Arguably the greatest of American films, Orson Welles's 1941 masterpiece, made when he was only 26, still unfurls like a dream and carries the viewer along the mysterious currents of time and memory to reach a mature (if ambiguous) conclusion: people are the sum of their contradictions, and can't be known easily. Welles plays newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. The result is that every well-meaning or tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event. Written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, and photographed by Gregg Toland, the film is the sum of Welles's awesome ambitions as an artist in Hollywood. He pushes the limits of then-available technology to create a true magic show, a visual and aural feast that almost seems to be rising up from a viewer's subconsciousness. As Kane, Welles even ushers in the influence of Bertolt Brecht on film acting. This is truly a one-of-a-kind work, and in many ways is still the most modern of modern films from the 20th century. --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
A classic! Every movie lover should have this film in his/her library. Especially interesting was the commentary by Roger Ebert.
Atrue clasic Remerber watching as a child and was not dissapointed to sit through it again. The film making genius of Orsen Welles is second to none. The 2nd disc, a documentery about Mr. Welles and the making of the film is a can't miss for fim buffs.
Unique Ah, the sled. Not really sure why this movie is rated so high among the historical films, but what do i know? I just watch what the AFI tells me to.
The best film ever? It's the best I've ever seen. Why? Because it enters a world of psychology in a unique and powerful way. It exposes the selfish tyrant that lies in all of us. Do we not all do what we do for "I?" What drives us to be what we become? What is our most basic need, our most primal desire? This film deals with these things in a visceral experience of entertainment. This film had to be quite a risk for 1941 but it's clear that it could not have been any better if made in 2001. I thoroughly enjoyed every last... more info
Related
Sections
