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First Citizen Kane, spiritually spiraling downward after his inheritance, starts as a man who wishes to use his money to help people; this done through acquiring and running a newspaper. In the beginning, Kane makes no compromises about running the paper to this end illustrated in his response to Mr. Thatcher informing him that the paper had lost a million dollars. Says Kane with a smile on his face, "at that rate I'll have to close the paper in about sixty years." However, in time, to increase his circulation, Kane essentially buys the writers from his rival paper, this the first in a series of moves that show how his money and power corrupt him (the film's major theme) and set him at odds with all those that matter to him, voiced by his friend Leland at this time, indicating that they could very well be on their way to becoming what they despise. Citizen Kane is drama. It is also a fictional biography of Kane as well as a mystery. In the frame story, that which stimulates the flashbacks of Kane's life, a reporter tries to uncover the meaning of the great mogul's final word, rosebud, which Kane utters at the very opening of the film on his deathbed while dropping a snow globe. This investigation, the impetus for the narrative, tells the story of Citizen Kane and creates an overall tension as we, the viewer, grow more and more curious as to what it could mean. This tension reaches its pinnacle when the reporter has a meeting in the shadows with a darkly-clad man who speaks in hushed tones, "you wanna know about rosebud?" The elements that most feed the notion of Citizen Kane as a biography are various "news footage" shots where Charles Kane is seen in the eye of the public, talking to world leaders, and a very Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous look at his opulent mansion, Xanadu. This, of course, and the fact that the film follows his life basically from start - as a boy playing in the snow - to finish - the final self destructive outburst that chases away the last soul that cares for him as well as the loss of the last of his fortune. Another element that adds to this, and why Citizen Kane endures as one of the all time greats, can only be realized when the film is viewed with historical perspective. Citizen Kane, while distributed as a piece of fiction, was later revealed as a telling of - or at the very least, inspired by - the life of William Randolf Hearst, a newspaper mogul of the time that had far too many similarities to the fictional Charles Kane. The opulent mansion, the live-in showgirl half his age, the newspaper business - it was all so close to the mark that Hearst used the last of his own dwindling resources, including the press, to assault the picture's release. In the end, both Welles and Hearst were guilty of the same sins as Charles Foster Kane. Welles, in his effort to expose Hearst, cared nothing for how it effected those around him, and Hearst as he used his press and power for the very thing he had gotten into the newspaper business to speak against. In light of our own world and the continuing corruption of those in power (George Bush?), those with money (Michel Jackson?), that seem to mean well or have meant well at one point, Citizen Kane plays like a piece of modern Shakespeare; at over sixty years old, Kane still stands out for its content in our time, not just the technical achievement that it was in its own. email this review to a friend
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