Citizen Kane is arguably one of the most influential movies of its time, and on the favorites list of a lot of people. The story of a powerful newspaper journalist and what his last dying words mean influenced movies years after it was created. The film was created in 1941 by one of the major production film companies, RKO. Not only did Orson Welles star in the film but he was also the producer, co-author and director, something that was not seen very often in this stage of motion pictures. Citizen Kane was one of the forefronts in films under the producer-unit system, “an organizational structure that typically included a general manager, executive manager, production manager, studio manager, and individual production supervisor” (Barsam and Monahan, 2016). The methods used when producing Citizen Kane such as; the narrative structure, deep focus, flashbacks and long takes, are what made this an …show more content…
Today it is very common to see a movie that does not technically start at the beginning, but at some point in the movie the beginning, middle and end of the story are told. This is thanks to Welles, Citizen Kane begins with main characters death and then goes backwards through his memories. The entire film is from the perspective of the journalist, Jerry Thompson, who is talking to people in Kane’s life trying to get a clear picture of who he was. Foreshadowing is a large part of this film also, the viewers do not know it at first but when Kane is dropped off to live with Thatcher when he is a young boy he is outside playing with a sled. This memory serves purpose for the entire movie, Thompson is trying to find out why Kane’s last word was “Rosebud” and the reason why is because of that sled. When Kane is young boy his life is changed drastically from his parents and that sled is something he took with him for years to come, the trademark name of that sled was