Obviously a great film

Rating: 10/10 (16 October 1999)

Citizen Kane will never be popular with the general public because it asks too much of the viewer: namely, that he sit still and pay attention, and periodically use his brain to process the information. There are no wasted scenes in this film, consequently no boring scenes. Years of potentially interesting material are covered in minutes, sometimes seconds, so that we see only what the writer & director deem most relevant to their story. The audience is not told what to think about Kane; opinions expressed by the characters are not necessarily those of the film makers. A man's life is too complex to be neatly packaged and turned into a formula. Kane evidently wanted love, not money, but he equated love with money and material possessions - or maybe he didn't, but didn't know how else to love and be loved - and [POSSIBLE SPOILER] as it turns out, he had the long-lost "Rosebud" in a crate, in a warehouse, without being aware of that fact. Would Kane have been a different man if he'd found Rosebud in middle-age, say? Was the missing sled his real ailment in life? Certainly not, if material possessions aren't bearers of love. Be wary of the "easy answers" - Citizen Kane is a wonderful work of art, much deeper than any of its parts.