Citizen Kane (1941)

“Citizen Kane” is often proclaimed to be one of, if not the absolute, greatest movie ever made. For almost 80 years, critics and film buffs alike haven’t stopped banging on about how great this film is, how masterfully crafted it is, what a beautiful piece of art it is! So, was “Citizen Kane” the best film ever made? No, but it was pretty good.

Going into this film for the first time is a very daunting experience because of how overly lauded it is, in the world of film reviews the phrase “it’s the Citizen Kane of X, Y or Z” is used constantly. The problem with this is that you’re putting the film on a pedestal above many other (and better) movies, which makes this film sound pretentious before you’ve even seen it, giving the audience an expectation that it may not exceed.

Despite this, there are elements to this film that I did appreciate.

“Citizen Kane” has fantastic cinematography; the staging is unique and the lighting is excellent. The deep shadows add to the mysterious and intriguing atmosphere, Orson Welles was ahead of his time on the direction and visual side of “Citizen Kane.”

Welles plays Charles Foster Kane superbly, his journey from enthusiastic and fun-loving businessman to weary and depressed loner is meticulously crafted (the old-age make-up is very convincing.) The themes go hand-in-hand with the character’s arc; the Rosebud revelation ties the whole story together brilliantly! Although Welles was very good in this role, we all know that his greatest performance was as Unicron in “The Transformers: The Movie” (put your pitchforks down, I’m only joking!)

I’ll be honest, none of the other actors left any impression on me, they weren’t bad, just ok.

One aspect of “Citizen Kane” that I thoroughly disliked is that many of the dialogue scenes devolve to moments in which 4 or 5 people shout at each other. This doesn’t just apply to the argumentative sequences, nearly every conversation that features more than 2 people was just an agonizing cacophony of ear-splitting voices.

Also, “Citizen Kane” suffers from an issue that plagues many films of its era, that being it’s over-the-top and bombastic score. The music in this film isn’t necessarily bad, it just lacks any subtlety. For example, as a quiet moment transitions into an exposition scene the score ramps up into a great big musical bellow. This probably wasn’t an issue in the “olden days”, but when you’re watching this film on DVD with the sound cranked up to hear the dialogue, it’s quite unpleasant to be blasted out of your seat by a deafening orchestral roar.

The pacing is slow and the plot meanders a bit but come on, with a movie this ancient that has to be expected!

Overall, “Citizen Kane” is a very well-constructed film that’s worth watching, but it’s not the best film of its era. Movies like “Brief Encounter”, “Great Expectations” and “The Third Man” are far more compelling, in my opinion. “Citizen Kane” is good (I’m not denying that), but it’s a little overhyped.