Citizen Kane is the best movie ever made. I realize it’s the favorite of critiques and the lot of you like to fade ‘experts’. But in this instance, they are absolutely right.
There once was a time when I hated old movies. I felt they were a waste of time, stupid dead people on black and white screens. But then I calmed down and started to pay attention to what was being said on the screen, instead of what was happening. Orson Welles, who would’ve been the best director to ever live had it not been for being blacklisted for making Citizen Kane, preferred to make black and white movies over color. Well into the color teevee days, he still made black and white films because he felt it added a certain glamor to the movie, making viewers focus on the content and not the pageantry (extra Ashley Schaeffer).
Citizen Kane represents a lot of things to me.
When I was young and successful, growing up in the business, truth be told, I was ashamed at how young I looked. I always looked 5 years younger than I actually was and meeting clients was always a point of stress for me, since I looked like a kid out of high school. Now that I am older I realize that youth was never anything to be ashamed of, but to embrace.
Orson Welles was the youngest director at the time. At 25, he made the greatest movie of all-time. This success was never to be repeated and marked the apex of his long career. What a terrible thing to live with, topping out and never being able to repeat the glory you once had.
Welles, famous at the time for one of the best pranks of all-time (Interestingly enough, many years later, a lad in Ecuador tried to repeat this prank, which resulted in his audience to go bat-shit crazy. Riots ensued and they burnt the fucking radio station down to a cinder, killing 7 in the process.), the War of the World’s radio broadcast, which tricked all of the idiots listening into believing a martian invasion was at hand, was a firebrand and because of this was given a blank check to make Kane. Commercially, it was not a success and behind the scenes it was a fucking nightmare for movies execs, since the movie is actually about the life of the most powerful media man of the time: William Randolph Hearst.
At any rate, if you’ve never seen Citizen Kane–do it today. It is a timeless classic.
NOTE: As a result of Citizen Kane, I researched and viewed all of Welles’ work, even the stuff never published. For the next few weeks, I will be reviewing his films, opting for thematic reviews over random.
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So you’re saying if Cool Hand Luke had been filmed in black & white, it would have stood a chance?
I liked that movie and loved many other films. But nothing comes close to the creative genius behind Kane, especially for the time it was made.
Embarrassingly, I haven’t watched it, but you’ve convinced me.
Let me know when you’ve watched it.
Fly….I think I agree but it’s a tossup with “Breaker Morant”….the Aussie masterpiece. Comments? Tks.
citizen kane is the best movie ever made,,and in classic black and white.. I have restored faith in the Fly
i had to watch citizen kane a few times to appreciate it. nonetheless, for some reason paul newman’s ‘the hustler’ is my all time favorite. think more for personal reasons, but to each his own.
Hustler was fantastic
Always a favorite.
Orson Welles kicked ass in radio, when that was a thing, and on the stage, too.
Die Hard, Raising Arizona, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Honorable Mention: AMADEUS
“Amadeus” is a great story and the movie is fantastic. – – “And then a miracle happened!” In context, it’s one of the greatest movie lines ever.
I see you favor action, and then Amadeus. You would probably like Pollock and the Phillip Glass documentary, both fantastic biopics.
This is so unoriginal but The Godfather was my favorite of all time.
As one who had grandparents who came through Ellis Island from Italy, I find Raging Bull to be a gripping masterpiece. But it surely would not have been the film it was had it been shot in color.
Raging Bull was great
We have Scorsese, Coppola, Welles, and a Spielberg. already. cheers
Do not exclude Kubrick.
the third man is better, probably the best movie of all time, not directed by mr.welles though
Third Man was great, but not better. Despite Welles not being listed as director, it was widely known that he had a significant influence on the artistic styling of the movie.
Tangential mention:
State of California denies tax liability of San Simeon “Hearst Castle” had any role in its dedication to … California.
The heirs still hold trust to the land (some twenty or so miles)… basically silhouetted mountain-to-mountain in scope. (never mind cracked cement where Blind Read Ant’s jaw dropped b/c I’m member of the Thick Skull Club)
The legatees maintain owning control over a wide swath of livestock (cattle).
Newsworthy?
Right up there with the biggies MeThinks.
A Rockafeller or a Hearst? What say you?
A Spencer or Churchill?
Not the best maybe, but The Sting ranks high with me.
I was breast fed on Hitchcock and swaddled on Tarantino but, ‘A Few Good Men’ is still my favorite film of all time.
OK – some perspective here – Kane was not necessarily all bout Hearst. Welles overlays his childhood on the plot (Hearst wasn’t an orphan for example, Welles was) This is a masterpiece no doubt, but he could have continued his career without being so combative and pissing people off….he admitted this years later in a documentary.
Ultimately, you could watch this movie over and over again and see something new. Props MUST go to his cinemantographer Gregg Toland who did the The Grapes of Wrath with John Ford (in the same year!). As a matter of fact, I believe Welles gives him dual credits in the movie. No other movie had done the prior or since.
How great is this movie? The American Film Institute ran the 100 Greatest Movies twice in a 10 year period. There were changes from the first survey to the second…But this movie was #1 BOTH TIMES.
ALL MOVIES ARE INFLUENCED BY THIS MASTERPIECE. There is nothing else to discuss.
Btw: little known film called RKO 281 goes into great detail about the Hearst influence, such as Rosebud being a nickname for his mistresses vagina.
Either you know little of women’s anatomy or you just can’t name the outer parts of the female genitalia. It makes no sense to call the vagina a rosebud. DIdn’t you ever discuss it with Mrs Fly?
Vampyr you idiot, don’t blame the messenger. Go dig up William Hearst and tell him
vampyr- Its been called many things.
Why am I the idiot? Don’t you have common senses? Here’s what I found: ….. in 1989 Gore Vidal blew the lid off Rosebud forever with an outlandish claim! Rosebud was a nickname Randolph Hearst used for his mistress’ clitoris! [ personally, I would also add The vulva has many major and minor anatomical structures, including the labia majora, mons pubis, labia minora, clitoris, bulb of vestibule, vulval vestibule, greater and lesser vestibular glands, external urethral orifice and the opening of the vagina (introitus). According to Vidal the “real” Screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz had found out about this and threw it in as a joke. It’s a gimmick, really, a rather tawdry device, a dollar-book Freudian gag.
hitchcock is a god
When I worked in sound I had a tape of Orson Welles reading a commercial for wine, and ripping the writers a new one because the script was so bad. Hilarious.
That commercial is on YouTube
This is the one I meant, not wine but beef. I used to have the whole tape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUhKU7tsPVw
Rosebud
My favorite movie is Airplane.
Next would be The Bad News Bears
But I really love Debbie does Dallas it really gets my blood going.
Atwo great black and white films at total opposite ends of emotional spectrum are “Young Frankenstein” for laughs and “The Elephant Man” to see if you’re tough enough to not cry like a baby.
Touch of Evil and The Long Hot Summer were my favorite Welles acting performances. The fat man was a genius no doubt.
Bulletin, to interrupt this saturday matinee – apparently one of the four so-called extraterrestrial groups which are currently observing the goings-on around the blue planet, known to us as our home-world or planet earth, are our very own home-grown earthlings from the future traveling backwards in time to see what the hell is going on. Stick that in your peace-pipe and smoke on it.
Back to your regularly scheduled program.
source: http://www.figu.org/ch/files/downloads/bulletin/figu_sonder_bulletin_87.pdf
Also from the above bulletin –
Among those who are financially supporting the murderous deluded Islamic State are wealthy Qataris including the royal family of the emirate of Qatar.
Also supporting the Ukraine separatists are for-profit mercenaries, aka professional soldiers, from Constellis Holdings formerly known as Blackwater.
Also from the above bulletin – http://www.figu.org/ch/files/downloads/bulletin/figu_sonder_bulletin_87.pdf
Among those who are financially supporting the murderous deluded Islamic State are wealthy Qataris including the royal family of the emirate of Qatar.
Also supporting the Ukraine separatists are for-profit mercenaries, aka professional soldiers, from Constellis Holdings formerly known as Blackwater.
Okay to be honest for years my favorite movie was The Sound of Music okay go ahead make fun of me
Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?
Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in ’83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He’s been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far much more bitter, cynical sense of humor.
In ’87, Huey released Fore!, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is “Hip to be Square”, a song so catchy, most people probably don’t listen to the lyrics, but they should, because it’s not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it’s also a personal statement about the band itself.
While you people sloth around, GREECE ERUPTS AGAIN! DOWN 1000 NASDAQS!!!
Greece “Risks Bankruptcy” As Europe Rejects Varoufakis Payment Plan; Another Referendum Fiasco Ensues
Check Modern times and The great dictator by Chaplin. A genious ahead of its time. I know, it’s really, really old, but a classic is a classic.
Casblanca is my favorite movie of all time. A true classic.
Every Valentines Day my wife and I used to open a bottle of champagne and watch Casablanca. We did it for maybe 10 years but we stopped when she admitted she actually wasn’t that crazy about it. 20 years later we are still married and I have accepted the fact that her taste in movies is a little plebeian.
Dr. Fly, are you a fan of any Peter Greenway films? Drowning by Numbers is an excellent movie.
Mr Fly, err Dr Fly err The Fly is God, you must stop watching movies and get to work on Greece right away!