One of the Greatest Movies of All Time? Or Just a Lot of Stuff That Happened?

Rating: Null/10 (13 December 2004)

I watched this for the second time in my life, with my oldest boy. Although we love stupid movies, there is also a soft spot in our hearts for well-crafted older movies as well...
Was this movie well crafted? Yes, although not on an empirical level. Welles seemed to be producing this film on a gut level. He seemed to know which rules to break and when to break them. Indeed there wasn't a single likable character in the entire movie. Most of the women in the movie are better thrown back into the cast of Macbeth. I understand that the women are intentionally bad to illustrate what Kane experienced with the fairer sex after his mother gave him away. Brilliant casting of Agnes Moorehead in that role, by the way...
Kane's two best friends are a gad-about and a sychophant. The only reason that you feel anything for these men is that Kane turns out to be such a dastard...
I think, though, that basing a movie upon the psychology of a man was a very dangerous premise. Let's face it: Welles was a genius. Not only in his production of the film, but in his acting. His scene with his second wife where he begs her to stay with him is utterly amazing. He has an age in his face that makeup could not possibly have been responsible for.
The movie world was growing up. This movie walks a line between older dramas and modern dramas. It is a dark and unhappy movie; however, in many cases that will be overshadowed by the sheer brilliance of the production as a whole.