Kane earned nothing to gain his wealth, and yet his wealth was all he needed to gain power. But that fact, alone, does not make him the bad guy. In many ways, Kane is a very likable character, determined to do right. What follows this introduction is the devolution of morality when next to the evolution of monetary ambition. Kane becomes politically-inclined, running for governor and spouting flawless, epic rhetoric that elicit thunderous crowd response.
Kane represents the thin line between good and bad business in an America that promotes cutthroat capitalism while it promotes nationalistic compassion. What if said manipulation becomes more than temporary?
Even if you were to strip all of the political undertones and economic commentary from the film, Kane still remains the best 2-hour lesson in filmmaking money can buy, Welles employing nearly every kind of visual technique into the film, from fade-outs to noir-lighting to time lapse to deep focus. Upon its theatrical release, Hearst banned any mention of Kane in any of his newspapers, and he owned a lot of newspapers.
In one of the most delightful but overacted parts of the film, a hammy, makeup-caked Joseph Cotten stares into Thompson. Even as a teenager I had a distrust of canons and the mostly male white critics that made and protected them. Thankfully, none of that really mattered. Nearly 80 years after Citizen Kane was made, watching that sled burn made me want to burn everything around me less.
Plus, Ryen closes it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.
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And miles and miles of words have been written, of course, about whether it deserves that acclaim — not to mention who, exactly, is responsible for its greatness. But how did Citizen Kane become so firmly established at the top of the canon in the first place? Who put it there? Unlike a lot of other classics whose greatness was recognized belatedly, Citizen Kane actually came roaring out of the gate. By the time Kane began screening for the press, its theatrical fate was in jeopardy.
RKO had already moved its release date several times, and efforts were underway by the other studios — many of whose chiefs had close ties to Hearst — to buy and destroy the print before it could be seen. Oddly, all these efforts may have helped build additional hype around Kane.
For journalists and critics writing about the movie at least, for non-Hearst publications , there was some urgency in making sure that readers knew that the film was, you know, good. Back then, the Hollywood majors actually owned most of the screens in the country, a fact which had helped power the rise of the studio system. Seven years later, after a landmark anti-trust case brought about by the U. This helped precipitate the gradual decline of the studio system and the eventual rise of the Film Brat Generation … led by directors who worshipped Citizen Kane and Orson Welles and who would ultimately transform the industry.
They even tried to get him arrested: Welles recounted that during a lecture tour in Buffalo, New York, he was warned at dinner one night not to go back to his hotel, as there was a year-old girl and a couple of Hearst photographers waiting in his room for him.
But what America dismissed, Europe embraced. After World War II, Kane began to make its way across the formerly war-torn corners of the continent. Along the way, it became a phenomenon. Indeed, Truffaut noted how poorly it had been subtitled in French. Still, it took some time for Kane to become a consensus favorite. In early , a referendum of around filmmakers was held in Brussels to determine the best movies of all time.
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