pretty good but not great

Rating: Null/10 (17 November 2003)

`Typical rich guy'. that's what comes to mind when watching this movie. The plot line is simple and predictable that acting is good but not spectacular. (But then again what makes an actor spectacular?) These are things that this reviewer thinks made the movie not such a hit at its first release. However, the artistic value along with some of the `scandal' involved in Citizen Kane is what made it a classic years later. Citizen Kane is a story of a man's life from childhood to death. His story is told through the flashbacks and memories of the people who knew him. The movie starts with showing him on his deathbed when he utters the word `Rosebud' and then the announcements of his death hit the newspapers. When a group of men are reviewing a newsreel that they want to put into action they realize they want some meat to the story and that's when the search begins to find out what `Rosebud' means. The men obviously can't ask Kane so they travel around doing interviews and trying to put the puzzle pieces together. This plot idea is a great way to put the story together but can sometimes become confusing with the many different characters that come in and out during different flashbacks. All in all this story is very interesting when you want to devote the time to try to fully understand the character of Kane through the flashbacks of others. As before stated: the acting is not spectacular, there are moments of stiffness and unrealistic acting like when Kane is trashing one of the rooms in his mansion because his wife left him. However kudos must be given to Orson Welles who not only starred in, but also produced and directed this movie, then on top of that is was such an artistic film as well. Citizen Kane was the first movie of its kind. Many innovative camera angles were used, such as placing the camera on the floor, and also lighting and placement of people were big parts of the artistic and value of this film. At times the lighting tricks are less effective because an actor will be talking and all the viewer can see is their outline and the actor's face is completely in darkness. This can have a distracting effect on the viewer since it's not very often that people talk to each other in complete darkness. Citizen Kane was speculated by some as to have been tracing the life of real life yellow journalist, William Randolph Hearst; who also coincidently experienced some of the many things that Kane did. Years later this has attracted the attention of many people when the stories of how Hearst was willing to buy all copies of the movie that were made in order to prevent them from being released. Citizen Kane is a great artistic film and certainly the greatest black-and-white film this reviewer has seen. Worthy of being #9 on IMDB's top 250? I'm still not sure.