An unarguable masterwork

Rating: 8/10 (21 February 2008)

There's not a whole lot to be said about the film that constantly gets cited as the most influential film of all time- it's stylistic and thematic shadows have loomed over American cinema for more then half a century: of it's innovations, praise cannot be oversold. Frame after frame, scene after scene, we witness a stunning freedom from being outside the creatively parasitic bubble that was old Hollywood, afforded by Citizen Kane's masterful star and creator Orsen Welles in a way anyone entrenched into the business of making movies at the time it seemed had no perception about.
With all the controversy concerning the studio and artistic control giving way to Citizen Kane resting high above the AFI's greatest lists most years, you would think the moneymakers would grasp the concept that great things can happen when great chances are taken. Though far from being perfection in motion all the time, Kane is worthy of the lazily used word classic more then just about any movie before or since in this country, if only for it's film vernacular innovation and articulation.