Citizen Kane- Liz Eisler
Although Orsen Welles’ film, “Citizen Kane,� overwhelmingly appears on the top of “the best of all time� film lists, it didn’t make it to mine. This is the second time in which I’ve watched this film for a class at the U, and although the film is an innovative piece of work, mainly through Orsen’s technical use of deep focus and low-angle shots, the piece seems to have lost its affect on present-day audiences. Perhaps this film was as popular as it was during the 1940’s for it may have been the first film to shed a negative light on the American dream and it seemed to have been a film way ahead of its time. However, with today’s generation constantly being bombarded with negative messages and images concerning people who are supposedly living the American dream, it tends to just become a broken record, repeating the same message over and over again that “money doesn’t buy happiness.� Just from reading a few of my fellow classmates’ posts on the blog, and from a past discussion in another class regarding this film, I don’t believe that this film would have much resonance with film-goers today. It seems as if this generation craves action and drama in movies, and although Citizen Kane does contain a good amount of drama, I don’t believe the pace of the movie is fast enough to keep people interested.