Eccentric and genius

Rating: 10/10 (24 November 2000)

Orson Welles' classic film, Citizen Kane, still stands to be one of the finest in film history. It's influence has surpassed the influences of Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, All Quiet On the Western Front, and possibly moreso than A Birth of a Nation. From Scorsese to Spielberg to Kubrick to Kurosawa to Coppola, it has influenced more filmmakers from across the world (or Hollywood at least) to not only make movies, but to make life... or at least have the ceilling be viewed in the shot. What I love about the screenplay is it never reveals what Kane's last word, "Rosebud", in dialogue. Now, I'm not going to say what "Rosebud" is, because I don't want to be chased by an angry mob of people just to be backed into a dark corner in a black alley and beaten senseless with baseball bats just because I gave away the big surprise ending. Hermann did a fantastic job in presenting the story on paper but Welles really worked the dialogue in the film. He shortened extended paragraphs into simple, catchy sentences. "People will think..." "What I tell them to think!" could have originally been something far more elaborate. Ah, but the direction is the true essence of the film's genius. It was presented like a painting by Leonardo da Vinci; it seemed so mathematical and so direct. Especially in my favorite scene in the film, when a drunk Leland (played with superbness by Joseph Cotten in what is possibly the film's best performance) and a sore loser Kane (coughAlGorecough) are talking in the newspaper building/campaigne HQ. The camera moves with them like it's doing a slow tango with the actors. This is the most unique film that I might ever see and the greatest that will ever be. It's the Dark Side of the Moon of motion pictures. Majestic yet sincere and pushed so many buttons that it even went beyond its own time. It's not just an example of amazing filmmaking, but it shows aspiring filmmakers how.