Re: Just Classics: Citizen Kane

Ah, so you got some background "credentials." Well then, you and me both. ;)

I like you shelleycat, you got spunk. ;) But I still disagree with you on citizen kane. Don't take this personal, but I find you akin to one who stands before the great Michelangelo's sculpture the Pieta. Another viewer is right next to you captivated and in tears--"engag[ed in his] emotions...feel[ing] sadness...joy...tension...thrills...chills." And then you say to yourself, "what's the point? Sure it...[is] a statue, but the... [statue]... [is] totally one-dimensional." Citizen Kane's screenplay AND film is art. Saying otherwise is like arguing that the Pieta is just a statue. I don't think the problem of engaging with the character lies in the story--but within the viewer.

Shelleycat: 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.

Citizen Kane's story WAS about HIM. That involved the whole gamma and more. "Crucial choices, the road not taken, the dilemma, the irony in getting what we want but loosing what really makes us happy [i.e. ROSEBUD]" All of the elements you mentioned were there in Citizen Kane, and most definitely not at all puerile in any sense.

The story exemplified the basic laws of nature: Action and Reaction. You sow what you reap. Consequences in a human life.

Shelleycat: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?

I must disagree with you in that statement as well. First time watchers have no idea who citizen kane is. There are various oppinions of him: communist, fiend, friend, foe, american. His character grows, progresses, and changes. From a poor farm boy to a rich and powerful man, we discover who citizen kane is. And "rosebud" symbolizes everything he longs for--we find, unlike what the world believes, that Citizen Kane did not have everything after all.

Anyways, what would you consider a great film? Gimme a chance to sink my claws into something. *grin* ;)

Justmarvin Tweet