Citizen Kane Film Review free essay sample

Throughout Citizen Kane, a number of themes are explored by Orson Welles. What Makes a Man is the central theme; the audience was told much about Kane’s life but during the course of the film, it all comes from the perspective of someone else. This proves how difficult it is to interpret a person’s life because people might interpret it in such a way of how they know the person, and the final cry for Rosebud shows that even those who alleged to know Kane best were unaware of certain things about him; like his second wife Susan. Another theme showed was Materialism wherein Kane thinks of acquiring women, power and wealth through his publication The New York Inquirer will give him happiness but in the end, it doesn’t mean a thing because he cannot bring his wealth in death and he would much rather have Rosebud than all the wealth in the world. We will write a custom essay sample on Citizen Kane Film Review or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Unreliable Memory is also a theme showed in the film most especially when Thompson investigates the personality or being of Rosebud. As the life of Kane is delineated for the audience, it becomes clear that each narrator is an unreliable source because some are drunk and others are elderly. Regardless of the reasons, the memories of others are colored by a number of factors. The genre used is Film Noir in which it uses black and white projection so that it accentuates the shadows and also the suspense of the film. It also involves a strong atmosphere of dread or paranoia. The use of flashback story is also a characteristic of this genre to put people in a suspense mood and to show the story in a moment that the director wants too. In addition, there is a betrayal included in this genre like when Susan, the only person who gives Kane hope, leaves him despite of everything he did for her which also give him the feeling of being alone like when Kane was separated from his mother. The manner of presenting the plot uses stream of consciousness because it follows a chronological series of flashbacks that tells Kane’s life story from five different points of view. Using flashback is appropriate to the story because in the beginning the main character died and the only way to unlock the mystery of his last word is to research on his past life. Flashback seldom moves a story forward. In fact, it slows the action of the main story and can bring it to a dead halt from which it will never recover but in Citizen Kane, Welles gave a very good presentation of it that it makes the audience think of what’s really the meaning of his last dying word. In the opening of the film, the plot established shots of camera panning across a seemingly deserted land called Xanadu. The camera focused on a No Trespassing sign and a large K wrought on the gate where it appears to pass through a window. A person is lying on a bed. Snowflakes suddenly fill the screen. The camera pulls back to show that what the audience have been looking at is actually just a scene inside a snow ball in the hand of an old man. The camera focused on the old man’s mouth, which whispers Rosebud. He then drops the snow ball, which rolls onto the floor and fell apart. Reflected in a piece of broken glass, a door opens and a nurse comes into the room. She folds the old man’s arms over his chest and covers his face with a sheet that indicates that he died. News on the March (newsreel) announces the death of the famous, once-influential newspaper publisher Charles Foster Kane, was the next scene. The newsreel gives an overview of Kane’s colorful life and career and introduces some of the important people and events in Kane’s life. The producer of the newsreel wasn’t satisfied with the report because it give a shallow details in the life of Kane that’s why he send Jerry Thompson, to talk to Kane’s former associates to try to uncover the identity of Rosebud that might be helpful of revealing who Kane really is. Thompson interviewed the people close to Kane like Susan Alexander and Walter Thatcher where he borrowed the journal of Kane, and while reading, it dissolved into flashback of Kane’s childhood. The story revolves around finding out who or what Rosebud is. â€Å"Rosebud† is the sled Kane loves when he is still young, it symbolizes not only how alone Kane was when Thatcher took him from his mother but also implies Kane’s incapability to relate to people on an adult level. Rosebud is the most powerful emblem of Kane’s childhood as it gives comfort and it was the last item he touched before being taken from his home because he uses his sled to resist Thatcher by shoving it into Thatcher’s body. In this case, the sled serves as a barrier between his carefree youth and the responsibilities of adulthood that marks a turning point in the development of his character. Rosebud was showed twice in the film; it appeared in the beginning during Kane’s happiest moments, and at the end, being burned with his other possessions that signify his darkest moments being separated from his mother and his carefree life. Also, Thomson concluded that maybe Rosebud was something he couldnt get, or something he lost which is his simple life.