The best film anybody will ever see

Rating: 10/10 (28 April 1999)

Even before "Citizen Kane," Orson Welles, was Hollywood's favorite little prodigy and no one could wait to see how he would fare with his first shot at motion picture directing. At 25 years old, with his directorial debut, he made the greatest movie of all time.
There just isn't anything that you can't like about "Kane." The story is compelling and timeless, the visuals spectacular, the artwork enigmatic and gothically beautiful, the ensemble acting an unsung triumph, the score haunting and suggestive, and through it all we can feel Welles' deft touch weave this powerful tale of a man's lifelong battle with himself like no other director could have dreamed of doing.
The amazing thing about Charles Foster Kane, himself, is we only see him as others did. The only things that we, for a fact, know that he said or did were either included on the newsreel or the classic opening scene, where we know that he uttered "Rosebud." Rosebud. What a fantastic imagining by Herman J. Mankiewiecz. An entire man's life is about to be judged because of a childhood memory he utters as he dies. As touching and heartbreaking as the best parts of the movie.
The best part, however, about "Citizen Kane" is the effect it had on American movies. As if this wasn't a great enough film to begin with, it had such a strong influence on future filmmakers that one can sometimes pick out Kane-esque shots. In short, see "Citizen Kane" once or three hundred times and you will agree that nobody ever did it better than this kid did on try #1.