Non-chronological history of the ups and downs in the life of Charles Foster Kane, based on the character of Randolph Hearst

Rating: 7/10 (6 November 2005)

"Citizen Kane," released in 1941, was ahead of its time in cinematography. Many long cuts, showing action in real time, fill the film. The few short cuts are taken mainly to emphasize dialogue. This story of newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane is based loosely on the life of William Randolph Hearst, who fought the release of this film into theaters.
The story is not told in chronological order. The first impression we get in this film is of a run down mansion, inhabited by a dying old man, whose last word in life was "rosebud." The quest of the film is to discover the meaning of this word.
"March of the News," a satire of the theater weekly "Time Marches On" newsreel, is footage of Kane documenting his lifetime, and gets the audience inside the life of this powerful, yet uncaring man. The story of his life is told through a series of flashbacks, some spanning many years through one dissolve. Kane collects statues, paintings, animals in a zoo, and a vast area for his home and castle in Florida known as Xanadu, based on the "castle" of William Randolph Hearst, who did his best to destroy the film before it was shown to the public. Charles Foster Kane is a montage of several real-life characters, Hearst among them.
As a boy, Kane is removed from his mother's home because she has come into money, and wishes for the boy to be well cared for. In addition, the father is excited about receiving $50,000 each year during the boy's absence. The mother, played by a young Agnes Morehead of "Bewitched" fame, is solid, stoic and almost unfeeling at the loss of her child. Similarly, Kane does not visit his parents during the film, referring only to his mother's passing, and possessions he ought to go through.
The shot of a portrait of the newsmen of "The Chronicle" dissolves into a shot of his new "Inquirer" staff. Kane paid these reporters well to come to work for him. One senses Kane has no scruples, despite the fact he gets his way by being charming. During an office celebration, Kane dances charmingly with chorus girls, his dancing reflected in an elaborate shot with his image reflected in the mirror as his friends Mr. Bernstein and Jedidiah talk of him as a great and famous man, and all sing an original some about Charle Kane.
Kane announces his engagement, and consequent marriage to the niece of the President of the United States, Emily. He wants not only to fit in with the elite, but to have high society to bend to his whims. His is not a happy marriage, shown in a series of montage cuts over the breakfast table. His wife eventually leaves Kane and takes their son because Kane doesn't spend time with them, or understand and empathize with family feelings.
He treats his wives like another of his many possessions, telling the women what they are, what they will think, and what they will do. His second wife pursues a career in opera, which is a mistake because she has no talent. Her misery falls back on him, but he pushes her to continue.
Kane has political aspirations which burst like a bubble once his extramarital affair with the second woman is made public, and his first wife divorces him. The grandiosity in which Kane presents himself is actually very shallow, his work for his fellow man's benefit appears only in his early life. As an old man he is callous and uncaring of anything that doesn't have directly to do with him. "All he ever wanted was love," recollects Jedidiah as an old man.
We learn of the meeting of Kane and his second wife on a street corner, as she leaves the drugstore with toothache medicine, and he has just been splashed with mud by a passing horse and buggy. Thety retire to her boarding house room, and his attempt at first seduction is quelled by her keeping the door open. Their relationship shown on screen is harmless, but the audience knows that more comes to pass between them. Kane loves Susan because she loves him, without realizing he is a wealthy powerful newspaper man. But, the more she knows him, the less she likes him.
Kane pursues the governorship of the state, expressing his concern for the "working man." His dreams for the Presidency of the United States die, but out of his grasp because his affair is exposed. "A toast to love on my terms. That's the only terms that anyone really knows," says Kane when defeated at the hands of his precious working class, now represented by organized labor.
Kane is a man of wealth and power, and builds an opera house in Chicago for his wife to sing in. As well, his newspapers across the country give her rave reviews. Only his friend, and arts editor prints a scathing review which Kane finishes as the man, Jedidiah Leland, his friend from college days passes out from drinking before he finishes the review of her performance. "Some kind of friend he is," shrikes his lame songstress, now wife.
Despite a palace of 49,000 acres of scenery and statues, and the still being built compound/castle of Xanadu, Susan leaves Kane, and he erupts into a violent temper explosion in which he destroys Susan's room. Kane lives his final years alone, in what Leland refers to as his coliseum.
As a group of reporters and photographers survey more possessions than can be counted, the audience sees Kane's sled, burning in an incinerator. Can one word really sum up the wishes of one's life?