What Makes "Citizen Kane" Great.

Arguably the greatest cinematic achievement ever, "Citizen Kane" demands more than me discussing it's greatness for you to see how great it is, if you want to see why it's great when you simply must watch it for yourself, but I will at least try to joint down the main points of why this film always comes up as "The Greatest Film Ever Made".

Beginning with a dark and dreary tour of Kane's (Orson Welles) huge isolated estate. It's this brilliant establishing shots that tell us right away that Kane is a seclusive and lonely man. We then cut to Kane's dying breath of "Rose Bud". After a very real for the time newsreel of the death of Kane, From then on we follow news reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland) interviewing various people from Kane's life in an attempt to uncover the mystery of Kane's final words.

The way the film tells its story is so fascinating. It's presented in a series of nonlinear flashbacks through the eyes of the people who knew Kane the best. Kane's story is one of scandal, greed, and most of all sadness. Reflecting on Kane's famous quote, "I am, and always will be an American". The film very much is the classic American story of rising to the top, having all the money in the world, and yet having nothing. As we learn in the film, Kane as a child was robbed of his childhood when his parents gave him away to the much richer "Thatcher" (George Coulouris) in order for the young "Charles Foster Kane" to have a brighter future much to a young Kane's anger. It's this feeling of rejection that goes on to defy the rest of Kane's life, Kane was a man who had everything yet died with nothing, His whole life he tried to live a life where he could find happiness, but also to control everything around him. It is likely this stems from that event of his childhood, where he had no control over the matter and his parents nor his new guardian never truly loving him like a son. While Kane tries to be the best man he can be with his newspapers goal of being the source of truth for the hard working class of America, he stretches the truth considerably in the news he chooses to cover as he wants to influence and control the way people think, which goes back to the lack of control he had had in his life up till that point. It's this that causes a rift between Kane and his possibly one true friend and business partner "Jedediah Leland" (Joseph Cotten). We also see this descent into corruption and greed carry on to his first marriage to niece of the President "Emily Monroe" (Ruth Warrick) in an amazing montage of than having breakfast as years go by in between each meal, and we slowly begin to see Kane begin his transformation into a corrupt man, whose marriage and ethics are slowly beginning to fall apart. Even when Kane enters the political sphere in an attempt to be elected as Governor of New York, his run his ruined when he is caught in an affair which ends his election run, and his first marriage. Kane second marriage to singer "Susan" (Dorothy Comingore) falls faster than his first when however when he begins to humiliate her by booking various shows for her and even building her an opera house despite not having the talent for it. Their marriage, of course, ends which follows the death of Kane soon after. Even Charles Kane himself seems to point out his own flaws and unjust ways when he says "If I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man".

The technical aspects of Citizen Kane are also a sight to behold. Orson Welles (amazing both behind and in front of the camera) and Cinematographer Greg Toland various experiments with camera angles and lighting techniques. The first thing that I noticed about the lighting is at the beginning with the people in the newsroom disusing the meaning behind Kane's last words. All of them are shrouded in darkness so you can see their faces, and even the main news reporter Jerry Thompson whom we follow throughout the movie is shrouded on darkness through most of the film, but the people he talks to about Kane are never in the dark, perhaps to create a sense of us in the reporter, like we are the ones trying to unravel the mystery of Charles Foster Kane. One scene, for instance, shows Kane and his second wife Susan in the living room at a considerable distance from one another and the emptiness of the mansion and the echoes of their voices as they yell to talk with each other create an effective atmosphere. There is the actual death of Kane which shows Kane walking through his hallway with mirrors in the background showing the same thing, and when he dies and the ornament cracks, we see the nurse come in through the reflection of the glass. One shot in particular which I think is the most powerful in the film is at the beginning when Kane's parents are discussing giving their son to Thatcher, while Kane is playing outside in the snow with his sleigh, unaware of the fact that he is about to be given away. The editing by Robert Wise is also impressive, with various clever editing tricks. I have already mentioned the amazing breakfast sequence with Kane and his wife, but another great use of editing is when Thatcher gives a young Kane a Christmas present and he says "Merry Christmas", and then cuts to "And a happy New Year" years afterward with Kane now an adult. The film also perfectly balances the flashbacks of Kane's life and the present day with various fade-ins to transport the film from a scene in the present to a flashback in Kane's life. Add an amazing score by Bernard Herman, and you've got one of the greatest technical achievements if cinematic history.

While I wouldn't go as far as to say that I think Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever made, I do think that it more than deserves to be held on that pedestal. If you haven't seen this masterpiece then you have a strict obligation to drop what you're doing and see it now.