Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane.
1941 RKO Radio Pictures & Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Dorothy Comingore, Ruth Warrick, Everett Sloane, George Coulouris, Ray Collins
Director: Orson Welles
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Orson Welles directed a fictionalized account of the life of William Randolph Hearst with elements of his own past worked into the film. Many people consider this to be one of the greatest movies ever made, if not the greatest movie. Tonight is the first time I've seen it, so I'll be able to judge for myself soon enough.

The media magnate Charles Foster Kane (Welles) has just died on his enormous estate Xanadu, and his last word was "Rosebud". From there, a newsreel obituary reveals details from Kane's remarkable life, going from poverty in his childhood to becoming one of the world's richest men by building an empire of newspapers from coast to coast before withdrawing into a life of seclusion at Xanadu. A reporter named Jerry Thompson (William Alland) is assigned by the newsreel's producer to find out about Kane's private life and personality, and yes, the meaning of his last word.

Thompson interviews scores of Kane's old acquaintances, and we are treated to many flashbacks of Kane's life since childhood, starting where he is forced to leave his mother to live with the deceased banker Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris) to escape his abusive father, and progressing up to Kane building his newspaper fortune while going through two failed marriages.

In the end, though, Thompson is unable to solve the Rosebud mystery, and concludes it will remain a mystery forever. But we happen to see some workers burning some of Kane's many belongings, including a sled that curiously has the name "Rosebud" painted on it. Perhaps Charles Foster Kane was happiest when he was a poor child, and the sled was his most prized possession after all these years.

Citizen Kane won just one Academy Award, for Best Original Screenplay (Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz), and it was nominated for eight more. It was the only Oscar that Orson Welles ever won, and it has been disputed that Welles actually did not contribute much, if any writing to the script (according to his contract with RKO, Welles would be the only one credited for screenwriter). The film was also the target of William Randolph Hearst, who was angered enough that he banned any mention of the movie in his newspapers. While Citizen Kane wasn't a smash hit in 1941, Hearst's efforts ultimately backfired in the long run, as any mention of his life and career will usually mention the movie's parallel to it. The movie's critical success in the United States began in the mid-1950s when it was revived for television; prior to this, it was released and largely forgotten during World War II.

Final thoughts? Highly, highly, highly recommended, and it's a film you must view at least once in your life.