There was barely any mention of Kane there, either on the final list or among the runners-up. Of the few ballots made available from that voting, it only appears on one, that of the future director of Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai , David Lean. May finally saw the first major re-release of Kane across theaters in the U. But perhaps more importantly, it also began airing on television that year.
RKO had been among the first studios whose catalog was sold to TV, and suddenly, Citizen Kane , after lying dormant though much of the s and early s, was ubiquitous on a mass medium. It was also the right movie at the right time. Maybe it had been ahead of the curve back in , but now, the curve had arrived. Synthesizing the stylistic hallmarks of the preceding half century of cinema that came before it, morphing from horror film to mock-documentary to drama to musical to comedy to tragedy, Citizen Kane was a film school condensed into minutes.
Despite its limited budget, Kane also had a certain all-American brashness and extravagance, without the old-fashioned epic indulgence of a Gone With the Wind or the jingoistic qualities of some wartime pictures.
It looked forward even as it looked backward — an ideal film for a generation seeking to forget the war while also feeling somewhat conflicted about the economic boom that had begun in earnest in the early s. Kane had freshness and cynicism in equal measure. Is it any wonder then that directors who adored Kane went on to make such films as The Godfather , Barry Lyndon , Scarface , and Goodfellas? There, Kane came in ninth place, one of only three sound films to place in the Top Along the way, it would top lots of other surveys as well.
In some senses, the debate over who actually wrote Citizen Kane slips in between these two extremes. By bringing the focus back to Mankiewicz, and suggesting that he was primarily responsible both for the script and for what made Kane so special, Kael perhaps hoped to do away with the idea of the all-powerful auteur once and for all.
He was a regular presence on radio, and later, on TV. Additionally, many of us consider later Welles titles like The Trial and F for Fake to be equal to, or greater than, Kane. For those who still prefer physical media, there's an excellent anniversary edition Blu-Ray available that's absolutely packed with extras, including the feature-length Battle Over Citizen Kane documentary.
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War. By Cathal Gunning Updated Oct 25, Share Share Tweet Email 0.
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