Mind The Gap: Why Is 'Citizen Kane' The Greatest Movie Of All Time?
Ever since I started writing about movies, I’ve noticed there are a few glaring holes in my movie knowledge, so I’ve decided to go back to an idea I had almost exactly two years ago: fix those gaps and finally know more about these movies I’ve managed to just vaguely refer to all these years. My first (and only) piece in this series was finally watching all the Indiana Jones films, but there is still so much I need to see. It seemed only appropriate that start this back up with what is widely considered the greatest or most influential movie of all time: Citizen Kane.
My father has always been determined to expose me to movies that are acknowledged as classics. Thanks to him, I’ve seen Gone with the Wind and Casablanca and been at least present for parts of Jaws and 2001: A Space Odyssey. So when I came over to his house and he decided we were going to be watching Citizen Kane, I was on board. I’d always dismissed it as an overreaction, and I think seeing it while being uneducated about how exactly it influenced the movie industry as a whole, it just didn’t resonate with me.
I’m sure I’m not the only one to feel this way, and I also don’t feel this way in an ironic-hipster-don’t-like-popular-or-beloved-things kind of mood, but I honestly couldn’t grasp why it was so amazing. On both a technical and a story level, I wasn’t enamored with the movie. Nothing was technically wrong, of course, but I worry that when you deem a movie best in the world, it’s incredibly hard for something to live up to that expectation. I’ve run into that with modern movies, so I wasn’t surprised that I felt the same about this film since it had decades of hype around it.
I even watched the movie Mank (already on my list for the insane amount of Oscar nominations) in hopes of getting a better grasp on the brilliance behind the film, and I actually just found myself more interested in this than Citizen Kane itself. I felt like someone liking a Behind the Music episode more than a band’s actual album. I wanted to love this movie, but I just couldn’t. So many of the scenes were shot from an angle that looked like the camera operator had to have been laying on his floor on the stomach and it made it look like it was an almost satirical take on a film noir.
None of the characters appealed to me either, and I don’t think they were supposed to, but it was really hard for me to be invested when I didn’t care about how any of their lives went. I think the main problem is just Citizen Kane’s existence in the world of pop culture. Without having ever seen a second of the film, I knew what “rosebud” meant, so the whole film felt pointless to me with its quest being revisiting this man’s entire life through the memories of those who knew him best in order to find the meaning.
I can respect this film’s existence in the lore of film in general, and I am probably going to find articles that explain a lot of what I’m not gaining from this that will make me feel dumb for not appreciating it, but I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again. I recognize that, odds are, the majority of the film community probably isn’t wrong and that I’m the odd man out with my opinion, but it’s definitely a problem I’ve run into before seeing the classics way after their release, and I doubt this will be the last I encounter on my journey.
If you have any passionate feelings about Citizen Kane one way or the other, or know of any good articles/books/etc. about its legacy, feel free to share in the comments!