Citizen Kane

1. In class we discussed how Citizen Kane was a commercial failure when it first came out in 1941. It was almost not released, and RKO almost burned the negative. We also talked about Orson Welles and how he was only 24 years old when he started making Citizen Kane, it was the first film he ever made and he had complete control over making the film. The film was nominated for 9 Oscars and won the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. After Citizen Kane, Welles never made any film with complete control over it. We also discussed how the film is number 1 on American Film Institute's Top 100 Best Films of All Time. The theme of the film was the search for the meaning of a man's life. We also discussed that the main character, Charles Foster Kane, is based on the life of William Randolph Hearst.

2. http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/89/Citizen-Kane/articles.html
I found an article written by Roger Fristoe titled "Why Citizen Kane is Essential. The article talks about how the film was written by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles; however Welles tried to take all the credit for writing the screenplay. The article also mentioned all of the great things about the movie and how Kane's character was based off of William Randolph Hearst. Hearst hated the film and tried to prevent it from being seen in many theatres. However after WWII the film resurfaced in Europe and then on American Television and took its rightful place as a masterpiece in film history. The article also discussed how the film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards but only won the award for Best Original Screenplay. It also mentioned that when it won the award some people in the audience booed.

3. After reading the article my perception of Orson Welles. I didn't like that he tried to take all the credit for writing the screenplay. Herman J. Mankiewicz does deserve to be credited for writing the screenplay. I was also surprised that people in the audience booed when Citizen Kane won the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. I also found it wrong that William Randolph Hearst tried to prevent the film from being screened in man theatres.

4. In my opinion, I felt that Citizen Kane was a great film that I enjoyed very much. I wouldn't consider it the greatest film ever made but it is a very good film. The film is very important in film history. The film questioned the meaning of life. It was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won the Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay. The film was very well written. It was the first film Orson Welles ever made. The film had excellent performances. It's also number 1 on AFI's Top 100 Best Films of All Time.