For as long as I can remember, film critics and aficionados have considered Citizen Kane to be the greatest movie ever made. For years I just snubbed my nose at the thought without ever asking why.
When I finally did become curious during college, the only adults around simply muttered their version of “whatevs” and said they had never seen it or couldn’t remember much about it.
I’ve watched the 1941 classic a couple times now. While I believe there’s ALWAYS room to debate the greatest of almost anything, I understand what is great about Citizen Kane. We cover that very thing in this week’s Classic Movie Gush, our 10th episode! *balloons, confetti, and whatnot*
Have you watched Citizen Kane and what do you think?
Classic Movie Gush is a regular feature in which we revisit/introduce classic movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Catch up on all the movies we’ve talked about by visiting the Official Classic Movie Gush Page.
2 replies on “Is Citizen Kane the Greatest Movie Ever?”
So I imagine my experience of watching citizen Kane is rather different than others. For starters I knew from the beginning what Rosebud was due to a random joke in Family Guy. Secondly I watched the documentary on the movie prior to actually watching the movie due to it being shown in my class (yes I am one of your students). This caused me to have a very different perspective when watching the film. It was much like watching a mystery in reverse.
I like it much more for being so unique in not only the techniques used but the way it goes through the story. It is much more from the perspective of someone either reading the article of Kane’s death or the journalist researching him. Most of the other characters don’t get development, the movie doesn’t focus too much on their side stories. It really is about Kane and Kane alone. However it is never really told from his perspective. While he is the only character that gets development and has the entire story centered around him we never get his thoughts on it. The audience is shown what Rosebud is but not what it means interestingly parallels Kane’s character development. We are shown events in Kane’s life, through memories of people close to him, and fill in the blanks ourselves for how these events affected him as a person.
Greatest film of all time? Hard to say. revolutionary for its time, no doubt. In terms of filming and cinematography i think it stand distinctly apart from other movies of its time an even many today. however it cannot claim the title of greatest on that alone. Since it makes the audience fill in much of the meaning i think its fair to say it will vary from person to person based on what the viewer filled in.
Good thoughts Solomon. It is definitely the story of a man as others remembered him. The other characters are really only understood as they understood themselves since they are narrating each separate part. Another reason critics always give so many props to Citizen Kane is because it was one of the first films to really show the ugly side of reality in a significant way. There’s just so much realism wrapped in the art. And yes, movie watching changes a lot depending on how much you know going in. I prefer to know as little as possible all the time.