Citizen Kane (Two-Disc Special Edition) | Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten

Citizen Kane (Two-Disc Special Edition) | Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten | Must See Classic

DVDs:

Citizen Kane (Two-...

	Citizen Kane (Two-Disc Special Edition) Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten Turner Home Ent, 2001 average customer review:based on 693 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A Young Man's Audacious, Precocious and Fully Realized Cinematic Vision

Laying claim to being the greatest movie ever made is bound to attract extensive essays from cineastes dismantling the film every which way ad infinitum. Suffice it to say that Orson Welles' first-time effort as a filmmaker remains an astonishing and often unparalleled work. Only 25 years old at the time, he provides an audacious vision in which all the parts of this 1941 masterpiece fit perfectly together with a furious precision. Moreover, there is a consistently precocious tone throughout that a more veteran director could not possibly capture, and this is what makes the film truly unique. It manifests itself in several complementary ways, whether it's the groundbreaking deep-focus cinematography of Gregg Toland, or the propulsive editing by Welles and future director Robert Wise, or the involving whodunit quality of Welles' and Herman Mankiewicz's sharp screenplay, or the meaty performances of a then-unknown cast of stage actors. The beauty of the film comes from the simple fact that no single component dominates the other.

The result is as cohesive a vision as has likely been seen onscreen and one that Welles was never able to recapture for the rest of his life no matter how hard he tried. The film examines the life of a William Randolph Hearst doppelganger named Charles Foster Kane, a newspaper publisher who has amassed a fortune and more than a few enemies. The plot revolves around the mysterious utterance of "Rosebud" as Kane's dying words and how an investigative reporter interviews the people in Kane's life to find out the hidden meaning of that word. The interviews provide the means for selective flashbacks to his lonely childhood, his beginnings as a yellow journalist in building a publishing empire with closest confidante Jedidiah Leland, his first marriage to wealthy socialite Emily Norton, his scandal-laden run for governor, his obsession in turning second wife Susan Alexander into a world-class opera singer, and his sad decline at his isolated mountaintop estate, Xanadu.

The film combines a first-rate detective story with a classic tragedy about wealth and power and the inevitable ruin that comes from Kane's unrelenting self-absorption. It is startling how convincing Welles is as an aging magnate, and his naturally larger-than-life persona fits nicely into the Shakespearean contours of the character. The cast consists entirely of his Mercury Theater troupe with Joseph Cotten a particular standout as Leland. I always found Dorothy Comingore a bit too cartoonish as Susan, the character inspired by real-life movie star Marion Davies, Hearst's long-time mistress, but more subtle turns by Agnes Moorehead as Kane's mother and Ruth Warrick as Emily more than compensate.

The 60th Anniversary, two-disc DVD set has enough material to please Kane aficionados beginning with two separate but equally valuable commentary tracks, one by director and Welles confidante Peter Bogdanovich and the other by film critic Roger Ebert. Bogdanovich is more academic in his approach even though he had the personal relationship with Welles, while Ebert can barely contain his enthusiasm with each scene he describes. The first disc also contains the original trailer, a brief newsreel of the film's New York premiere and three sections of intriguing material focusing on the production, post-production and the press book. The second disc contains a fascinating 1996 documentary feature, "The Battle Over Citizen Kane", which focuses on Hearst's attempts to ruin the film. To put it mildly, this DVD set reflects essential viewing.

for more information click here

Must See Classic

Heralded as one of the greatest films of all time, Citizen Kane is simply magnificent! An achievement on so many levels, and a lasting monument to Orson Wells' genius behind the camera.

One of the greatest films ever made, but no one can really claim it's the greatest...

When you watch this film, try and ignore the comment that it's the "greatest movie ever made". When a film is tagged with that line, people are bound to be disappointed. Just go into it thinking "this is going to be a great film". Citizen Kane is an amazing work, one of the best films ever made. Is it the greatest? I don't know. Personally, my favorite Welles film is The Trial, but I do love Kane. Orson was only 25 when he made it, and even today its script, performances, and technical innovations are still fresh and interesting. The deep focus photography (courteous of the great Gregg Toland) is stunning to behold today. It's an incredibly cinematic experience, and a searing indictment of yellow journalism which is practiced way too often today. The film has been parodied quite a bit (most notably on The Simpsons, who parody just about everything), and its reputation as the greatest film ever made hurts it a bit, and it is unfortunate that both of these things have a detrimental effect. I don't think any film can really claim the title of greatest ever made, but this one does belong in the top ten.

for more information click here

It had to grow on me...

I am 62, and "Citizen Kane" has been hyped as the world's greatest film all of my life. I finally saw it for the first time when I was about 20, and even though I was in college earning a degree in journalism, and this is a movie partly about the journalism of the early 20th century, it really did not live up to the build-up. I viewed it again around the age of 40, and appreciated it a bit more. Finally, I watched it again last week, and totally enjoyed it...the writing, acting, directing, odd style of story-telling, crazy camera angles, and all. When I was in college, a popular book was "Citizen Hearst", a biography of William Randolph Hearst, who Orson Welles was satirizing with his Kane character. Kane and Hearst share many traits in common, but the movie is not a thinly disguised biography of the Rupert Murdoch of his era. It is a work of fiction, a study of a man whose personality was shaped when he was a heart-broken boy, and whose inherited wealth led him to glory, power, even more wealth, and finally ruin. As is mentioned in the film, "Charles Foster Kane wanted to be loved" but he didn't know how to get it except through purchase or pandering. Don't worry if it does not knock your socks off the first time you see it. It is the kind of film that a person who has lived long enough to have a few big failures, and a success or two, will appreciate more.

for more information click here