Love This Old Movie

Rating: 10/10 (20 February 2017)

I don't like a lot of old movies. I love all of Alfred Hitchcock's classic suspense films and I had heard very mixed things about Citizen Kane when I borrowed it from the library. It seems like it must be a very polarizing movie because most of the comments and reviews here, plus all of the "word of mouth" I have gotten over the years, seems to put people either at one extreme or the other, saying that this is the greatest film of all time or that it's the most overrated piece of garbage movie that's ever been made in the history of film.
I was pretty surprised when I watched it to find out that I am in the "loved it!" camp. The acting, writing, cinematography and direction are all absolutely top notch in my mind, especially when you consider this film was made in 1941.
Is it the greatest film ever? I don't think so. But it definitely was at the time, and look at it this way - ever since then every single great movie had to aspire to be better than this film. They've got more groundbreaking cinematography, etc, but a lot of that is built on what this film had done and therefore owes a lot to it. Also we have to remember there have been great advances in equipment, etc, so people after this era could do more and could do so easier. Even just camera movements would have been a lot more difficult back then. They hadn't even had audio in films for that long at the time! I think a lot of people who hate this movie really are just disliking the fact it is slow and old and in black and white, but if you watch it for what it is this is still a masterpiece and one of the greatest films of all time.