The Wasteland Reviewer

The Wasteland Collection: Citizen Kane (1941)

How does one navigate the most influential and important films in cinematic history without highlighting what many consider the greatest film of all time? There are many reasons why Citizen Kane has been given its lofty place in the annals of film history. You have a revolutionary talent and savant of filmmaking in Orson Welles delivering such a compelling and game-changing film in his first effort. The technical prowess on display is unmatched for sure. The storytelling is layered and complex in a way that has never quite been experienced before. The performances (especially Welles’) are quite extraordinary. Citizen Kane is a towering achievement of film that wasn’t appreciated in the way it should have upon its release. There is plenty of backlash to its high praise today with many dispelling its high distinction for being old and dated but that is a horrible simplification of Welles’ miraculous work. 

Just how impressive are the technical aspects of this film? There are so many conventions of filmmaking that would become commonplace that were fresh and exciting when Welles delivered upon them in Citizen Kane. From the opening shot of Charles Foster Kane’s palace of Xanadu, you see how effectively Welles creates landscapes and structures through matte paintings. There is an incredible shot of a statue that is a matte painting that transitions down into real space with an expert camera tilt. The use of the camera is so impressive throughout the film as well. One of the most iconic moments in film is the death of Kane at the start of the film. The extremely close-up of Welles’ mouth uttering “Rosebud” is powerful. The next shot is even more impressive with the camera catching the reflection off a snow globe. This shot is so dynamic and engrossing that you would expect it from a film decade into the future. There are some impressive camera angles utilized throughout the film as well with an extremely high angle shot that has quite a story behind. Kane and his partner Leland needed to look larger than life and Welles dug into the floor which allowed the camera to sit lower than they possibly could, achieving the powerful effect this visionary filmmaker desired. Dutch angles (slanted perspective) for disorientation. Montages for the passage of time highlight the deteriorating first marriage in Kane’s life. Intense close-ups show the deeply complex emotions of the characters. A wonderful crane shot showing the immense wealth and collection of physical goods that Kane had accumulated over the course of his life. Welles’ was a visionary, and his film is a blueprint of how to tell a story like a cinematic visionary. 

But it isn’t just the technical choices of Welles that makes Citizen Kane so astounding, is it? The film’s storytelling is something to marvel at as well. Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz worked together to craft a story full of mystery, tension, conflict, themes, and grander scale and ideas. The root of the whole film comes from something so controversial and rousing of tension. William Randolph Hearst was one of the most powerful men in all the United States at the time. He owned so much of the media and controlled much of the flow of information to the masses. Welles was certainly not a fan of this controversial figure and crafted a film to tear this man down. Citizen Kane can be seen through this lens as a powerful hit piece. We get politically and culturally minded films so much today that it just feels normal. This was a bold and controversial choice by Welles that brought a lot of strife upon him and this film. 

Who or what is “Rosebud”? The broader strokes of the film’s narrative are constructed as a mystery. The final word of this powerful and tortured mogul is seemingly nonsensical. But the whole film is dedicated to the search for the answer. This mystery looms over the film like a specter. There was a time when whodunnits and mystery were a huge thing like the 60s and 70s but Citizen Kane is no murder mystery or true crime story. This is not your standard type of traditional mystery. But there is a secret…any great film is a mystery. If you give the audience to get invested and want to see what happens next, you will have the audience eating out of your hand. Welles certainly fed anyone who decided to see Citizen Kane. This single word is a more powerful mystery than most murder stories and such out there.  Welles redefined what the genre of mystery could be, and it still stands as one of the greatest mysteries in film. The answer? The childhood innocence lost by Kane at a young age. That sled he cherished before being whisked away from his snowy home to be molded into the towering symbol that he would become. 

But what stands out when it comes to HOW this legendary story is told? Citizen Kane is a nonlinear story that is structured in a way that was unique to audiences at the time. Flashbacks had been used before. Storybook narratives had been used before. But to structure a whole film in reverse but posing this mystery after death and then proceedings to layer out the story through testimonials (both written and spoken) was revolutionary for a cinematic story. The work by Mankiewicz and Welles is astounding. This film is both a mystery (as proposed at the start) and really a secret character study. This study is brought together by all the stories from Welles former guardian, former partner, and former wife. Their perspectives paint different dimensions to Kane and who he was as a man and a cultural figure. This move away from linear storytelling had become incredibly popular again in the 90s (which was heavily influenced by Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction), but it was Citizen Kane that became the standard bearer for such a bold choice in story structure. This approach becomes so essential to the navigation of the film’s mystery that they go hand in hand. If you want to see how to craft a unique and dynamic story, this is the blueprint to turn to first. 

What is the last piece that makes Citizen Kane such an important film? That central performance from Orson Welles is a towering feat of acting. Kane is both a terribly flawed human as well as a cult of personality who transcends what a normal human being can be. Welles was not just a visionary filmmaker. No…he was an electric showman as well. In his most modest moments, Kane is a deeply flawed human being. The vulnerable moments in Citizen Kane are the truly special ones. When we witness him write the scathing review of his own wife, there is anger and sadness in the powerful punching of the keys on the typewriter. We see the rage boil up when Welles delivers his stiff and saddened destruction of a room when his wife leaves. Even the mouth acting in that opening moment…tired and weak. Welles delivered a performance full of layers and plenty of emotion. But magnetism was the truly special ingredient. Kane needs to be a towering figure, and Welles had all the charisma and presence to deliver just that. When we see him on his stage for his political campaign, the charisma that is pouring out from Welles performance is unmatched. There is no stopping the towering presence of this actor as Welles delivered one of the greatest performances in the history of film. 

There is no lie then, right? Citizen Kane is truly one of the greatest films, if not THE greatest film of all time. The technical prowess bestowed by Welles into this film is miraculous. The story is one of the greatest mysteries in film history. The structure is unique, compelling, and an interesting deconstruction of a towering figure. That towering figure exists thanks to the impressive performance of this visionary renaissance man of film, Orson Welles. Citizen Kane is one of the greatest films ever put to film and a must watch for all cinephiles and aspiring filmmakers out there.