"Citizen Kane: 85 Years Later"

Is Citizen Kane still the greatest Hollywood film ever made, 85 years after its release?

The answer is yes.

Granted, modern audiences might lump it in with the wealth of black and white Hollywood movies from the past and consider it to be a film relic drifting away into oblivion with each passing year.  It’s probably a safe guess to say that only film scholars, film students and die-hard film buffs have actually seen the movie. Despite its age and subject matter, it remains a towering example of moviemaking and moviemaking talent on every level.

Books and articles have been written about the movie and the making of the movie.  What follows is a brief summary of what makes Citizen Kane great. 

Let’s start with the genius behind it, a 25-year-old prodigy by the name of Orson Welles who was brought to Hollywood by RKO Studios, following his mega-success both on stage and on the radio (he masterminded the infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast that triggered widespread panic and catapulted him to fame). 

The young actor/director/writer was given carte blanche, a level of complete creative control unheard of in Hollywood in the 1940s, earning him the label of enfant terrible.

Welles’ co-writer was the legendary Herman J. Mankiewicz. Their collaboration resulted in a truly original script that broke rules and conventions and expanded Hollywood screenwriting.  The story, told in a series of flashbacks, begins with the death of its main character, Charles Foster Kane, who famously utters his last word (“Rosebud”) before dropping a snow globe (one of the movie’s two iconic props), that falls to the floor and smashes to pieces. 

Following a classic 1940s newsreel obit about Kane’s death, a newspaper reporter is given the assignment of finding out the meaning of “Rosebud.”  It is a journey that puts him in touch with the people closest to Kane.  Each has a slightly different take on the man, and we are soon reminded that truth is subjective.  It depends on who you are talking to.  The idea of alternate versions of the same event later became a theme of Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese masterpiece Rashomon (1950), nine years later.

The story structure is perhaps at the top of the list of noteworthy achievements for Citizen Kane.  It was unconventionally bold and brilliant and ahead of its time.

Gregg Toland’s remarkable deep focus photography is another major contribution.  It is enhanced by the innovative optical printing effects by Linwood Dunn which made impossible camera shots possible through the use of oversized foreground props and technical wizardry.

Toland loved being challenged by Welles whose imagination frequently exceeded the state of current technology back in the early 1940s.  Welles’s insistence on extreme low camera angles, resulted in Toland sawing holes in the floor of the set.  The upward angle of the shots required the construction of fake muslin fabric ceilings that would hide the lights and microphones the audiences would otherwise see.  Old school optical illusion was brilliantly incorporated in the set construction, rendering windows and fireplaces as massive structures when Kane occasionally walked into the background of the shots and stood next to them.

The lighting is worth mentioning in Citizen Kane, particularly the decision to obscure the faces of major characters in total shadow – something that was never done in Hollywood in those days.  Studio heads insisted that audiences should see the faces of the stars they were paying to see. 

Again, Welles’ artistic vision put RKO to the test with their promise of total artistic control.  When spies from the front office tried to sneak into the sound stages, Welles and his crew would famously take breaks and play softball until the they went away.

Like Welles, Robert Wise (who later went on to direct West Side Story and The Sound of Music) was also only 25 years old when he edited Citizen Kane. He famously scratched film negative stock to achieve the look of authentic newsreel footage.  Perhaps his most famous sequence is the now-famous “Breakfast Scene” -- a montage that traces the self-destruction of Kane’s first marriage. 

Welles’ background in radio made him acutely aware of the creative possibilities of audio when it came to sound recording and mixing.  The movie is worth screening just to appreciate that richness of the soundtrack. 

The music was from a young Bernard Herrmann, who later went on to work with Robert Wise on The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) as well as a string of Hitchcock classics including Psycho (1960).

The makeup effects were remarkable in Citizen Kane, artificially aging Welles character from youth to old age.  Kane’s colleagues underwent similar treatment with the aid of prosthetics, wigs and Hollywood makeup techniques.

Welles proves to be a world class movie director in his debut film thanks to his theater background and the enormous talent of his crew, who translated his creative vision to the silver screen.  To his credit, his screen direction (in his debut film) is still fresh and engaging eight decades later.

Also vibrant are the performances of Welles' cast including Joseph Cotton, Agnes Moorehead, Dorothy Comingore, Ruth Warrick and Ray Collins.  They were part of Welles' talented entourage of stage actors from New York, all making their first appearance in the movies.

Welles was surrounded by top talent on both sides of the camera.  They were among the best and brightest in the business back then.  Welles’ ego, vision and creative talent were at the center of it all.  He was the equivalent of an orchestra conductor presiding over an all-star cast and crew.

That magical collaboration might explain why Welles was never able to replicate the kind of artistic success Citizen Kane eventually enjoyed. It’s the tragedy of stellar success early in your career and the inability to top what turns out to be your best work in your very first project.

Citizen Kane was released in 1941.  Yes, it’s an old, black and white film from a bygone era (the kind of movie that is an instant turn off for younger audiences) but what makes it special are the breakthrough achievements that happened on so many levels, all within the same movie.  When I encounter non-believers who wonder if it really lives up to its reputation of being the number one film in movie history, I ask them if they can name another Hollywood movie that advanced moviemaking the way Citizen Kane did.

 There simply aren’t any.

Putting it in its proper context, it was a movie unlike anything anyone had seen at the time.  On top of that, it was so controversial that it came close to being destroyed before it was ever released. 

When Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper alerted real-life newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst what Citizen Kane was all about (essentially, Hearst and his Hollywood star mistress, Marion Davies), he was furious. Over the years, it was reported that the term “Rosebud” was Hearst’s pet name for a private part of Davies’ anatomy.  Hearst unsuccessfully tried to purchase the film from RKO in order to destroy it.  Luckily, that didn’t happen.

Citizen Kane is a work of genius --  the genius of Orson Welles and the entire cast and crew.  Their remarkable collaboration resulted in a bold, breakthrough movie for the ages that has won the respect of movie scholars and critics for the better part of eight decades.

I’ve seen it dozens of times, including the many screenings of a class I taught on the History of American Cinema.  It was one of three films I showed I its entirety each semester (short clips were extracted from the dozens of other milestone movies). 

Seeing it on the big screen again for a special 85^th anniversary celebration was a thrill.  I am still discovering details after all these years and all the viewings. 

It takes on new meaning as time passes, the world changes and the political climates shift.  It is still relevant, perhaps now more than ever.

Citizen Kane remains a powerful, timeless tale about love, loss, wealth, power and ambition. Sometimes described as a movie made of “smoke and mirrors” (for its cleverness and technical innovation) it stands as Hollywood’s greatest example of pure movie magic.