Think of it as a movie with the moral, money cannot buy happiness

Rating: Null/10 (15 November 2003)

Contains spoiler At first glance, Citizen Kane appears to be a biography about a rich man who achieves power and control through his business dealings, or in this case, through the operation of a chain of newspapers. At the time the movie came out, similarities were made between the movie and the life of William Randolph Hearst. For instance, when reporters down in Cuba stated that there was no war there, Kane stated `there will be war when I say there is war.' This was the actual position that Hearst took at the time. Whether Kane is modeled after the life of William Randolph Hearst or not, the resemblance is strong. Both men would sacrifice anything to write the news, and in some cases, they would make up the story so circulation could increase.
The movie begins at the end of Charles Foster Kane's life. The opening scene shows a large castle in the background.. The camera pans the scene to show a couple of monkeys in a cage and two empty gondolas. It is a lonely setting. The castle remains in the background with one solitary light flickering in an upstairs window. The scene changes to a house within a snow globe. All of a sudden you see a pair of mustached lips, that whisper `Rosebud.' The hand holding on to the snow globe, drops it and the globe shatters in to small pieces on the ground. Charles Foster Kane's life has ended. Now begins the task of solving the mystery of who is `Rosebud'. At this point, the movie goes back and forth from present to past as reporters interview everyone who was close to Kane in an attempt to discover who Rosebud is.
Through the use of news reels, Kane's life is shown from its beginning to his rise to power. As a child, Kane was given up by his mother so that he could live a better life. Kane moves away with his new guardian, a rich man named Mr. Thatcher (played by George Coulouris) Kane becomes a reckless young man who in time is expelled from several colleges and universities. Mr. Thatcher provides Kane with money and options to own a few gold mines, but Kane decided to go into the newspaper business because `it might be fun'. As the story continues, he marries a girl ( played by Dorthy Comingore) from a prominent wealthy family. It is interesting how the movie shows the progression from a young happy couple to a marriage of that is less loving. As you may suspect, Kane meets someone else. This proves to be a downfall for Kane. At the time he is running for Governor and everyone assumes that he will be elected. His opponent uncovers his involvement with the other woman and it becomes a scandal. Kane marries the other woman and appears to support her in her desire to sing. It is clear, however, that his support is not to encourage her, but is a way for him to exercise power over her.
Orson Welles' portrayal of Kane helps us see him as a man who feels love for power and money. Although he has grown up in a poor family, Kane overcame poverty with a desire to have every thing. He only seems to be happy with money and having the people of his community under his control. That is probably why he was twice married and twice divorced. His wives were very different. One came from a wealthy well known family, the other came from a working class family. One was developing an independence from him, the other allowed herself to be controlled by him. Although the reviewer felt Kane would have done better if he had stayed with his first wife rather than marrying again, that would have gone against his nature.

Joseph Cotten Played Jedediah Leland who is Kane's best friend .He was also an employee of Kane's newspaper. Shortly after Kane married his second wife, Leland found himself in the unpleasant position of writing about her debut as an opera singer. The performance, which was incredibly bad, Kane walked in to the office and found Leland passed out on the typewriter. A partially written review about Kane's wife was in the typewriter and a bottle of whiskey was nearby. Kane took Leland's review, and finished it. After that, Kane fired him. The movie leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Did Leland get drunk because he did not want to write the review? Was he struggling between having to be truthful or being loyal? The movie does not give all the answers, but lets the viewer fill in the gaps. What is interesting about this is that while Kane finished the review, he did not change its negative tone. This leaves us with another question. Was Leland fired because he got drunk ? Was he fired because of what he wrote about Susan? Or was he fired because Kane thought if he struggled with the decision of telling the truth or hurting a friend he could no longer report the news accurately?
The reviewer gives this movie a 5 out of 5 star rating. It is filmed era after era making the viewer believe that the years are passing by in every scene. Other movies have `Flashbacks' in them, but they have not been as intriguing, as this one has been. It was interesting to follow the reporter who interviewed close friends of Kane to try to find out who or what `Rosebud' is. He never found out, but we did. When the workers were cleaning out Kane's possessions, they threw his stuff into a fire, one of those things was an old sled, with `Rosebud' printed on it.

For a movie over 60 years old the cinematography was terrific. It was very well organized. When you think of Citizen Kane, don't just think of it as a regular movie.