All the great things said about this film are true and this is a film that is bound to inspire future filmmakers in some way. After all, the film must have done something right in order to receive the #1 film rank in the AFI’s best film of all times.
Article
Is 'Citizen Kane' REALLY the greatest American movie of all time?
by Chris Nashawaty
Christmas came early last week. That’s when I finally received my advance copy of Citizen Kane on Blu-ray in the mail. For months, I’ve had its September 13th release date circled in red ink on my calendar. What can I say? Some folks have to be the first person they know with Madden 2012. Some camp out in sleeping bags to be the first to see the latest Harry Potter movie. Me, I’m a mouth-breathing drooler when it comes to Orson Welles’ 1941 classic. And if that doesn’t sound nerdy enough, then there’s this: I couldn’t wait to check it out in all of its 1080-p/hi-definition glory.
Hold on a sec while I wipe the spittle from my chin…Now, I realize that declaring one’s undying love for Citizen Kane is pretty much the most obvious, least daring thing you could do. It’s the cinematic equivalent of rooting for the New York Yankees to win the world series or pulling for the latest Pixar confection to win Best Animated Film at the Oscars. Over the years, I’ve probably seen Kane twenty or thirty times. But before this new Blu-ray showed up, it had been a while. And I wanted to know if it would hold up…or if it even could hold up. After all, no other movie as hyped up and overpraised as this one.
It wasn’t always that way, of course. Welles’ dizzying, ground-breaking, totally brilliant faux biopic about a William Randolph Hearst-esque media magnate (made when Welles was twentyfrigginfive!) was actually snubbed by the Hollywood establishment when it came out. Yes, it was nominated for nine Oscars including Best Picture, but amazingly it won only one, for its screenplay. Since then, of course, it’s been hailed and hyped to the heavens. People just accept its greatness as gospel. So when the American Film Institute polled a jury of 1,500 filmmakers, critics, and historians to rank the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time a while back, no one batted an eye when Kane landed at the top of the list. They just hit the snooze button and moved on to the rest of the Top 10.
All in all, it’s a solid, if predictably vanilla, list. These sorts of things usually are. You can quibble with a few of the Top 10 — but nothing you’d go and start a bar fight over. There are plenty of movies I’d watch any day over Singin’ in the Rain or Schindler’s List. Like, for example, Jaws, The Maltese Falcon, Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork Orange, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Psycho, The Empire Strikes Back, Double Indemnity, Chinatown, All About Eve, Annie Hall, His Girl Friday, All the Presidents Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Unforgiven, Blade Runner, hell, even John Carpenter’s The Thing. I could go on.
But, as uncontroversial as it is to say it, Citizen Kane at No. 1 just feels right to me. It felt even more right after I popped in the Blu-ray a couple of days ago and got those familiar goosebumps as Welles’ scratchy, “News on the March” faux-newsreel came on at the beginning. It’s probably the greatest ten minutes anyone’s ever put on celluloid. Mainly because you can feel Welles, the boy wonder director, having a frickin’ blast experimenting and breaking rules. Every time I watch the film, I see new things in it. Is it the greatest American movie of all time? Yeah, I think so.
But enough about me. What do you think is the greatest American movie ever made?
Summary
The writer of the article has just received his blue-ray copy of Citizen Kane and can’t wait to watch this masterful. The topic of his research is whether or not Citizen Kane deserves to be recognized as the best film of all time. For his money, he believes it deserves the number one spot and more. The writer brags about the greatness of this film, comparing it to the accomplishments of the Yankees. He finds it utterly appalling to see that the film, although got nominated for 9 awards, only received 1, for screenplay. Yet this doesn’t deter him, or this movie’s fanatics, to call this the best film of all time. He specifically mentions the “News on the March” news reel montage and calls it the best 10 minutes he has ever seen in a film. He also praises Orson Welles for being such an innovative director and taking the auteur director role like a champion. He also mentions that every time he watches the film, he finds something new every time that catches his attention. In the end, he asks the reader if Citizen Kane really deserves to be called the best film of all time, his answer; “I think so.”
Relation of the Article to the Summary
One of the reasons why Citizen Kane gets the praises it does is because it brings a variety of new things to the table for its time. The “News on the March” montage is an amazing way the director told the story. The idea was innovative, and very appropriate. It helped cut short a huge amount of time that would have been used if the director would have portrayed in the traditional way. Then, one must have respect for Orson Welles contribution towards this film. His auteur style is something that was new. Besides the “News on the March”, there are other various rules Welles breaks; a quality that every filmmaker should find admirable.
Critique of the Film
Until I saw Citizen Kane, my favorite film of all time was Limitless. But, my opinion is quite different now. The sheer genius of Citizen Kane is my favorite cinematic adventure. The movie, hands down, is the best film I have ever seen and any hype associated with it is well deserved. Every aspect of this film is simply marvelous and anyone who thought that this film would not be where it is was probably someone who wanted to sabotage film industry’s advancement. Citizen Kane, by all mean, deserves to be ranked #1 in the AFI’s list of Best Films, ever made.
