Citizen Kane - Orson Welle's Bluster Doesn't Pass Muster

Is Citizen Kane a bad movie? No. Is Citizen Kane the greatest movie ever made, as its reputation claims to be? Well if I can think of roughly a tens of thousands of movies that are better than Citizen Kane, I am leaning towards, No -- Citizen Kane is not the greatest movie ever made. Instead of evolving through the film, Orson Welles playing Charles Foster Kane demonstrates an astounding stamina for only sarcasm and ostentation that I find unbelievable and uninteresting.

What upsets me so much about the movie Citizen Kane is how I feel like during most of the film Charles Foster Kane is mainly just one human note -- sarcasm. He sarcastically embraces his wealth and out of sarcastic whimsy decides to purchase a news paper. What motivates him to make this purchase? Sarcasm. He just does it, just because. It seems like this character's main reason for existence is just to show how meaningless life could be. In other words, there's absolutely no necessity behind anything that Citizen Kane does. There is no genuine expressions of feeling or attitudes. Throughout the entire movie, which is representative of his entire life, Charles Foster Kane seems to be playing one big practical joke. No one all the time is sarcastic. No one all the time is playing a practical joke. No one all the time laughs at life and views it like one little game with no consequences.

Sure there are instances in the movie where Kane doesn't get what he wants and seems genuinely upset. His political opponent digs up dirt on him and then lampoons Kane in the media -- Kane looses his wife in a divorce and embarrasses his son. And yes sure, at the end of the movie we learn the meaning to the famous words, “Rosebud”. When I think of this scene, I immediately get transported back to Sopranos where Carmella orchestrate a film club. Adrianne watches Citizen Kane with then at the end of the movie, Adrianne says, "So Rosebud was his sled?"

Yes, exactly, Adrianne. That’s all it is. It’s a sled — there’s really nothing more significant to this realization. Seriously, however, what profound things are we suppose to learn about the realization that Rosebud refers to the sled that Kane enjoyed before becoming an oligarch?

* That there's more to life than money?

* That absolute power corrupts absolutely?
* That people have regrets?

* That people are selfish?

* That people say one thing and then behave entirely differently because money get sin the way?

Draw all you want about what great philosophical truths are taken out of Citizen Kane, but I would argue that these are folks picking up the slack for the deficiencies of the film. The film should be the vehicle through which great artistic and philosophical meaning is spawned — not a film nerd’s sycophantic approval of either Citizen Kane or Orson Welles. However, I myself did enjoy something from Citizen Kane — the Cinematography

My favorite scene in the movie is when the journalist show up at the Manhattan bank of the banker who possess memoire's of Kane's life to learn the meaning of the word “Rosebud”. In this scene the journalist walks into a large, vacuous room. Inside this room is a collection of only singular things: only one vault containing the memoirs of Kane, only one tall and wide window, only one table and only one chair -- in between these items are large amounts of empty space filled only with dust and light particles. From the only window in the room, there is a massive beam of sunlight that perfectly aligns on top of the massive table where the journalist sits down to read the Kane’s memoirs.

Once the journalist takes his seat, the guard walks, and walks, and walks, and walks over to the vault containing the memoir and unlocks it. He returns to the journalist with the documents in hand to allow the journalist to read them. After he hands the documents to the journalist, the guard takes the long walk to return to the vault and stands beside it, like a robotic sentinel, eyeing the journalist as he peruses the documents. I like this scene a lot because it underscores the power that video footage has in the absence of dialogue. Dialogue is great, but a lot of times the lens alone can convey just as much emotion and meaning to the audience.

For its time in the 40s yes, Citizen Kane is probably revolutionary. Cinematic brilliance aside, however as it stands in 2021, I can think of so many movies that are more impressive than Citizen Kane. My Rosebud is the moment just before clicking the button to watch citizen Kane.