Citizen Kane: A Fragile Film

"A boy genius in his mid-20s was given a completely free rein to make exactly the movie he wanted to make" and because of this the film Citizen Kane was created "the greatest movie of all time" (Ebert). What about Citizen Kane allows it to hold such a lofty claim such as this one? Countless reasons are hidden within the film; however, most critics would agree it is because within the film lies the origin of what makes films leading up to this day a success. A major reason why critics justify Citizen Kane being a marvelous film, is because of it's mystery being revealed through circular structure. American film critic Roger Elbert states that the structure of Citizen Kane is "circular," in return the film provides "more depth every time

Truitt explains that Kane being a "political contender" uses his own newspaper media company to "further his own power" resulting in Kane wondering "'If I hadn’t been very rich, I might have been a really great man'" (Truitt). Critics point to how Citizen Kane puts forth a major lesson on what naturally happens to humans when wealth and power are presented before them. Wood expresses Citizen Kane as "a potent metaphor for the betrayal of principles," as well as an "intelligent mediation on the corrupting nature of power" (Wood). As Kane becomes increasingly wealthy he begins to gradually lose parts of his true self eventually resulting in his own destruction which similarly happens often to people in today's society. The film not only illustrates the human nature of greed, critics say, but as well provides a solution on what to do when faced with this obstacle. Bob Stephens, an accredited critic who works for San Francisco Gate, says Rosebud, resembling an "innocent past," would have saved Kane if he had only been "faithful to its purity" (Stephens). The word Rosebud is a symbol to Kane's past as a child, him being in paradise and innocent. If he had only stayed that way he would not have gone down the path of