Note: This is an abridged version of the
500 Films Project review of
Citizen Kane. For the full version, click
here.
If you know anything about movie history, then you know about
Citizen Kane--the little movie that could, then couldn't, then did.
Citizen Kane was the Hollywood directorial debut of 25-year-old Orson Welles. RKO Studios gave the inexperienced director "final cut" on his film--basically, giving him almost full artistic control over every aspect of the movie's creation. This unprecedented privilege earned Welles much resentment in Hollywood and put great pressure on him to make his first film spectacular.
Unfortunately for Welles,
Citizen Kane attracted the ire of one of the most influential men in America at the time: newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.
Kane's protagonist, Charles Foster Kane, was a thinly-veiled, fictionalized version of Hearst, and the movie didn't exactly paint a sympathetic portrait of its main character.
Due to Hearst's interference,
Citizen Kane ended up being a commercial failure. Today, however,
Citizen Kane is widely thought to be one of the greatest films of all time.
-----
For me,
Citizen Kane completely lives up to its hype.
Orson Welles as titular character Charles Foster Kane dominates the screen.
Throughout the movie, Welles instills in his character a tremendous passion and energy. Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, and Everett Sloane also stand out with their captivating performances. Overall, however, all of the actors in this movie deliver.
The subject matter of
Citizen Kane--the life, loves, triumphs, and tragedies of an ambitious American newspaper baron--might bore some viewers, but I love character-driven stories with intricate plots and sharp dialogue. Charlie Kane might not be the most sympathetic character in movie history, but his story is still wholly captivating.