Citizen Kane

Pros: Directing, Editing, Photography, Acting
Cons: Asks the tough questions.

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind. Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have put off reviewing Citizen Kane for quite some time, as it seems to be so oft praised that it is...

Pros: Great characters, cinematography, structure, and story.
Cons: Orson Welles sure don't need _your_ approval, boy.

So, look. You know Citizen Kane is a Great movie. Maybe you haven't seen it yet (one good reason to be reading reviews of it), but you know it's Great, just as I knew it long before it bobbed its way to the top of my Netflix queue this week. If...

Pros: Classic. History of our nation and film.
Cons: Black and white. Different pace.

Citizen Kane. You’ll love the movie or you’ll hate it. There is NOTHING middle-of-road about this 1941 classic, which is considered by many to be the greatest film of all times.

To understand the movie, you have to travel back in...

Pros: A scathing look at the price of wealth and power.
Cons: Long and may need some background knowledge.

I actually saw the surprisingly excellent telemovie RKO 281 before seeing Citizen Kane. RKO was the story of the making of this movie, with Liev Schreiber as Welles and a cast that included James Cromwell (Hearst), Melanie Griffith ...

Pros: An intense dream/nightmare about the life we are encouraged to try to attain.
Cons: A film without sentimentality, originally conceived as a love story, requiring dedicated observation.

One wet Sunday last year, walking by the Red Vic Theater, in the upper Haight of San Francisco, I glanced at a lobby poster. CITIZEN KANE was playing. My afternoon was free, and I saw by my watch the show would start in five minutes. I ...

Pros: All the great cinematography that everyone else has mentioned.
Cons: Some horrible dialogue.

Citizen Kane is regularly voted as the greatest film ever made by various critics. Chronicling the life of a barely fictional newspaper tycoon, its satirical edge was sharp enough to ensure that writer, director and leading man Orson Welles was...

Pros: Everything
Cons: I'm not opening up that can of worms!

I have seen this 1941 Orson Welles directorial debut several times, and have intended on reviewing it a few times too. I have never gone through with it until now. This, much-celebrated, much-analysed film is often declared the ‘Greatest Film of ...

Pros: Exceptional production values, strong acting, ahead of it's time
Cons: It's not going to win over everyone

Inevitably, everywhere you read on a top ten movie list is Citzen Kane. It's a movie that's been interminably analyzed, broken down, interpreted, trashed, loved, liked, and finally, viewed. There are people that hate it, people that love it, people that ...

Pros: A classic film, 40 years ahead of it's time:
Cons: There are aspects that are not appealing

There are two parts to this DVD set that make the experience of watching Citizen Kane a special event in viewing. First, is the movie itself, which has been cleaned up ,with meticulous care, improving the visual integrity of the film. When I saw...

Pros: Classic in filmmaking, great cinematography, excellent plot structure and editing, excellent acting, near perfect film
Cons: Not sure what the purpose of the c*ckatoo is near the end

Reviewing Citizen Kane would be like reviewing icons like the Bible or Shakespeare. I might as well go to the Sistine Chapel and review Michelangelo's Creation for that matter. Orson Welles, in his first film, created a...

Pros: One of the greatest American films ever made.
Cons: Too self-consciously clever in construction.

Introduction Does Epinions really need another review of Citizen Kane? Certainly not. Why bother to write one, then? Self-indulgence, I suppose, because, to be honest, with the excellent reviews that are already posted on the ...

Pros: Best movie ever? It makes its case
Cons: Ending no longer a surprise twist - EVERYONE knows it

Whenever some film organization gathers up the list of the best movies ever made, Citizen Kane is the perennial chart topper. It doesn't matter what other movies are on it - Battlefield Earth could rank number 2 and Citizen Kane will still be perched ...

Pros: A standard of essential film making.
Cons: Perhaps too stylized for today's audience.

Citizen Kane a Search for Love Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece which he directs and in which he plays the title role, Citizen Kane is considered by many critics and students of film to be the best American movie ever made. It has earned this ...

Pros: Every single frame is awash in brilliance
Cons: None

Citizen Kane may well be the most written about film ever made. So, why should an amatuer like me write more about it? Because this film is so glorious that I want to share it with anyone who has had the misfortune not to have seen it.

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Pros: Acting, direction, cinematography, writing, camerawork, makeup, lighting, et cetera
Cons: Minds stilted by MTV editing may not understand this brilliant film

It's one of the most famous shots in movie history. The camera creeps up the gates of a giant mansion with a single K as its masthead, then to the mansion inside the gates, then inside a room with a single occupant, a doddering old man. We focus on his...