I finally watched Citizen Kane after 15 years of avoiding it

I picked it over The Godfather for a film night with my buddy in Louisville, mostly because I was tired of people calling me basic for never seeing it. Honestly, the rosebud payoff felt flat, but the camera work and how fast the story moves surprised me a lot. The Godfather is still better in my book, but Kane earned its spot on the list, just not number one. Has anyone else finally watched a classic and felt like the hype was 70% right and 30% exaggerated?

2 comments

2 Comments

singh.harper6h ago

Rosebud being flat is a super common take, but the movie is about the search for it, not the sled itself. Also, small correction, the camera work wasn't just fast for its time, it basically invented the modern way of shooting close-ups and deep focus. The Godfather is a tighter story for sure, but Kane is more of a film school lesson wearing a movie costume. Plus, the whole newspaper montage sequence is still ridiculously good even by today's standards. The hype is usually about how it changed film language, not about the plot being some mind-blowing mystery. Once you watch it as a technical showcase, the 70/30 split starts making more sense.

cameron_hernandez692h ago

Ha, I gotta push back on this one. Yeah, the technical stuff is wild and I get why film nerds lose it, but calling it a "film school lesson wearing a movie costume" kinda proves the point that the story itself is shaky. The montage is great, sure, but the middle of the movie drags hard, and Rosebud as a payoff still feels cheap no matter how you frame it. The Godfather actually makes you care about the people, while Kane keeps you at arm's length with all that clever camera stuff. If I gotta watch a movie for the history instead of the story, that's a 50/50 split at best, not 70/30.