I don't know what it is with me and older films. I'm always hesitant to watch them because I figure they will be boring, but I always end up liking them when I see them. I went through the same process with
12 Angry Men,
A Tale of Two Cities (the 1935 version), and now
Citizen Kane. The opposite of being boring, I was hooked after the very first scene. I wanted very much to find out what the heck "Rosebud" meant. And while we don't find out until the very end, the rest of the movie is more than interesting.
What struck me about this film is how much the prequel trilogy of
Star Wars steals from this film. Anakin Skywalker's story is much like that of Charles Foster Kane. (Granted,
Star Wars the prequel trilogy is nowhere near as good as
Citizen Kane). Kane starts as a boy who is taken from his home at an early age and grows up to be an high idealist young man who holds to strong principles. But he's also flawed. And what makes his character so fascinating is that we see his faults almost right away. He doesn't grow into a selfish person who, as his best friend puts it, "Wants love only on his own terms," he already is, but to a lesser degree in the beginning of the film. It was sad watching him grow more and more broken as he gets older. He has two wives leave him because of his actions and the high principles he promised to live by at the beginning of the film are forgotten.
The main thing about Kane as opposed to Skywalker is that I actually cared about Kane. He was very complex and we see both good and bad exist in him at the same time. We see him doing great things but at the same time, we can also see some slight traces of pride. It's hard to believe Orson Welles, at 24 when he made the movie, can play is character so well at different ages. I never saw a young man playing an old man, I saw an old man. I especially liked the shots of him in his mansion towards the end. The camera stays wide as we see the characters move in a large empty hall, a fitting metaphor for Kane's life.
Several film critics have called this the greatest movie ever made. While I hesitate to put that label of any movie, this one just might be it.
I'm glad you liked Citizen Kane! It's interesting that you paralleled Anakin's story to Kane's. I've never thought about the two being similar... but it makes sense! What I've always liked about Citizen Kane was how meaningless Rosebud actually was. The first time you watch the movie Rosebud is all you can think about. The other times you watch the movie the search for Rosebud isn't relevant at all to the plot. I've always thought that Citizen Kane is the greatest movie ever made because it's the only movie I've ever seen that truly portrays the decay of man's life so well.
ReplyDeleteI actually didn't know Rosebud was meaningless. The name was on the sled he was playing with in the beginning as a kid. I figured he was referencing a treasured childhood possession that had a lot of nostalgic value for him. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI mean, it really depends on how you look at it. Orson Welles would say that it's meaningless, just a simple memory of a unfortunate man. I said it was meaningless because Citizen Kane isn't really about finding the meaning of Rosebud, it's more about discovering who Citizen Kane really is.
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it, that's probably true. Everyone in the film (and myself) figured Rosebud was something with a lot of significance. But it turns out to be just a name on a sled. Maybe I was thinking too hard about it. I do that from time to time. Oh well, the movie was great.
ReplyDelete