Review of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) by Cliff M — 22 Nov 2008

I have never agreed with the general critical consensus that "Citizen Kane" is the best movie ever made, if only because I don't believe it is even the finest work in Welles's oeuvre.

"The Magnificent Ambersons" is an infinitely more mature work, and is much richer in its emotional and thematic implications than its famed predecessor. One need only consider that despite RKO's atrocious butchering of this masterpiece (most egregiously in their disastrous 'reconstruction' and shortening of the tour de force scene of the grand ball at the Amberson estate captured in a single fluid shot of virtuosic camera movement), it remains a tremendous cinematic achievement, and one of the greatest artistic works in the nostalgic mode that I have ever been privileged enough to experience.

Indispensable.