"Just another jigsaw-puzzle piece. A missing piece." --Mr. Thompson, Movie's end
Citizen Kane was released in 1941, directed by Orson Welles, starring Orson Welles, Dorothy Comingore, and Joseph Canton. The premise follows the investigation led by a reporter, Mr. Thompson, in a quest to discover the meaning behind the final words of the late Charlie Kane, multi-millionare, newspaper tycoon. It is a story of how the simple act of loving a child can make all the difference in a child ever finding happiness and love. My personal rating of this film is a 4.5 out of 5 stars. Mind you, 5 doesn't mean, "best movie of all time, entirely in love with it". It simply would mean it passed all criterea on my grading scale without fail, and would imply a well crafted film.
"I don't think there is one word that can describe a man's life." -- Charlie Kane
I found that this film lacked near nothing. Rising action was most ceartainly apparent, beggining with the death of a old, well known businessman, whose last mystery is in the form of a single word; 'Rosebud'. Desperate to make sense of the old mans history, and from it, his final statement, a young reporter begins interviewing the players of Mr. Kane's story, his long estranged friends and ex-wives. This starts the retrospective story off with a childhood give-away, with dear old Mrs. Kane sending off her young boy Charlie. Already, the mystery genre of this film is apparent. Why was he sent away? Was it something he did? His parents couldn't afford him? Abusive father? It's never really even spoken of again. What is known is that this is the young Kane's first step into a future so successful it's almost repugnant.
"The news goes on for twenty-four hours." -- Charlie Kane
The middle of the story is somewhat confusing, as defining it as a rising action could be just as right as a climax. The movie seems to peak at several points, only for new drama to build itself up. the movie intitially builds up to his wife, Emily, and his great enterprise newspaper, the Inquierer, and then he runs for office. It then seems at an end when his relationship with the 'singer', Susan, is discovered. But after the divorce, Kane continues for election, only to fail, and lose his closest friend Jed, who no longer believes in Kane's resolve and ethical standpoint. But then kane moves on to a new marriage! The sequence of rise, climax, rise, climax, finally comes to an end, just before it begins to feel repetitive. Nonetheless, I would like to state my disbelief at the rediculousness of Kane's fall from graces.
However well written, I find such a drop possible. He marries the niece of the president, and is considered by many a possible future candidate. And then someone as cool and calculating as he thinks it a good idea to spend nights with young girl, in secret? He should have known the repurcussions coming for what he did ages before they came. To play the devil's advocate, a repeating theme throughout the film is Kane's search for love, but "on his terms". Perhaps he found Susan so malleable and easy to manipulate that he believed he found a person as easy to control as a dog, and by giving it things and keeping it in company, he would find unconditional attatchment in it. But Jed, Emily, and Susan all saw through the ruse, and found Kane for what he was; a sad little boy who never learned as a child what healthy love was, and his search for intimacy in life was forever deformed by it.
"If I hadn't been very rich, I might have been a really great man" -- Charilie Kane
Tuth is, my only real problem with the movie is the fact that it was so innocuously hinting towards the status quo ante of how wealth sows sadness, and an inability to find what brings real happiness. Maybe it's true maybe not. I don't even mind a story that shows a mans life being destroyed by his wealth. I just don't enjoy them saying that that is the rule, and one means the other. Charlies life was scarred long before he was wealthy, and wealth simply was helpful to his fortold self-destruction. at the end, his yearning for rosebud, it wasn't because he wanted to go to a time when things weren't complicated by money; he wanted to go back to the point where he still had a chance at happiness.
"It isn't enough to tell us about what a man did; You got to tell us who he was." -- Rawlson
The movie wraps up with an ending so simple and mundane, it's symbolical of how mych of a man's life will never be understood by the observer, and you're made to realize all at once how sad an occurance that is. Kane led a life full of ambition, and fell short when he let petty emotions and base desires become more important to him. All things considered, the movie scores well by me, and does make the viewer stop, just for a moment, and wonder how, by not having what you long for, that very thing will affect all actions in life, the idea of attaining it poisoning all other hopes. It's a story that shows what happens when past conflicts aren't left in the past, and the suffering of those who can't move on.
Stay savvy my friends,
Erudito
Sources:
http://www.takegreatpictures.com/photo-tips/tgp-choice/artistic-photography-in-cinema-citizen-kane
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/just_watched_citizen_kane/
http://www.tower.com/citizen-kane-orson-welles-blu-ray/wapi/117360198
Shawshank Redemption (1994, In the year of our Lord) was an independant film, starring Tim Robbins & Morgan Freeman. I will admit it, my apprehension about films of the independant genre was lessened when I was told this classic was among them. One of the most well-known films made, Shawshank Redemption is possibly one of the most satired films I've seen in a good, long while, not to mention media content with similar premises. Let's go to Prison is a comedy with a similar setup, not to mention satires made by adult shows like Family Guy and Robot Chicken. By my scale, the film gets a 4.5/5. To be fair, it's kind of hard to dislike a movie narrated by Morgan Freeman.
I'm not a firm believer in most spiritual things, besides the good Lord, but if there is something I can get behind, it's the power of hope. An idea is the hardest thing for someone to transfer to another, since we use mediums like words to convey emotion and feeling. So when someone catches hold of something, it is personalized to them, a truth they alone recognize make part of themselves. And once it takes hold, there is little that can ever exercise it from the mind. And of ideas, nothing is as universally strong as hope. To look at the sky, and believe something better might come, if you make yourself available to chance, just a chance. That is what Andy felt, and why he never let the situation get the best of him.
"We do what we must, so that we can do what we want." James Farmer Sr.
But I am not so conceited as to call myself the judge. Simply an agent of film review. And in review, I would like to cover few things before ending. Firstly, if Tolson couldn't leave the state, how'd he leave the state at the end? "Oh, it's okay, it's an emotional scene."? I don't think so, gentlemen. Secondly, what is the purpose of Henry making James give the speech? It's kind of poetic, i guess, but it makestoo little sense to be believable. Perhaps it was a symbol of the doggedness and repeated attempts at equality. Lastly, I very much enjoyed how my original hypothesis for Lowe running away ended up being correct. I did not, however, see it in his character to come back. It was as emotionally touching as it was ill fitting. That's it, I'm afraid. I hope this has helped "find your righteous mind".
"Violence can be used for good" -V
Where to begin? How about Evey? After being forced to watch her brother die, parents be abducted, and raised in a federal child detention facility, she truly only knows one thing; survival. Such a thing as an idea is as foreign sounding as it is pointless to her. Who better for the director to use as a symbol for the populace, totally unknowledgeable about what life should be like? Then along comes a spider, who weaves his web right in front of her, but this Charlet's message is unheaded by the cold mind of our heroine. She understands the injustice, but only sees the most likely consequence of misbehavior; death. Thus, she confides in V her inability to get past fear and survival, and the everwise character knows only one way to transcend the flesh and fear, by the very methods he did it. Once enlightened, she truly sees the struggle V faces, but now knows the ideal outcome, however unlikely, and is now given the choice; status quo, or Novus Dies. For all the dominoes V set up, it cannot all fall without the consent of another, the most painstakingly made domino he set up.
I especially enjoy how the film was a comedy in disguise. So enthralled were we with the idea of such a fun lifestyle, lacking responsibility and filled with risk, we failed to notice the comedy hiding in each situation. In the moments we laughed at, we didn't laugh because we thought the film was telling us a funny joke or story, it's because Ben was so awkward and we loved it. The characters were so alive for us, the story came first hand, and the comedy just flowed natrually in with it.
Firstly, The beginning was a hook, which I love. They caught everyones attention with the sex, and then threw in cash while we were watching. The cash represented risk and hedonistic behaviour. Why not inject heroin directly into the viewers arm while you're at it? This beginning was genius, in a sense of enthrallment. Now that you're invested, you watch the lead female descend into a fascinating paranoia. The character Marion was well crafted in plot as she was stiffly acted in film.
