Review of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) by Bodie D — 24 Apr 2010

It's common talk that Citizen Kane is the best film ever made, or the best film Orson Welles ever did, but I find Kane to be a lumbering, overblown film that I could not relate to, and wanted to shoot myself as I was dragged through it, knowing I was expected to see its greatness.

It has its moments, but knowing that Rosebud was really what WR Hearst called Marion Davies hoo hoo kind of steals away from the mystery of it all. What truths did Kane reveal? That Welles (and I mean Welles, not Kane) was just as narcissitic and unsympathetic as William Randolph Hearst? There's no place like home? Wizard of Oz had the same message and it was a hell of a lot more poingnant and entertaining.

Anyway, I digress to make a point that Welles DID make a film of utter greatness, and that is his production of Boothe Tarkington's Magnificent Ambersons. With perfect performances by Agnes Moorehead, Tim Holt, Joseph Cotton, and with Tarkington's acute human insight brilliantly portrayed and communicated by all involved in the film, it is truly a great piece of filmmaking.

Tarkington's novel is magical as well, and Welles film is a faithful production of that novel (even if Welles' version got edited at the end, the editing brought the film back to the original ending in the book, and Welles's ending was quite a bit darker.

) I consider Amberson one of the top films of all time.