[Fresh Wind]

I’ve never understood why Citizen Kane is so highly rated. Can anyone explain?

[Toskrin]

Citizen Kane was a revolutionary development in film. Prior to it, movies were filmed like the camera was a spectator at a play. Welles put the camera into the scene in Citizen Kane. Compare it to two of the great films that came before it, Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. The narrative also seamlessly used flashbacks.

We don't really notice these things today, but they were new techniques at the time. I agree that the story is the weaknest part, but it was good enough to win an Oscar.

[Petronski]

I’ve never understood why Citizen Kane is so highly rated. Can anyone explain?

A lot of people say that, and the reason is that we're spoiled by what followed. But it was Citizen Kane that first did many things well: low camera angles; long quiet scenes to build tension; non-chronological story-telling; Welles' on-camera aging; Welles as producer, director and star; did I mention the amazing and inventive camera work?

Many things that we see have seen a thousand times were done well and properly first in Citizen Kane.

Oh, and the writing...some of the script is quite extraordinary: crisp, sardonic, sarcastic, insightful...

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I’ve never understood why Citizen Kane is so highly rated. Can anyone explain?

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I’ve tried to sit through CK once or twice and inevitably fell asleep. So on the one hand I agree with you.

So why is it so highly regarded. One reason is historico-technical. Orson Welles broke all sorts of new technical ground in that movie, I can’t recite chapter and verse what all he did, but things like how he set his shots up, to maybe what process he used for the film - I’m not entirely sure. A good musical analogy might well be Sergeant Pepper by the Beatles. To film buffs there are films made before CK and films made after. Just as for rock music SP is a watershed event. They did things in the album both technically as well as artistically that just redefined the musical landscape.

The trouble is that that doesn’t necessarily translate into a film (or an album) that is fun to watch 40 or 50 years later.

I think the second notion is that Welles was revered by the artistic types in Hollywood in perhaps the same way that Brando always was. If you were an actor at the time, you probably thought of Brando as the guy with more raw talent than any six people combined. Same with the young Welles. These guys were the enfant terribles of their time, personally difficult, but loaded with talent that no one in the business could ever deny. So some of the reverence for CK is also, I think, reverence for the guy that made it.

I’m sure there are those that would say it’s a fantastic movie, for this that and the other reason, and I’m not going to say it’s not - I’ll just say it put me to sleep.

[Dante3]

I do not understand it either. I am one of those rare individuals who could not get past the first fifteen minutes of “Citizen Kane.”

[Petronski]

By the way, in my not so humble opinion, the very best film to be snubbed by Oscar is Goodfellas, with Saving Private Ryan a close second.