Review – Citizen Kane

How many films have I described as “not exactly Citizen Kane”? Well, this is the benchmark against which all those other unfortunate offerings have been judged and found wanting. Actually, this film is sort of like Shakespeare to me, in that I’ve been told how great it is so many times that I’m not sure how much of what I feel for it is my own opinion and how much is simple indoctrination. Of two things I am reasonably certain, however: this picture features some revolutionary cinematography and editing, work that has been copied over and over many times since, and Orson Welles had to have had an amazing amount of guts (or something) to take on the likes of William Randolph Hearst. I could rattle on and on about this one, but that would defeat the purpose of a capsule review. So I’ll just leave it at: buy the tape