Ten years ago the American Film Institute (AFI) announced their top 100 greatest American films of all-time, Citizen Kane topped that list. Ten years later the AFI took another look and released a new and updated list, again, Citizen Kane topped the list and was again crowned the greatest American movie of all-time.
This is quite an honor for a film don’t yah think? “Greatest American Movie of All-Time.” Yes, that is an honor, and running a movie site I felt it was pretty much my duty to finally see this grand spectacle. Considering films such as The Godfather, Casablanca and Gone with the Wind are looking up at this giant it must be something rather special. I went in expecting high drama, great dialogue, acting that will knock my socks off and direction so much that you don’t even notice anything but the story unfolding in front of you. Based on this build up, if you are a regular reader of mine you realize the other shoe is about to fall… and you would be right. Let’s get into it.
Orson Welles stars as Charles Foster Kane, playing him from his early 20s all the way to his death bed where the film begins and we hear what the AFI considers the #17 movie quote of all-time, “Rosebud.” The narrative then turns to newsreel footage called “News on the March,” which takes up the next 12 minutes of the film introducing us to Kane and his life until death with a major focus on his private estate called Xanadu, but once it is all said and done a mystery presents itself. The search for the ultimate story surrounding Charles Kane, “What is Rosebud?”
The newsreel serves as an outline for the rest of the film as we will watch as one researcher begins a quest for the story behind “Rosebud” as what sounds like a rather inane and silly task seems somewhat legitimized after watching the footage. The rest of the film is devoted to interviews and flashbacks as we are taken through the life of Charles Kane and the real Kane soon emerges from ambiguity.
Now for a quick note, what follows contains spoilers so if you have never seen this film and one day intend on seeing it you might want to stop. However, I don’t think knowing what I am about to talk about will ruin it, since it isn’t a very subtle film and the story is pretty much laid out in the first 20 minutes or so. So, that said, on we go.
First for this “Rosebud” stuff. The fact that this is considered to be one of the better twists of all-time confuses me. Above is Charles Kane at the age of 8 as he learns his parents are sending him away to be taken care of by Mr. Thatcher (George Coulouris) as he attends boarding school back east. This is the scene that pretty much tells the entire story, a young man’s childhood is lost and despite everything he does in his future endeavors he yearns for the parental love he never had. The fact that “Rosebud” was the name of his childhood sled ultimately bears no matter as its meaning is already revealed by the time we learn what the word actually stood for.
Kane searches for love, he tries to buy it and he tries to earn it. The only problem is that he can’t give it. Throw “Rosebud” to the side and consider what Susan Kane says to Charles toward the end of the film shortly before she leaves him, “Love! You don’t love anybody! Me or anybody else! You want to be loved – that’s all you want! I’m Charles Foster Kane. Whatever you want – just name it and it’s yours! Only love me! Don’t expect me to love you.”
These sentiments are spread all throughout the movie, although not in such callous terms, but Kane’s need to be loved really becomes the crux of all of Kane’s relationships. The film is filled with ups, downs and metaphors galore, but it really comes down to a man that is larger than life who has everything he needs and is at the same time incomplete and empty. If you watched the newsreel above you also realize these words bear a large resemblance to his massive spread Xanadu. Yeah, metaphors are everywhere and along with all those metaphors there are tons of leaps and bounds in filmmaking, which are the primary reason Citizen Kane is considered such a “great” film.
Below is the scene in which young Kane is sent away to boarding school, accompanying the clip is Roger Ebert’s commentary from the special edition DVD. This is a scene that includes several of the filmmaking tricks that have been praised over the years, including deep focus, separating tables and camera movement and angles. Take a peek at it, but I will also point out a couple of moments I took note of during the film afterwards. While learning the origin of these techiniques is interesting, they don’t really help in making this any more of an entertaining film than it already is, or isn’t, depending on who you are.
First off, let’s examine this “deep focus” method Gregg Toland has been praised for over and over again in relation to this film. Deep focus is a method of shooting a scene in which the foreground, middle-ground and background are all in focus at once. It is a tricky process and something similar is being used by the Wachowski brothers for the upcoming Speed Racer, but for much different reasons. Below is a screenshot from the scene Ebert commented on above.
Notice how Charles’ mother and Mr. Thatcher are in focus in the foreground, Mr. Kane and the back wall are in focus in the middle-ground and then even outside the window is young Charles playing in the snow, even he is in focus as he tosses snowballs around. If you watch the video above you will also learn that the table you can see in the picture actually splits in two as the camera moves backwards through it and it is pieced back together once it comes into frame. Shortly afterward the camera moves through the table once again. I first learned about this technique watching the special features on one of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, which that is exactly why Kane is praised, it came several years before Hitch did it.
Next we have a shot that I was also very impressed by. For its time, this is a very complicated shot as you will notice the foreground and the background are in focus, while Susan Alexander lies in the middle of the scene out of focus after an attempt to commit suicide. This was actually done with two separate shots and the bottle of poison was then added to the scene in post.
Now we have what I believe to be one of the greatest dissolves I have ever seen in a film. Above is Susan Kane telling a story to Mr. Thompson as he is the one assigned the duty of finding out what “Rosebud” is. Just before the dissolve the two are talking around a small table with Susan on the left and you can just barely see Thompson’s head in front of the lamp.
This screenshot was captured in the middle of the dissolve and it is actually two scenes merged together. The entire background is the new scene that is about to take place and as the dissolve continues it appears Susan is no longer leaning on a small table, but a piano, which you can hardly see in this capture. I know saying a dissolve is amazing is a little silly, but when I actually noticed it I felt I had to mention it. I also think the pic above is quite impressive considering the factors I just told you about. You can’t tell me you ever would have guessed it was two images dissolving into one another.
Above all else, I believe these are the primary reasons Citizen Kane is considered the best American film of all-time. Of course we also have the performance of Orson Welles to think of, but Citizen Kane is first and foremost known as a pioneering film that virtually created the film-noir style. As for Welles, at the age of 25 he gives a fantastic performance as Kane, as he takes on the life of the newspaper tycoon. Welles is seen as Charles Foster Kane from his early 20s to his death around the age of 80, not once will you question the performance and there is one scene in particular that will make your home theater rumble.
The scene pictured above is just one look at the best scene in the film in which Kane is giving a speech as he runs for governor of New York. While the words of the speech are impressive I really think he could have been saying anything and the speech still would have held significant weight as Welles belts the words out with amazing conviction and depth. Truly, there is something about the way he says these words that makes you snap to attention, it is quite remarkable. No wonder he held a nation captive when he read H. G. Wells’ classic novel “The War of the Worlds” leading them to believe there was an actual alien invasion (listen to it here).
Oddly, considering this film is supposedly the #1 American film of all-time and Welles’ performance is beloved at every turn, out of its nine Oscar nominations it only won one (Best Writing, Original Screenplay). Welles lost Best Actor to Gary Cooper (Sergeant York) and the film itself lost Best Picture to How Green Was My Valley. The kicker, neither of these two films is on AFI’s Top 100. Even Toland lost Cinematography to Arthur Miller for How Green Was My Valley. It is even said that during the Oscar presentation the film was booed every time it was mentioned.
So what gives? How could a film be considered the best of all-time when it wasn’t even considered the best for the year it was released? Well, let’s see what happened and what people thought when the film was released.
Variety‘s reviewer said, “[Citizen Kane] is a two-hour show, filled to the last minute with brilliant incident unreeled in method and effects that sparkle with originality and invention.” Then there was the New York Times saying, “Citizen Kane is far and away the most surprising and cinematically exciting motion picture to be seen here in many a moon. As a matter of fact, it comes close to being the most sensational film ever made in Hollywood.”
To top it all off, years later Roger Ebert says, “I have analyzed [Citizen Kane] a shot at a time with more than 30 groups, and together we have seen, I believe, pretty much everything that is there on the screen. The more clearly I can see its physical manifestation, the more I am stirred by its mystery.”
A couple of prominent reviewers from 1941 love it, and Ebert can’t stop watching it. It would seem Citizen Kane was received well when it was released. Of course Kane had detractors, MGM’s Louis B. Mayer offered to buy the picture for $1 million and destroy the negative and newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst was none to thrilled about how he was being portrayed on screen, as it was well known that the film was a crypto-biography of the man. Despite these detractors, it soon saw the light of day mostly to critical praise, some skepticism and virtually zero audience love. This TIME Magazine article gives a fantastic breakdown of the production of the film through its release, noting how the anti-Kane forces achieved their goal and the movie flopped.
Following Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ career never reached as high as his debut. A famous quote of his has him saying, “I started at the top and worked down.” His performance is great and the film has its charms, but I don’t anticipate revisiting it soon, if ever. I can understand people defending it based on what it did for the film industry, but beyond that I just don’t see enough to dub Citizen Kane the #1 American film of all-time. However, I wouldn’t be hasty to ever hand that honor out. I guess I am lucky I don’t have to.
Come back next week as I take a more modern look at a film I missed in Joe Carnahan’s Narc.
Now, I leave you with a cool little look at Citizen Kane accompanied by the musical styling of The Dust Brothers.
