Can you imagine? Seventy years after its release (1941), Citizen Kane, hailed by the movie industry as the best American movie of all time, is still appealing.Citizen Kane is an epic movie narrating the life and times of a 'fictitious' (some critics say it is not) flamboyant debonair of an individual who was uprooted as a boy from a God-forsaken place to be given the comfort of wealth by a guardian. He grew up to be a playful megalomaniac of a character who jumps from boarding school to boarding school with no university certificate to show!
His turning point was when he turned 25, took over a newspaper, and started his legacy.
The movie was written, acted, directed, and produced by Orson Welles, one of Hollywood's equally eccentric characters. It won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1941, though it was nominated for 9 and did not break even at the box office then.
The movie starts with the introduction of Charles Foster Kane's death with a snowflake-filled crystal ball rolling down his hand, uttering "Rosebud' before his last gasp. This forms the basis of the movie. A group of journalists, eager to find out the true meaning of his last words, embark on a journey of discovery by interviewing people close to Charles F. Kane - his confidante, his editor, his second wife and finally, his butler. Kane's story is told in flashback through these interviews and must have been a breakthrough in movie-making back then.
After reaching great heights, he finally coops himself into his self-made exile in a multimillion-dollar estate of luxurious loneliness called Xanadu. The investigating reporter, after exhausting all his avenues, decides that the dying man's parting words may have referred to some fancy thing unachievable in the old man's lifetime and decides to call it a day.Only later, before the closing credit, do we realise that "Rosebud" is actually the name of the sledge he used to play on in his childhood days in Colorado. This gives the impression to us, the viewers, that this lonely, sad, wheelchair-bound man was reminiscing about his only joyful time in his life—in his carefree childhood, on the sled in the winter in his village!
At the end of the journey of life, we look at our lives and realise that the best time is indeed our childhood—no question about it! We are always looking for the wrong things in life, barking at the wrong tree. Our needs are simple, actually! The memories are the ones that last forever.
As in old movies, where dialogue and acting were of paramount importance, rather than flashing of flesh and megalomaniac special effects and pyrotechnics, Citizen Kane is no exception. Here are a few to cherish...
Kane: You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... 60 years.
Kane: I always gagged on the silver spoon.
Leland: I can remember everything. That's my curse, young man. It's the greatest curse that's ever been inflicted on the human race - memory.
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