Reel Look: 'Citizen Kane'

Rating: 8/10 (21 October 2014)

"Rosebud..." When experienced screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz collaborated with Welles on a screenplay originally called "The American", it was going to be based on the life of Willaim Randolph Hearst. Hearst in his time had put together an empire of newspapers, radio stations, magazines and news services. To top it all off over his achievements and successes, he then built to himself the flamboyant mansion of San Simeon; a castle that only came to be furnished by rummaging through the remains of numerous countries. What more can be said about this milestone in cinematic history that has not been said to death? I, in turn, will continue to do so thus. Let's take a look.
In retrospect of this phenomenal film full of depth and physical manifestation, Orson Welles' tour de force 1941 masterpiece 'Citizen Kane' indeed earns the rights to be regarded as "the greatest movie ever made" due to its magnificent themes, metaphors and camera angles. Here, we meet William Randolph Hearst (a twenty-five year old Welles), a newspaper tycoon who eventually metamorphoses into an aging, lonely old man with hardly a spark left for a soul. Hearst was the Ted Turner, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet of his day, encompassed and ensnared in an egocentric oasis. The aftermath of Hearst had effects on both the movie and Orson Welles' career by engaging the viewer into a world where power and greed can eventually lead into emptiness and depravity. Hearst and the character of Charles Foster Kane diminish slowly together on a long, sorrowing note, ending their lives with a somewhat similar void that could never be gained back. His dying word "Rosebud" (an extreme close-up of his giant rubbery lips before releasing a snow globe that crashes to the floor) encapsulates and summarizes his very existence as a man of power has every aspect and viewpoint snatched from his once-iron clutches. A news reel obituary "News On The March" tells the life story of Kane, as one of the viewers, a reporter named Jerry Thompson (William Alland, a thankless role in which we never see his face) is tasked to discover the meaning behind that last puzzling word uttered "Rosebud" via interviewing friends and associates of the now-deceased magnate. We then sojourn through memories and hauting shadows of the past of a once wealthy man with a hollow existence, echoing that from promising beginnings with newspapers to that of the abandoned Xanadu. Through vivid memory and recollections, we go back to when, as a boy, we see he was taken east to a boarding school, losing security, hope and innocence all too soon by his parent's forbidding choice for a "promising future" (his mother played by Agnes Moorehead). This role would be played throughout he spectrum of his whole life, leaving him completely drained of something he lost and could never gain again. An example being when tries to make his mistress and second wife Susan Alexander Kane (Dorothy Comingore) an opera star, only as the camera pans up to a stagehand above holding his nose. Kane had spoken and entertained millions, but as his life came to a close, he died alone in his enormous and luxurious palatial estate in Xanadu that had died along with him, surrounded by priceless artifacts from around the globe that he could never take to the grave excepting a single untouchable source: his own inner turmoil. A vast palace of great and powerful splendor was now an empty shell, along with its now deceased and powerless owner. Kane may have died in the picture nonetheless, but Orson Welles' unforgettable portrayal of him and his directorial debut boosted his career even higher to continue on to making more wonderful films.
The metaphors in this film are very clear for someone with a keen and observant eye. It is these bravura moments that truly capture the essence of the picture itself. For example, when Kane is sitting with his first wife at the dinner table, the camera shows a newspaper headline and then goes back to them. As this goes on, we see them separating more and more from each other as a new headline appears. It is showing the viewer on where their relationship is going and how it is going to end: estranged with nothing but a large gap between them. Another moment is when Kane is alone in his darkened, barren office talking with an inebriated Jed Leland (Joseph Cotten). Here the camera angle is show looking up at them from the ground, implying a defeated Kane feeling as hollow as the newspaper room in which he works. A third example is when we see the many Kane reflected through the parallel mirrors, each one the same shape and persona. It is here that Kane is who he is, which will always be his enigma for the people he knew as for himself.
This spectacular masterpiece should not be missed by anyone. On this being the second viewing of this film in my life, and probably not being the last, I too have noticed things that I have overlooked before. Though I have only scratched the service and papers upon papers have been written about this cornerstone of cinema, seventy plus years later it still remains a powerhouse of brilliant achievement for Welles and for the generation of cinema that forever raises the bar of genius filmmaking.