Citizen Kane: A Man Defined

4/29/07

Sam Fuqua

Citizen Kane is perhaps the greatest cinemagraphic endeavors of all time.  Every scene is perfectly planned out and implemented, earning it consistent ratings as the greatest film ever made.  Being visually stimulating alone does not necessarily make a good movie, though.  There are many movies -- however visually appealing they are -- that simply fail.  This is because the story is less than satisfactory.  Citizen Kane does not fail in this regard.  It has a very solid storyline; it sets out to describe Charles Kane and his life, and it does.  By the end of the movie, not only does the viewer understand the character of Charles Foster Kane, but the viewer understands him well enough to form educated and arguable opinions of him.

The most important part of Citizen Kane is the very last scene in which the sled is thrown into the furnace, revealing the true identity of the elusive “Rosebud”.  In his review of the film, Roger Ebert concludes that Rosebud is irrelevant to knowing more about Kane.  It shows how “nothing can be explained”, yet goes on to discuss what Rosebud means in the film (Ebert).  He contradicts himself within a single essay.  Really, Rosebud is integral to understanding Kane as a person.  It was said best by Captain Renault in Casablanca when he used a line that could have easily been used in Citizen Kane as well: “I suspect that, under that cynical shell, you're at heart a sentimentalist.”  Essentially, what Kane is is a sentimentalist.  Rosebud is a symbol of lost youth and innocence, a powerful emblem of virtue and purity. Of course, as the reporters were leaving his estate, they were right to say that a man can’t be described in a word.  “Rosebud”, however, was as close as one could approach.  Kane really could have had anything he wanted.  He had everything he saw.  He built an empire, a castle to rule from, and an opera house; bought statues, animals, women, food, friends, and notoriety.     Yet this did not satisfy him and he really didn’t care about it.  This theme of him desiring more than just material possessions is reiterated in the interview of Susan Alexander describing the beach picnic.  Kane freezes up and becomes upset because Susan confronts him and tells him that he “never gave [her] anything he really cared about” and that he simply tried to buy her love.  His inability to respond shows the truth of her words.

It is shown in the movie, though, that he was not always such a sentimentalist.  The interview with Bernstein reveals his ambitions when he was young.  Bernstein recalls the meeting in the office of the Inquirer in which Kane writes his promises of what he will do with the paper.  These promises are essentially to tell the truth as well as to fight for the working man.  These are noble goals to which no selfishness would be attached.  Yet Kane manages to attach selfishness in starting them both with “I” so that people will respect him for it.  Kane still had ambitions, but was hoping to gain something from it.  He has started to embrace his wealthy lifestyle and is hoping to climb the ladder of financial well-to-do-ness as long as he is running an institution.

Every scene in the film is well planned out, and perhaps the most subtle is another scene from the interview with Bernstein.  The scene quite discreetly shows how Kane changed as a boy.  Once Charles leaves his mother, his sled that he enjoyed was left on the ground and he is given a new one by Thatcher.  His old sled represents joy and innocence, but the new sled – incidentally scrawled with the title “Crusader” – is cold and impersonal.  While living with Thatcher Charles changed, even without knowing it, from being happy to being unhappy and cold.  He seemed to have no desire, but rather he adapted to the environment he was introduced to. 

By the end of Citizen Kane, the viewer has a very clear sense of who Charles Foster Cane is.  Virtually every scene in the film develops his character, though only a few could be highlighted in an essay.  Kane, as revealed at the end of the film is a distraught sentimentalist who has given up everything he cares about in pursuit of externalities which he believes will bring him more happiness only to find that when his self-built world collapses, he’s lost the only thing he still desires and is unable to find it amongst the piles of rubble leftover from the gallivanting through a wasted life.  The essence of Kane is so thoroughly brought out that all one can do at the end of the movie is to feel sorrow for a life that could have been so much more.

 

 

Bibliography:

Ebert, Roger. "Citizen Kane." The Sun-Times 24 May 1998 29 Apr 2007 <http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980524/REVIEWS08/401010334/1023>.