Orson Welles' Citizen Kane (1941)

Released in 1941, Citizen Kane has a reputation as the best movie of all time. It follows the life of a man by the name of Charles Foster Kane beginning with his death, then flashing back, in a series of newsreels and interviews, to the earlier events of his life. Born in poverty Kane climbs both the economic and social ladder only to reach the top lonely and sad. The story is loosely based on the lives of William Randolph Hearst and the director of the movie, Orson Welles. Hearst was not pleased with the film. In fact, Hearst did not allow the mention of the movie in any of his papers, and he offered $800,000 for the destruction of the film and the negative. Some say that he was not dismayed by his portrayal as much as the portrayal of Marion Davies, an actress with whom Hearst had an affair and whose career he tried to promote, widely seen as represented by the character Susan Alexander in the film.

The movie gained its reputation as the best movie ever for its intense psychological thrill ride. People just enjoy watching a man as his life falls apart around him. Citizen Kane sits at the top of respected movie charts such as the American Film Institute and the British Film Institute. It got positive reviews when it debuted although it had a relatively low turn out at the box office. It was not until the 1950s that Citizen Kane came back into the spotlight.

The other reason Citizen Kane tends to appear at the top of “best” film lists, is because of Orson Welles who directed, wrote, produced, and starred in Citizen Kane at the age of 26. (Some of his other works are The Magnificent Ambersons, The Stranger, Macbeth, Othello, Touch of Evil, and Chimes at Midnight.) In retrospect, Welles is thought of as something of a genius, mostly for both for his visionary filmmaking techniques and for his writing or adaptation of scripts. Citizen Kane won the Oscar for best screenplay in 1941. However, his movies failed to earn money at the box office, and as a result the studios did not respect his artistic vision. They cut large parts from his films, which angered Welles, and he eventually left Hollywood. It was not until after his death in 1985 that he and his films were really recognized.

Not everyone thinks Citizen Kane is the greatest film of all time. Ray Carney, a well know film theorist, believes that the film lacks emotional depth and is full of empty metaphors, calling it “an all-American triumph of style over substance... indistinguishable from the opera production within it: attempting to conceal the banality of its performances by wrapping them in a thousand layers of acoustic and visual processing” (Wikipedia).

Perhaps it is a testament to a works innovation when one can find extreme disagreement of opinion. Is Citizen Kane as good as some critics argue? Is it really saddled by banal performances, on a par with the likes of Babes on Broadway or Men of Boys Town (oops, did we just pick two films with Mickey Rooney?), also released in 1941? Really, only you can decide whether the film is a masterpiece or a complete failure. You can’t argue with authority if you haven’t seen it, which is why the SPA Film Club is proud to show Citizen Kane.

Alec Nordin
SPA Film Club