Citizen Kane

Overrated and underwhelming

What most people believe to be the greatest film of all time, Citizen Kane. The film follows a Media Tycoon who falls into a fortune and then progresses to the eventual demise of his relationships and success eventuating in his death. I recently watched Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, and I must confess that after all the critical acclaim and accolades this film has received I definitely expected more. The story begins with the death of Charles Foster Kane followed by a journalist who collects fragments of information from Kane’s life (through the recounts of those closest to him) in order to find the true meaning of the word ‘Rosebud’ (Kane’s final word before his death).

            While I do not agree the film is the greatest of all time, I can appreciate it as a ground-breaking film for its period and perhaps during the 1940’s it was the greatest movie of its time, however in todays society of incredibly complex, high budget, sophisticated films dealing with complex issues and exploring ground-breaking themes, I believe it is wrong to label a simplistic film which has aged poorly as the greatest film of all time, because while the storyline is somewhat timeless, the poor black and white video quality and frustrating anticlimax of the eventual meaning of  the term ‘Rosebud’ leaves the audience in a state of shock that such a rich backstory could possibly have such an abruptly elementary ending.

           

            Citizen Kane failed to meet my expectations of ‘Greatest Film of all Time’ duly because I watched this film through the eyes of a film student and film enthusiast rather than a film critic or director, and having watched this in the year 2015 when it is hard to surmise just how cutting edge this film was for the context. Having compared this with other texts, which I would consider to be arguable claims to the title, ‘Greatest film of all time’ e.g. Shawshank Redemption, Inception, American History X Fight Club and other Modern Day Classics I cannot possibly consider Citizen Kane in the same calibre(obviously due to the limitations of the period) and thus with consideration of  Citizen Kanes Context I would probably give it a rating of 9/10 for the time during which it was released, however in modern society and standard of film I would rate it much lower.

Rating: 3.5/10

By: Brett Riley