Review of Citizen Kane (1941) by Steven K — 01 May 2013

I have no idea why this movie did not appeal to me when I was younger. I thought it was going to be scene after scene of men smoking cigars and talking tough about business, which sounded like a yawn. Also of course, it just plain looked OLD.

However, now that I've seen it, I love it. It's such a cool character study, and is visually captivating. It somewhow manages to be epic in scope, but never boring, and what a cast! So many well known actors started their careers in this movie.

Welles was one hot rooster in this; he played this role to perfection. It's now one of my all time favorite movies, a timeless masterpiece. And "Rosebud"? Kane loved statues and artifacts and things, things, things.

..to me "rosebud" was the artistic symbol of his own innocence. He was, despite outward appearances,an idealistic innocent who loved the underdogs in life yet was surrounded by sharks. I don't buy the more salacious explanation that Gore Vidal offered; that was concocted just to create a splash, and Vidal loved the limelight.