Citizen Kane

Sitting down with my bowl of popcorn, I first considered the weight I may gain in my efforts to watch all 100 movies. So I'm making an official note that I may need to add healthy snacking options in the near future.

On with the movie! My first one sentence exclamation would be, "It was great." Simply, it was great. For me, the best part of a movie is the story. The second part is the score/music/orchestra man (the one who actually got a career as a music major, and rightfully so). In this movie, the music wasn't exhilarating moving, but that wasn't necessary because the story line was good enough to follow solely. Sometimes there are movies where you have the main character walking through a park for 10 minutes and you think, "Well if I saw this scene in real life, it would be as if I was staring at some random guy for 10 minutes, without him noticing a.k.a. stalking." Hence the need for some dramatic music.

As an effort not to ruin the movie entirely for those who haven't seen it, I won't spell the p-l-o-t o-u-t plainly, but I will instead refer to scenes and other material that should make no sense unless you actually saw the movie. If all this fails, then I'm sorry and will direct ultimate blame to the government.

I like characters who know who they are. Men who stand up for themselves morally, and preserve their integrity, or at least their idea of integrity. Women characters do this as well, but unfortunately a lot of movies that try to tackle this theme tend to approach it from a melodramatic Lifetime perspective which is a bit much for me. Charles Kane was one of these characters, and it was surprising to see how much he knew who he was, given his circumstances as a child (you see, I didn't spill the beans!). As powerful as his persona was, the same reflected of his life story in the movie. In the end I felt bad for him. He had everything, and it wasn't necessarily that he wanted it all. The one thing that he needed and longed for, was the one thing he could never receive: his youth. At least that's the way I saw it. It makes you wonder when you reach the latter days of your life, if when you look back, you see things that you wished you did or attempted. Opportunities are always there, but they're like those eye bugs you see when you stare into the sun for too long: you have to have the right focus.

Wikipedia* goes on to say how Kane's life was supposed to reflect the life of this Hearst fellow who apparently was outraged by the film. No one really knows why, some suggesting he didn't like the portrayal of him by Orson Welles (writer and star actor) or of the portrayal of Kane's second wife. Either way, Hearst and Welles went out about it and evidently had a Cold War dilemma, leaving both in a bitter stalemate. I'm not much for politics, but these guys sure were, and the movie was definitely their fighting ground medium. I mean political corruption is common, especially in movies, but in Citizen Kane, you could see that a man who was considered "destined" for politics, was the man who wanted the least to do with it. Irony can hit you like an iron plate, I'll tell you what!

*Wikipedia technically isn't an accredited reference source, at least that's what they tell you in school, but I use it, and most people who live on the Internet use it, and if you're reading this, it's safe to say that you're a part of this world wide web society who accepts it as their Britannica, therefore, it's good enough for me. And if someone tells you otherwise, ask them to write a report as to why Wikipedia isn't valid enough...without using Wikipedia sources. That'll get them thinking.

Back to the movie. Black and white. It was their only option back then but now it's almost a cinematic setting that whispers to the audience, "Shhhh! This part is important!" So since all of Citizen Kane is black and white, I found myself shhshhing anyone who tried to speak during the movie. The lighting and cinematography was great. I don't know exactly what cinematography means, but I think of photography, and apply it to movies and that's my definition, in which case, the movie-photography was great. The placement of the actors, the way the light shone on them, the close ups of Kane's face, especially as he aged, it was very moving.

Speaking of aging, the makeup was pretty neat. I use the word neat because nowadays, the makeup effort would be equivalent to that of a really good high school drama production, but back then, it was pretty awesome. So now it's neat. You could see the stretch marks of whatever plastic, clay looking mold was thrown on his face, but like I said before, the movie was too good to be diverted from the plot.

Finally, the ending. It pretty much makes the movie, simply because that's what the whole thing is about! Rosebud Rosebud Rosebud. Yeah, we figured out what it means (thank GOD!) but it also reminds me to do one thing before I keel over on my death bed: write a letter or note or something explaining my life mysteries, if I have any by that time. Even if I think no one will read it, it's only polite. It's the least you can do, instead of causing a big upheaval over what my life meant, could have meant, was lacking in meaning or so forth. I don't want to be the cause of a war or something, 'cause you never know, people are crazy.

I didn't shed a tear, but I liked the movie for sure. I can see why it's number one, it's very American and it stands for something. A man's tribulations? Life's dying words? Predicting the coming of terrible pop artists ruining the radio supported by rich production companies? Who knows? Go be philosophical and figure it out, you can't get it wrong, I promise.