Citizen Kane

It ends where it began.

 This is true when you talk of this movie, the beginning scene is the exact same as the ending scene. I enjoy trying to piece together a mystery, so it is no wonder why I enjoyed this film. It isn’t hard to understand why its number one critic’s choice of all time, especially after seeing the mid-night premier of The Hunger Games, which I may also do a review on.

Major Actors:

•  Orson Welles as Charles Foster Kane: the titular "Citizen Kane"; a wealthy, megalomaniacal newspaper publisher whose life is the subject of the movie.
• William Alland as Jerry Thompson: the reporter in charge of finding out the meaning of Kane's last word, "Rosebud". Thompson is seen only in shadow or with his back turned to the camera.
• Ray Collins as Jim W. Gettys: Kane's political rival and the incumbent governor of New York. Kane appears to be the frontrunner in the campaign, but Gettys exposes Kane's relationship with Susan Alexander which leads to his defeat.
• Dorothy Comingore as Susan Alexander Kane: Kane's mistress, who later becomes his second wife.
• Joseph Cotten as Jedediah Leland: Kane's best friend and the first reporter on Kane's paper. Leland continues to work for Kane as his empire grows, although they grow apart over the years. Kane fires Leland after he writes a bad review of Susan Alexander Kane's operatic debut.
• George Coulouris as Walter Parks Thatcher: a miserly banker who becomes Kane's legal guardian.
• Agnes Moorehead as Mary Kane: Kane's mother.
• Harry Shannon as Jim Kane: Kane's father.
• Everett Sloane as Mr. Bernstein: Kane's friend and employee who remains loyal to him to the end. According to RKO records, Sloane was paid $2400 for shaving his head.^[2]
• Ruth Warrick as Emily Monroe Norton Kane: Kane's first wife and the niece of the President. She leaves him after discovering his affair with Susan Alexander. She dies in a car accident along with their only child, a son, a few years later.
• Paul Stewart as Raymond: Kane's cynical butler who assists him in his later years. Stewart had discovered Welles when he was a radio producer.^[10]

Let’s begin with who they set the beginning up. It is a black and white film created even when there was Technicolor; to be honest I’m glad they did it this way. I personally think that the color might have actually played a part in this movie, it made it seem dark and gloomy at points, then later on it would transition to make it warmer and more comfortable. I think that it made you want to figure out what was going on.

The sound actually played a huge part in this film. It would be dark and gloomy, and then happy and inviting. Then there were those occasions when it actually showed us more than the actors. The most obvious point of this was directly after Mr. Kane had slapped his wife. You hear a girl’s shrill scream in the background. As where Mrs. Kane did nothing but stare up at him.

At one point in the movie he was writing a review on his wife’s opera. Now you may be thinking that he wrote a good one, but that isn’t the case he actually finished the review of it that his friend started, according to his friend that is the only thing he ever finished.

”He never finished anything he started, except my review.” This quoted leads me on to talk about his……. the best thing to call it would be structure dedicated to destroying wealth, yet proving you have enough for the building to never be done. He had his own personal collection of animals from around the world, two of each. He had also bought thousands of statues, you don’t even realistically know how many he has due to how much of a monstrosity his “monument of money” was, I don’t even think you even see the “complete building it is so large.

“Even if I lost $1,000,000 a year, I wouldn’t have to close my doors for 60 years.”

If you wondering why I put that quote there it is because I’m going to begin on the subject of Mr. Kane’s story now, and this is just a line from him. As a boy Kane was signed away by his parents, in the middle of winter. Throughout the whole movie you are trying to figure out, what in the world “Rosebud” is, that is his very last word. To be honest when I figured out what he meant by it I was flipping out. But you will have to watch it to find out what he means by it. This movie in all reality is on giant series of flashbacks.

I give this movie a 5 on my rating scale. The reason are as follow

Good Things- Angles, Story, Color, Acting, Volume of Voices, Music, and Lighting

Bad Things- Can be confusing, and that stupid bird

*Links provided by Wikipedia, on the actors names*