the greatest of all-time. The American Film Institute chose it. On the Sight and Sound Poll it was a near unanimous choice. Yet there is still a very large amount of people who have not seen this movie. It's not as mainstream of a Best Movie Ever as, say, The Godfather, but still this is inexcusable.
The most likely reason for this is that Citizen Kane is a black-and-white film from 1941. This may turn off modern movie-goers but not me. Convinced that the Godfather was the greatest movie ever and wanting to see for myself if Citizen Kane was as good as people claimed, I rented it just yesterday, February 28. Let me just say the first word that comes to my mind.
Wow. I'll say it again. Wow. Here is a movie that is over 60 years old, from the year America went into World War II. This film came out before Pearl Harbor, when Adolf Hitler was Fuehrer of Germany. Yet its direction is still unparalleled in the industry. The main reason for Citizen Kane's place in movie expert's hearts is for its insanely innovative technical prowess. It is almost impossible to explain just how revolutionary this direction is. Just about every movie since Citizen Kane has taken something from this movie. Yet it is still the golden light among movie direction. I was so stunned watching this film. Despite all the technical limitations of his time, despite the very simple methods of making movies that were prominent in the early 1900s, this film is so technically perfect that it is impossible for any reasonable man to deny its place among the very, very greatest movies ever. I just cannot explain in this space the perfection of this movie's direction. Orson Welles is an absolute genius when it comes to the cinema.
And apparently, not only did Welles orchestrate the technically finest film ever made, he is also a superb actor! Watching this movie I was immensely impressed with Charles Foster Kane and the actor who immortalized him. The entire time I was thinking, who could this be? I concentrated during the credits and found out that Orson Welles himself played the star in his signature movie. This is honestly one of the best acting performances I've ever seen, and Kane is the most memorable character this side of Vito Corleone I've ever met in my experiences with the cinema.
Charles Foster Kane was a world-famous newspaper tycoon, the most powerful media puppetmaster America had ever known. It is generally accepted that this character was based off of William Randolph Hurst, but that's beside the point. When he died in 1941 with his empire in shambles, he uttered one last word before falling. "Rosebud." One reporter is assigned to find out what this word meant. To do so he interviews the most central figures in Kane's life. It is through this story that the movie comes alive. Through this Welles displays all sorts of flashbacks, which are essentially the movie itself, of Kane's life. All of the important chapters in his saga are covered in an attempt to find out what Rosebud really means. In the process, we see a frighteningly deep display into a man who got everything he wanted in life and then subsequently lost it, his lust for material possessions to replace something else he had lost, his determination to have everything he desired what drove him through life. This all culminates in the ending which has to rank as the greatest and most thought-provoking I've ever seen. It is this ending that pieces together the puzzle of Kane's life and his struggle. It lays everything to rest, and at the end there is not one stone unturned. The ending makes everything make sense.
The acting in Citizen Kane is not especially memorable aside from Welles, nor is the soundtrack, but give us a break, this is 1941. Aside from that Citizen Kane features some of the most memorable scenes and subplots ever told. Three that particularly stand out are Leland's review, Kane's attempt at politics, and the attempt at turning his second wife into an opera singer. I won't spoil the story any further than this.
In conclusion, Citizen Kane is a movie that no intellectual human being should go their life without seeing. It is, simply put, a masterpiece, one of only two movies at this point I would give a 10 on IMDb. But is it the best movie of all-time? My opinions have changed in this matter. I now understand why all of the critics acclaim this above all else. In my heart I would still choose The Godfather, and as you can see I am giving Coppola's masterpiece a slightly higher rating, but in my mind these are the two greatest motion pictures ever created and nothing else can approach this pair of colossal giants. Perhaps it is because the Godfather features a wider cast of subplots and characters, rather than Citizen Kane focusing on one man, but in reality it is near impossible to point out any flaws in these two pieces of perfection. This is a movie that is both technically perfect and intellectually dazzling, a film that is both superb at face value and within our mind. It is a stirring piece of cinema that is and deserves to be more revered than any of its brethren. 9.7.
There is nothing more to say, but,
"I'm Charles Foster Kane! I am no politician who tries to save himself from the consequences of his own crimes!"