Citizen Kane

Day 40

Film 31

Citizen Kane is supposed to be the best film ever made, at least by a slew of directors and critics. Even if that is true it is pretty much unknown by today's average people. Hell, I did not know about it until I made the list of the 25 films I knew I would have to see in this whole 100 films thing. It is odd that The Godfather or Casablanca can be named so readily as the best film ever in casual conversation when I doubt they have seen Citizen Kane.

I will say this upfront: Citizen Kane is a spectacular film. It deserves the praise.

I am not going to go into a story recap. If you want to know it all you can read it on wikipedia or watch the film. Instead I am going to drain the millions of thoughts about the film into an indecipherable soup of ideas and hope you all can sort it out.

Citizen Kane is a million things. It is a look at a man who has serious separation issues. It is a look at how our world progresses and what drives the men who do it. It is a look at rebellion. It is a view of the world through the eyes of a monarch, a businessman and a god. It is a view of the super rich at a time when no one had anything. It is the unforgiving tale of man at his finest and at his lowest. It is all of this and more and the more I think about it the more I want to think.

Kane is Rupert Murdoc. Kane is a President. Kane is a mover and shaker in a time when there were very few of them. Kane was a man of the previous age, when people were cattle. Kane is a slave driver and jailer of souls. Kane is a lover, a fighter a fool. Kane is a child. Kane proves we are all just children. Kane is a king in a castle of nothing. Aren't we all?

Orson Wells seems to have a view of the human condition with Citizen Kane. Kane is a man who can choose his path, knowing very well the doom that awaits him, but cannot control the other people in his life. Kane is a man who built an empire of stuff and hid away inside it, his existence defined by the knickknacks he left behind.