Film Review: Citizen Kane (1941)

Which film is the greatest of all times? There will never be a definite or undisputed answer to that question, because it depends too much on someone’s subjective tastes, times when it was asked and many other criteria. But if someone really needs that answer, there are some points from you may start looking. One of those is famous Sight & Sound poll. From 1962 to 2002 it was putting Citizen Kane, celebrated 1941 drama directed by Orson Welles, on top.

The film begins in Xanadu, vast estate in Florida where wealthy and once influential newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane (played by Welles) has built dreamlike pleasure palace. He dies there, uttering word “Rosebud”. This is followed by newsreel obituary that retells Kane’s life – his family in Colorado accidentally gaining vast fortune which would young Kane use to buy struggling New York newspaper and build media empire on it, his public crusade against corruption and injustice, growing influence that led him spark US going to war with Spain, two failed marriage, failed electoral campaign and last years marked by Great Depression. Newsreel editor Rawlston (played by Philip Van Zandt) is, like the rest of the public, intrigued by Kane’s last words, so he sends Jerry Thompson (played by William Alland), one of his reporters, to find out what “Rosebud” actually meant. Thompson begins by reading private papers of Walter Parks Thatcher (played by George Coulouris), banker and Kane’s former legal guardian and than interviews people who personally knew Kane – Bernstein (played by Everett Sloane), his friend and employee; Jedediah Leland (played by Joseph Cotten), old friend and drama critic with whom had a falling out; Susan Alexander Kane (played by Dorothy Comingore), former second wife and failed singer; and Raymond (played by Paul Stewart), his butler at Xanadu. Through their testimonies, shown in flashback, Thompson tries to solve the mystery of Kane and his enigmatic last words.

Whether Citizen Kane is the best film ever made or not might be a matter of debate. What is certain is that it became the most influential film in last eighty or so years, with its impact reflected not only among countless generations of film makers that found it so inspiring, but also among entering world’s vocabularies and popular culture, despite not being as popular as Gone with the Wind or Casablanca, two other grand iconic films of Classic Hollywood. Among cinephiles Citizen Kane is often regarded as embodiment of film making at its best, and the story of its creation is sometimes as fascinating as film itself, becoming subject of countless books, video essays, Internet podcasts and at least two major feature films.

Making of Citizen Kane required incredibly happy set of circumstances. It represented film debut of Orson Welles, young, but immensely talented stage director who had few years earlier shocked and terrified America with his famous, inventive but controversial radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. That feat brought attention of Hollywood, most notably RKO Pictures, studio whose president George Schaefer lured the new talent not only with glitz and glamour of Tinseltown, but also with a promise of creative freedom, unusual for Hollywood at the time. Unlike with many such stories, the promise was kept and Welles truly had free reign during production, later famously describing studio as “greatest electric train set a boy ever had”. As an outsider, Welles brought fresh perspective and new ways of making films, but he was still a true professional, aware of his lack of experience and need to familiarise himself with the process. Welles was fortunate to have great set of talents around him. The most crucial was Gregg Toland, famous cinematographer who would use innovative deep focus technique for the shooting and teach Welles the ins and outs of film production. Welles brought with him the cast - friends and associates from Mercury Theatre who made his stock company, augmented by relatively unknown actors and actresses who nevertheless provided strong and memorable performances. Citizen Kane also represented debut for Bernard Herrmann, composer who would later be associated with some of the most memorable pieces of film music made in 20th Century. Another important talent was Maurice Seiderman, make up artists whose innovative and ingenious work allowed Kane and other characters to age on screen in a natural and realistic way that would be rarely replicated in future films.

Armed with his and the talents of people around him, Welles didn’t hesitate to use them in inventive ways, giving audience and critics something that they haven’t seen before. That included playing with shadows, unusual shooting angles and camera movements and dissolves seldom used with such frequency and effectiveness in other Hollywood films of the era. Even narrative structure was unconventional. The film starts with the main character dying, a scene which is followed by fake newsreel that gives not only exposition than the entire plot; yet the mystery, no matter how banal and insignificant, remains and the audience is sucked into it and wants to have it solved, which Welles provides in ironic yet one of the most powerful finales in history of cinema. Because of that, Citizen Kane looked like a film ahead of its time. Welles’ talent has reflected even in its trailer, one of the most imaginative and effective in history of Classic Hollywood.

But it was also a film of its time. It dealt with the issues that were heavily on the mind of the audience at the time – sharp class divisions, ruthlessness of American capitalism, political corruption, media manipulations and wars, including the one America would be brought into it few months after the premiere. And they were explored through character that represented, in a sense, anti-thesis of American Dream. Kane gained wealth by happy accident rather than hard work. He is a very complex and contradictory figure; he buys newspaper as something of joke, then makes it a success by sensationalist editorial policies and pandering to the sentiments of lower classes whose interests he would later publicly champion while becoming filthy rich. But Kane, despite all the wealth and influence is never truly happy and his attempts to gain prestige, respect and love end in failure. In the end he loses all love and friendship he had, while grotesque displays of material wealth he accumulated are small comfort in his luxurious palace where he would meet his inevitable end as lonely and pathetic man. This ultimately tragic and depressive tale was also an opportunity for Welles to display some of the left-wing sentiments he had shared with so many of 1930s artists and intellectuals and that would years later bring so many of his Mercury Theatre cast into trouble during McCarthy era persecutions.

Citizen Kane was product of its time and this almost proved to be its doom. Nowadays, despite all of Welles’ claims to the contrary, everyone agrees that the character of Charles Foster Kane was based on real life newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Unlike Kane, Hearst was alive during the production and very much still in the business with large clout. He didn’t like the film from the start and was further infuriated after learning that character of talentless singer Susan Alexander was modelled after his long term mistress, silent film actress Marion Davies (who, unlike her fictional counterpart, remained with Hearst until his death). To add insult to injury, “Rosebud” was rumoured to be the word used by Hearst to describe certain part of Davies’ anatomy. Hearst, unsurprisingly, tried all that he could to nip Citizen Kane in the bud – first by trying to prevent its production, then its distribution, then by orchestrating relentless smear campaign in his newspapers. Those efforts failed, although some film historians claim that they have affected film’s box office and, more visibly, its chances at Oscars. Citizen Kane was nominated in nine categories and won only one – Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, who would later spend years trying to deny Welles’ authorship. In a conflict with Hearst Welles ultimately won – his film became grand cinema masterpiece and Hearst’s name will forever be associated with the fictional counterpart played by young film maker.

But it was something of a bittersweet triumph for Welles. By creating such masterpiece at the very start of his film career, Welles has set standard so high that he had little chance of achieving it. He never enjoyed the same levels of creative freedom, nor had so many great talents as his disposals, which would result in his later years being spent in virtual exile or living on its past glory. Despite this fate, that some of the more imaginative critics or film scholars try to compare with Kane’s, Welles’ brilliant debut still stands as the testament to the power of cinema.

RATING: 10/10 (++++)

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