Yes

Rating: 10/10 (15 October 2003)

The negative reviews here are symptoms of the age: Value as measured by the capacity to entertain, or more broadly, value as measured by utility. But Citizen Kane is not about entertainment or utility; it's about art, a profound exploration of the human condition. The negative reviews say everything about the reviewers and nothing about Citizen Kane; namely, they're a testament to their poor taste and overall flawed aesthetic judgment. It's funny that they think that they're being somehow revolutionary with these reviews when in fact they merely reveal their own common, plebian tastes. Notice the movies one of the negative reviewers lists: The Godfather, Schindler's List, Memento, Psycho, It's a Wonderful Life - all classics save one - the common denominator being that they all contain either loud crashes, loud blasts, screaming, speed, physical assaults etc. etc. This is totally consistent with the modern pop-sensibility which has no taste for anything quiet, though it's precisely in the softest whispers of our lives where the deepest profundity is found. Such a person, of course, would have no use for such quiet, slow moving classics as Persona, Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, or Elvira Madigan - but would certainly consider the nihilistic likes of Kill Bill to be an instant masterpiece. (Quentin Tarantino: The most overrated director around. Nothing but a cheap, pandering nihilist. A friend of mine recently asserted that Pulp Fiction is the most important film of the '90s. This is true only as far as Pulp Fiction serves as a diagnostic tool for the physician of culture: It says everything about the 90s and little about the actual merits of Pulp Fiction).
"The shallow mind is concerned only with utility." -Aristotle