"For Citizens Of All Ages"

Rating: 8/10 (14 March 2013)

"I don't think any word can explain a man's life". This quote stays true to its movie, Citizen Kane directed by Orson Welles, as it cannot be described with one word alone. Citizen Kane has been hailed as one of the greatest movies of all time–however, I think that fact itself ruins the movie for many viewers, including myself. Though the movie doesn't hold up to what it is praised to be, characters Charles Kane (Orson Welles), Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore), Mr. Bernstein (Everett Sloane), Walter Thatcher (George Coulouris), and Jerry Thompson (William Alland) all play their respective roles in the film excellently.
I feel that this movie is to be appreciated by a small group of people from today's audiences, mainly those who loves older films or have a love of classic mystery films, that aren't cliché murder-mysteries, and as I have previously stated, I believe Citizen Kane is just an OK movie. I feel as though many people go into the movie knowing that it IS the highest acclaimed movie of all time, and are let down when they get into it. Orson Welles did lots of things that no one had ever done before at the time, and nearly every film maker was in some way influenced by this movie from thereafter, so much that all of the techniques have become modern clichés. I understand why it was groundbreaking at the time, however, as time passes, so does everything else. This again does not mean that I believe that Citizen Kane was a bad movie, I just believe it has become dated. I give this film an 86/100.