So says the world: "The Greatest Movie Ever Made!"

Over 60 years ago, a small budget was given to radio prodigy Orson Welles to create his first film, "Citizen Kane." When it was first released, audiences didn't "get" it. It was so much different than anything else made before. It lost at the Oscars to the sentimental bore "How Green was my Valley." Now, "Citizen Kane" has been named the greatest film of all time by the American Film Institute, and is considered not only to be a classic, but THE groundbreaking moment in film.

"Citizen Kane" is the story of Charles Foster Kane (Welles), a newspaper tycoon and most hated and the most loved man in America. At the beginning of the film he dies, but before this he utters one of the most memorable lines in film history: "Rosebud."

What is Rosebud? What does it mean? That assignment is given to a man named Thompson, who goes on the quest to find out what he can. If this were any other film made during this time period, Thompson would be the protagonist. This is not an ordinary film, though. We never even see Thompson's face. It is always hidden by shadow, or off screen. This is Welles' way of telling us that Thompson may be important, so he's there, but the focus of the story, so he is hidden. He interviews a series of Kane's old friends, and the story is told through flashbacks: Kane's rise to most powerful man in America, his ups and downs, and his eventual fall. Kane is the main character, even if he dies in the first two minutes of the film.

Welles' genius is only just beginning. If this was an ordinary film from this time period, Kane would be a hero, after all, he's the main character, but he's not a hero, nor is he a villain. He's not even a true anti-hero. Kane is the just the protagonist and impossible to classify. What kind of man is Kane? Is he evil? Uncaring? Is there a good man located inside of him? Audiences back then were obviously not prepared to make this sort of judgment. They had never seen anything quite like this before.

Nor had they seen Welles' technical expertise. Watching other films from the period, you can notice very ineffective cinematography. A still camera, simply photographing a scene. In "Citizen Kane," the camera is at angles, it moves, and it does things never before seen in cinema. The cinematography becomes a character, setting tones and moods, sending subliminal feeling and emotions. The effect is surreal even today, made even more so by strange lighting, editing and sets (often built off-scale to achieve an effect).

"Citizen Kane" is a dark film that proposes many questions. It is the origin of modern cinema. It is a masterpiece...with that said, I can easily say that it is not the best film of all time. I can say that it is the GREATEST film of all time, and easily the most influential, but it is not the most entertaining, or the most thought provoking (although it comes pretty damn CLOSE in bother areas).

One must consider this: if not for "Citizen Kane," the following films would not exist: "Pulp Fiction," "Fight Club," "The Usual Suspects," "Goodfellas," "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Silence of the Lambs," "The Manchurian Candidate," "The Matrix," and just about every other of your favorite movies. For those who still aren't convinced that movies are art, they should watch "Citizen Kane." For those little punk kids who refuse to watch anything in black and white, they should watch "Citizen Kane." If it wasn't for this movie, you would not have your favorite films, you would not have complex, thought-provoking movies that made you truly, laugh, think and cry. Without "Citizen Kane," film would still be a novelty, and not an art form.

As I said above, there are movies I enjoy more than "Citizen Kane," but I realize that I would not be enjoying them without it.

© Written by Jacob Hall

How We Rated This Film TC Candler - A+ Richard Propes - A Jacob Hall - A+

TC Candler's Comment

"Citizen Kane" is quite simply the most innovative and influential film of all time.  It is fun to watch, consistently delivering subtle new moments to me every time I watch it.  This movie is a crash course in filmmaking 101 and everyone should make a point to watch it at least three times before they can truly consider themselves film connoisseurs.

Richard Propes' Comment

I finally did my second viewing of "Citizen Kane" this week as I journeyed through my Top 100 re-assessment. I even had this faint hope it may become the missing piece to my "#1" puzzle that was bothering me so much. Alas, while "Citizen Kane" didn't become my #1 film I do think the second viewing of this widely acclaimed film did finally allow to sink in its utter cinematic greatness.

Charles Foster Kane dies alone in "Xanadu", his grand estate. In his last breath, he utters the word "Rosebud." Of course, I've never quite figured out the logic behind the "dying alone" and an uttered last word that becomes publicly known...but, that seems more an advertising problem than a cinematic one. In the film, a retrospective of Kane, a reporter is assembling Kane's life, rise to power and wealth AND attempting to explain Kane's last word.

In terms of the pure technical aspects of filmmaking, Orson Welles did it best here. Every aspect of this film is planned and executed flawlessly from the physical staging to the shadows to the music to the performances and the production design of the film. "Citizen Kane" is, in many ways, cursed by its acclaim of greatness. Those who see it now are unlikely to see defined "greatness," for in our society we have come to expect huge and grand and epic when we hear the word greatness. While the man Kane was all these things, the film itself finds its greatness in the way it wraps its grandness around Kane's simplest of desires. "Rosebud" represents, in many ways, what was actually unattainable for Kane in his amassing of wealth and power...the innocence of childhood, the return to the essence of life. Despite his strongest efforts to buy his way back into it...it was to no avail. "Rosebud" was the essence of Charles Foster Kane, and the beauty of "Citizen Kane" is in the way Welles' balanced the epic, larger than life Kane with his quest for humanity.

Welles himself plays Kane and merited an Oscar nomination for his performance. It is a magnificent performance of balance and authority and yet unbridled compassion in those smaller moments. The same could be said for Joseph Cotten as Jedediah and the rest of the supporting cast. Welles clearly communicated his vision to the cast...they clearly embraced it and created a film of power and simplicity.

"Citizen Kane" manifests all the qualities that today's filmmakers spend millions and millions of dollars trying to create onscreen. Films like the LOTR trilogy and Star Wars and Titanic all have created epic, larger than life films...yet, perhaps the greatest larger than life film of all is, in fact, the simple yet masterful "Citizen Kane."