"The Best Film Ever Made" — What Does That Even Mean?
For decades, Citizen Kane (1941) sat at the top of nearly every serious critical poll of the greatest films ever made. In recent years it has slipped from that perch — but its influence on filmmaking technique remains unmatched. Understanding why Citizen Kane was revolutionary helps you understand how modern cinema thinks and speaks.
Who Made It, and Under What Circumstances?
Orson Welles was 25 years old when he made Citizen Kane. He had never directed a feature film. RKO Pictures, desperate to attract prestige, gave him an extraordinary deal: near-total creative control. Welles, working with cinematographer Gregg Toland, used that freedom to experiment with virtually every aspect of filmmaking.
The result was a film so stylistically advanced that it baffled and alienated audiences on initial release. Powerful newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst — whom the film clearly resembled — used his media empire to suppress it. It was a commercial disappointment. Only later did critics recognize what Welles had achieved.
What Did Citizen Kane Actually Invent?
It's important to be precise — Welles didn't invent these techniques from nothing. But he deployed them together, in a single film, more boldly than anyone before.
- Deep Focus Photography: Toland kept the foreground, midground, and background all in sharp focus simultaneously. This was technically difficult and visually radical. It gave every inch of the frame meaning.
- Non-Linear Narrative: The film begins with Kane's death, then reconstructs his life through multiple, sometimes contradictory, eyewitness accounts. The audience never gets a single "true" version of events.
- Low-Angle Shooting: Welles and Toland frequently shot from below, giving characters a looming, imposing quality — and requiring them to literally cut holes in the studio floor to position the camera.
- Long Takes with Complex Blocking: Rather than cutting, Welles moved the camera through space, guiding the viewer's eye through choreographed action within a single unbroken shot.
- Sound Design: Overlapping dialogue, abrupt audio cuts, and the use of music as psychological commentary were all pushed further than the Hollywood norm.
The Story Still Resonates
Beyond technique, Citizen Kane is a genuinely compelling story about the seduction of power, the corruption of idealism, and the impossibility of truly knowing another person. Charles Foster Kane accumulates everything — wealth, influence, adoration — and dies alone, surrounded by objects, not people.
The famous final revelation of "Rosebud" is often criticized as sentimental, but it functions as a rebuke: all that power, all that complexity, and at the core is a simple, irretrievable loss from childhood.
How to Watch It Today
If you've never seen Citizen Kane, go in with curiosity rather than obligation. Don't watch it expecting to be entertained like a modern blockbuster. Instead, watch it looking for:
- How the camera moves through scenes without cutting
- How much information is packed into the background of each shot
- How each narrator's account of Kane differs — and what that says about truth and memory
Citizen Kane isn't just a film to admire. It's a film to learn from — regardless of how many times it tops a poll.