It just doesn't reach the modern audience

Rating: Null/10 (22 March 2001)

I saw this film for a class entitled "The Art of the Cinema" at Penn State University. Within thirty minutes of the opening credits, only a handful of students in a class of around 800 were awake.
What I think this demonstrates is the very criteria on which I base my own opinion of "great" movies: the ability to transcend time and culture, and to have a perpetual impact on audiences. Unfortunately, Citizen Kane does not have this, as evidenced by these sleeping students, as well as the thousands of other film students who fall asleep during this film. It isn't that they're being "disrespectful" to a classic, but it's just this: the younger generations don't take classics for more than they're worth (there is no reverence for "the name itself"). I think that this is worth looking into, because other such "classics" such as Singing in the Rain, Some Like It Hot, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance still do captivate even the youngest audiences. Maybe this is because there is something in these films that young Americans feel that they can relate to. Citizen Kane, despite what the critics and many "film buffs" say, lacks this.
If you don't believe me, look at the empirical evidence. Go to a showing of Citizen Kane in a film class at a university near you. You might be the only one still awake at the end of the movie. You may think that Citizen Kane deserves to be #1 on AFI and IMDB, but remember; this is far from the majority opinion among Americans today. It doesn't matter what film critics or buffs say, young Americans will continue to view films for their actual worth, and to Citizen Kane, young Americans say, "over-rated."