Jon Marshalla's Citizen Kane Entry
I would like to address several of the questions posed. First of all, as to Citizen Kane being considered the greatest movie of all time, I would have to disagree, although I do think that it was an amazing movie about what is important in life.
As far as this movie not interesting your average movie goer today, I think it wouldn't interest many. The first 5 minutes of the movie where it shows the life of Kane documentary are somewhat annoying in my opinion. Once the regular dialog and characters came into place, the movie become much more interesting. I think the depiction of the "American Dream" not being all that it's cracked up to be is very critical, today probably more so than before. Here is a man who had all the wealth in the world, and the final thing he thinks about on his deathbed is a time when he was with his mother and had a sled. He didn't want to leave as a young child because he desired the love of his mother. Later in life, when he had "gained everything," he had really lost everything in my opinion. The most important thing in life is not the money and things we acquire, rather it is the people in your life. For me it doesn't matter where I am, what I'm doing, or whether or not I am rich or poor, if I am not surrounded with people who care about me. Nothing is more important than this, and oftentimes people forget this in their pursuit of money and power. It is a powerful message about life, and I enjoy the storytelling method where the reporter goes and talks to people who have interacted with Kane in their life. It reminds me of the style of the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" and has many parallels with it. Both old movies, well ahead of their time, filled with messages that are just as important today as they were in the 1940s.