Movie 90: Citizen Kane

Newspaper magnate and overall incredibly rich man Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) passes away, leaving a large collection of statues and other stuff and a mystery. What does his last word, Rosebud, refer to? A reporter sets out to find out

Greatest movie of all time? No. But it is bloody good.

Now obviously I knew what Rosebud was before seeing the movie. I’m 30, it’s a bit like knowing what the moon is or that water is wet at this point. Thankfully that doesn’t really detract from anything. It is quite a poignant end to the movie and gives it a big bit of psychological weight, or leave room for analysis, but its not really what the film is about. This is a character piece.

And I was surprised at how funny it is. When you hear Greatest movie you expect something quite dull, serious and boring as hell. I should have known better. As many of you know, I’m a voice actor. Or trying to be. I listen to quite a few podcasts, and a few of them are what’s called OTR now. Old Time Radio. Primarily the OTR Swagcast and the Zombie Astronauts Frequency of Fear. You should check them out, they’re very good. So I’ve heard a fair few productions by the Mercury Theater before now. Possibly my favourite bit of OTR is the famous War of the Worlds one. But they all feature very good acting and writing, and that’s where the folks in this movie came from.

I love me a character piece and that’s what this is. Told in a non-linear fashion, it’s the rise and fall of Kane. A man who started with nothing, became one of the richest men in the world, and died with…well not nothing but not in his prime. And its fantastically written and acted.

Much like I Live In Fear there’s a lot of actors here playing older than they are. The make up is fantastic, they all look convincing at whatever age they are meant to be. While some of the acting is a little off here and there, it’s over all very well done. Particularly by Mr Hyphen himself, Orson Welles. He knocks it out of the park.

And yes, it looks pretty damned good. A little beat up at the stage, but its impressively shot. And it pioneered some techniques which have influenced film making in an Avatar style way (though with more reaching impact than I can ever see that film having).

I don’t really need to recommend this. It has a 100% Fresh rotten tomatoes rating. Ironically if RT was about in 1941 it would probably have been a lot lower than that. Anyone who likes films will enjoy this movie and be entertained through out, but I’m not guaranteeing that it will be your favourite film. It’s not mine, but I sure did like it.

Next up: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest