The question isn’t whether Citizen Kane is one of the greatest films ever made; that’s a given. The question is whether it’s THE greatest.
Tools:
Recommend review to a friend »
The question isn´t whether "Citizen Kane" is one of the greatest films ever made; that´s a given. The question is whether it´s THE greatest. The American Film Institute thinks it is, voting it to their number-one spot. Other such lists usually place it at least in the top five, usually at one, two, or three. Not bad for a movie that failed in its initial theatrical run. In any case, it´s a self-recommending film, but I´m not here to tell you to buy it. Let me just say I can´t imagine anyone even remotely interested in the subject of film not buying it. Warner Brothers give their new DVD edition every advantage a classic movie of this stature should get: newly remastered picture and sound, two full audio commentaries, a documentary as long as the film, and a ton of peripheral material, all contained in a two-disc package.
My best friend, a professor of film, always used to say he thought "Citizen Kane" was overrated. Maybe. I won´t argue the point here. I first saw the film in the fifties when I was still in my teens, and I must confess I wasn´t overly impressed. Then I watched and studied it more seriously in college in the early sixties and began to see its worth. Having owned several tape copies of it and taught it to a number of film students over the years, I´ve come to agree with those critics who place it number-one on their all-time-great movies lists. I certainly can´t think of any film that deserves more respect or commands a more prominent spot in the history of film.
As everyone probably knows, cowriter, producer, and director Orson Welles based his story on the real publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst, his fictional character of Charles Foster Kane imitating pretty closely the personal and professional life of the famous newspaperman in not altogether flattering terms. The resemblance was so startling, in fact, that Hearst, who controlled a good number of the country´s media outlets in 1941, tried everything he could to stop the movie from ever being seen. The disc´s accompanying documentary, "The Battle Over Citizen Kane," does a good job detailing the controversy surrounding Heart´s attempts to suppress the film, which was made on a modest budget at RKO. Heck, Hearst even tried to buy the negatives (with the help of his pal, MGM´s Louis B. Mayer), and when that failed he refused to allow any of his newspapers or radio stations to run ads for it. By the time the film opened, to good reviews in non Hearst-owned outlets, the general public were either brainwashed into believing it was a loser or didn´t get a chance to see it at all thanks to its limited distribution. It wouldn´t be for another decade or two before the movie was reevaluated and began appearing in art houses and college classrooms as a true classic of the silver screen.
Obviously, books have been written on the merits of "Citizen Kane." Let me just mention in passing that while it breaks little new ground, it does bring together a number of filmmaking techniques that had been in various stages of development previously. For example, the movie refines the use of narrative point of view and flashback storytelling; emphasizes psychological lighting, light and shade (chiaroscuro), and deep-focus photography; embraces a sound track of amazingly wide dynamics for its time; provides frequent instances of overlapping and interruptive dialogue; employs complex and elaborate camera work, unique camera angles, abrupt cuts, multiple exposures, special effects, and agonizing dissolves; uses mirrors, mirroring, and mirrored scenes and imagery extensively; and incorporates numerous other examples of modern cinematography and storytelling in general. The result is a cinematic tour de force that´s just as dazzling to watch today as it was over six decades ago. That it has influenced almost every filmmaker since is hard to dispute.
Never mind that at age twenty-four this was Welles´s first film, and that he has often been criticized for relying too much on the work of others without giving them entirely proper due. Yes, famed cinematographer Gregg Toland did the amazing camera work and perfected the deep-focus photographic style, Bernard Herrmann did the musical score, and Herman J. Mankiewicz helped write the script. But there´s no denying that this was Welles´s baby from start to finish; and, besides, at this stage in the game, sixty years later, what difference does it make to the viewer who was responsible for it. The point is that what we have is splendid, no matter who the collaborators were or how much they contributed.
But probably the movie´s strongest claim to fame is that it tells a good story. Covering Kane´s life from childhood to deathbed, the film is conveyed in multiple recurring flashbacks from several different people´s points of view, as a newspaper reporter tries to track down an angle on Kane´s dying word, "Rosebud." All of them, we come to realize, actually know the enigmatic Kane less well than they think. Starring as Kane is Welles himself, an actor, writer, director, producer, magician, and pitch man who was almost as complicated as the man he was playing. Be that as it may or perhaps because of it, Welles puts in a first-rate, commanding performance as the poor boy left a fortune, who turned it into an empire the likes of which we shall probably never see again.
For his supporting cast Welles chose largely players he already knew and had worked with before, many of them stage actors from his old Mercury Theater days, like Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Agnes Moorehead, Paul Stewart, and Ray Collins. For the part of Kane's mistress in the film, Welles chose Dorothy Comingore (pregnant at the time but nicely camouflaged) to play Susan Alexander, a role modeled on the real-life actress and Hearst mistress, Marion Davies. Comingore may at first appear a bit superficial in the part, but she amply conveys the emptiness of a life filled with everything and nothing at the same time.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]8111[/release]