Citizen Kane
I had never seen Citizen Kane before. I have to say that I did not like this movie very much. I often find older movies to slow and uninteresting for my personal taste. There were also several scenes throughout the movie that I thought would belong on an episode of MST3K; not in a cinema masterpiece. I do, although, understand why in its day it was considered one of the greatest movies of all time. It uses innovative camera techniques and an unusual story telling method that at the time set it apart from other films.
One thing I did enjoy about the movie was the way that the character of Kane is developed. In the beginning, we see him as a great man, fighting for the working mans rights and living the American dream. But, as each new person tells their story we see a slightly different person until we reach the end of the movie where we see him as a lonely old man. The things we learned about him earlier in the movie are put in a completely new light. His actions we not noble or kind, he was simply trying to selfishly win peoples hearts any way he could. Once he lost the election, he felt he had lost the peoples love so; he desperately clings to Susan and tries to make people love her by forcing to do something she does not want. When that doesn’t work all he does is try to keep Susan with him by spending money on her, not by actually loving and caring for her.
While the story was shown in a very interesting way, I still found it to slow for my tastes. I understand why this is an influential movie but, I personally do not believe this is one of the greatest movies of all time.