Re: Just Classics: Citizen Kane

Oh dear, please do NOT bunch me in with the rest of the popcorn-eating public!!!

As an avid reader and viewer of classics and contemporary both in my spare time and in formal classrooms, and as a scriptwriter who's taken the Robert McKee class and Christopher Vogle class, I am hardly the average viewer LOL!

Citizen Kane failed for me because it did not engage my emotions. If story does not engage our emotions, make us feel sadness, joy, tension, thrills, chills, what's the point? Sure it presented a character, but the character was totally one-dimensional, like a program stuck in a logical loop - he followed his path, all his choices were pre-determined and never suffered over, he just did what he did.

Great story means crucial choices. The road not taken, the dilemna, the irony in getting what we want but losing what really makes us happy... some of these elements are there in Kane but only in the most puerile sense. It's like watching a train go off the tracks and into the gorge - there's no doubt it's going to crash. There's no doubt that Kane will lose his innocense and he doesn't value it or try to get it back, so why should we care about his losing his innocense? There's no triumph in his life, there's just a weakling guy who tries to be popular with the masses. Gee. how fun and interesting. NOT! :)

The film did not illuminate immortal truths. Wells wanted to tear down Hearst, that's all. Tweet