Something for everyone to love!

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2000)

What can one say that hasn't already been said about this movie? It's brilliance is trumpeted by better than I for years before and to come. And yet, here's my two cents. "Citizen Kane" is a perfect film. There's amazing camera work and editing techniques (not the first to use them, but the first film to use all of them in one film to artistic success), fantastic acting (they are acting 'on the line' or 'in the moment', and they are not over-the-top as was common at the time), a terrific story (made all the better by it's factual basis), and characters are ones that we care about (ibid). The frame is filled with small details that add to the scenes. The language and vocabulary are ones that remind us of the beauty that English can achieve, calling up mental images that are left un-painted on the screen but burn brightly in our minds. The lighting is evocative, but not overly moody. In short, everything works. The message is one of simplicity (be a human first, a collector and achiever second), yet is subtly delivered that you could easily watch this movie for the characters, the story, the action, the dialogue, or whatever you wanted to. That is the genius of this film - there is something for everyone to love in it, and it does it so successfully that it's difficult imagining anyone walking out of the theatre saying 'I can make better films than that.'