The master-piece

Rating: 10/10 (10 July 2016)

You may ask yourself: what are criteria for a good movie? This is a question of great importance; it is still an unsolved problem. However, there are some titles which deserve to bear title ''good'' or even ''master-piece'' despite the fact that we don't have such criteria. They change you completely, so you don't need any further proofs that they are ''good''. Orson Welles' ''Citizen Kane'' is certainly one of those titles.
Charles Foster Kane, the protagonist, was a very wealthy and powerful man. For decades, Kane had been influencing public opinion thanks to his media empire. But, ''as it must to all men, death came to Kane''. His death was an ordinary death. Old man died in his bed. His last word was an ordinary word - ''Rosebud''. Nevertheless, Kane wasn't an ordinary man. Wouldn't it be great if we could find out what he meant by ''Rosebud'' at his very end? Does ''Rosebud'' tell us something about Kane's life that can be helpful for understanding his personality?
In two hours of this master-piece, we didn't just get an answer to these questions. We got a story about Kane's whole life. Kane's childhood, youth, old age, moments of fear, love, suffering, his political failure, people he loved or, at least, possibly loved. After all that, at the very end of the movie, meaning of ''Rosebud'' is finally revealed. ''Rosebud'' is name for sleigh which represents Kane's childhood.
One could say: ''Well, what's exactly the point of all this? An old tycoon remembered his childhood, the period of his innocence; almost all men are emotionally connected to their childhood. Furthermore, there was no point in watching events on Kane's later life because they are completely irrelevant for the meaning of his last word.'' I strongly disagree to this kind of argument. In my opinion, Welles wanted to send a message to us. Two hours of Kane's life should show us that man (any man) is very complex being. Kane's acts, his speeches, his emotions are often strange and unexpected, even paradoxical. On the other side, his last word, ''Rosebud'', as I already said, represents his childhood. Childhood is period of simplicity. So, Welles' message could be: Even we are very complex, we naturally strive to simplicity. If that so, if we accept this as a truth, there will be a lot work for philosophers and scientists.