Citizen Kane

A top-rated movie amongst critics, Citizen Kane was, for me, a slight disappointment. Directed by Orson Welles in 1941, this film won several awards including Best Film (1941). Perhaps, with credentials such as these, I expected more from the movie. However, I do believe that there are many people who would get a lot more out of the film than I did.

Citizen Kane follows a group of reporters attempting to find the meaning of the last word ("Rosebud") of the newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane. (In the film Ghost Busters, the small green ghost utters only one coherent word: Rosebud.) Citizen Kane utilizes flashbacks as a means of chronicling Kane's (portrayed by Orson Welles) life.

As a child, while sledding in the fresh snow in his yard, Kane is forced to leave his mother after becoming amazingly wealthy when he became an heir to a silver mine. He is sent to live with Mr. Thatcher. When Kane grows up, he is wealthy and has power, but he seems as if he is lacking something in his life. Kane takes control of the newspaper The Inquirer and reports whatever news he sees fit. He marries Emily Norton (played by Ruth Warrick), niece to the president, but his attachments to the newspaper are too strong and the couple often argue.

Kane runs for governor but fails when his biggest rival newspaper, The Chronicle, prints a story about Kane's affair with Susan Alexander (portrayed by Dorothy Comingore), a young singer who will eventually become his second wife. This blow ruins not only Kane's political career but also his first marriage. More importantly to Kane, the love of his wife and his countrymen is taken away, reminding him of his past.

For his second wife, Kane builds an enormous castle in Florida. Xanadu is vast and lovely, but Susan feels as if she is imprisoned in her home and eventually leaves Kane. Kane goes on a rampage around the room until he comes across a snowglobe. Gripping it in his hand, he utters only one word: "Rosebud." Again, Kane loses love.

The final scene of the movie shows the reporters giving up their search for the truth. They state that "Rosebud" is a mystery that will never be solved. The camera then pans out over the vast collection of items that Kane's piles of money bought for him and comes to a stop over his childhood sled. Painted on the front of the sled is a single word: "Rosebud." As soon as the word becomes visible, a man casts the sled into a fire and thus ends the film.

Throughout Kane's life, he feels unloved and attempts to make up for it with power. The problem with being sent away at such a young age is that Kane seems to have a difficult time commiting any long-term relationship. Although he has all the money and power in the world, Kane never feels fulfilled because he never felt loved. The last time he was truly happy and loved, Kane felt, was when he was sledding the day he was taken away from home.

My scale is set up thusly:
10-Best movie I've ever seen
9-Amazingly good
8-Definitely recommended
7-Decent
6-Worth watching
5-Average
4-Fine
3-Boring or uninteresting
2-idea is overdone, too common
1-Terrible, don't waste your time
On my rating scale, I give this movie a 6.5/10.

I feel that the movie gives an interesting look into the condition of a person who feels unloved. Also, I enjoyed the way that many of the scenes were shot. For example, there is a reflection of Kane dancing while his business partners are talking about him. Artful ideas such as this made the film more interesting. Everyone should watch this movie at some time in his/her life if only to be able to understand references to it in today's society.

Genre: Drama

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Gone With The Wind

Gone With the Wind is an excellent film. I think some of the charm is that the movie is nearly 70 years old. Most movies do not withstand time as this film has. Scarlet is, for me, the character one loves to hate. I also sense that in Rhett. When war hits the South, Scarlet's life changes faster than she could have ever thought possible, and she has to be a strong women instead of a timid Southern Belle.

Gone With the Wind is a 1939 film directed by Victor Fleming. The movie, based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell, focuses on the life of Scarlett O'Hara, the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner in Civil War era Georgia. The movie follows Scarlet through the Civil War and the South's Reconstruction. Also, it shows how a different personality in a main character than that of the average movie.

Scarlet, portrayed by Vivien Leigh, was a complex person. She was focused only on her personal gain and keeping her land, the Tara Plantation. She is often sickeningly cold and greedy. And, of course, she wanted the one thing that she couldn't have, the one thing her father's money and her looks couldn't buy: Ashley Wilkes (played by Leslie Howard). Scarlet confessed her love to Ashley in her theatrical way. Unfortunately for Scarlett, he, already in love with and engaged to his cousin Melanie, didn't love Scarlet enough to give up Melanie, portrayed by Olivia de Havilland. The confession was not only witnessed by Ashley, however, but also by a dashing, rich blockade runner. Rhett Butler, played by Clark Gable, was impressed by Scarlet's fire and becomes crucial to Scarlet's survival throughout the movie.

When the men are to be sent into war, Scarlet marries Charles Hamilton, brother to Melanie, in attempts to make Ashley jealous. Charles later dies in a war. Scarlett also marries Frank Kennedy, her sister's beau, to save Tara financially when the taxes reach $300. He dies when attempting to get revenge after Scarlet is attacked.

Scarlet learns to be stronger than the meek Southern Belle that she was raised to be. When she goes home to Tara after months in now Yankee-filled Atlanta, she finds her mother dead, her father crazy with grief, and the entire plantation run-down. After the Yankees pillaged Tara, the was not enough money or food to keep the residents from starving. Scarlet had to step up and take control. She swore, after working harder than she ever had in her life, that she "would never go hungry again."

Finally, Scarlet marries Rhett. He gives her everything she dreamt of in hopes that she would show him the same love that he had showed her since the first moment he saw her. Scarlet, however, continues to show her obsessive affection to Ashley. Despite this, she and Rhett live happily for a while with their daughter Bonnie. When Bonnie dies in a tragic horse-riding accident, however, a rift forms between Scarlet and Rhett that cannot be bridged.

When poor, sweet Melanie dies, leaving behind a young son, Ashley confesses to Scarlet that he doesn't love her. He will forever love Melanie and has no idea how he can live without her. In that moment, Scarlet realizes that she doesn't care if Ashley loves her because she loves Rhett. When she rushes home to tell Rhett, he doesn't care. He decides that he doesn't want to be the focus of Scarlet's obsessive love and leaves, uttering his immortal parting line: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

My scale is set up thusly:
10-Best movie I've ever seen
9-Amazingly good
8-Definitely recommended
7-Decent
6-Worth watching
5-Average
4-Fine
3-Boring or uninteresting
2-idea is overdone, too common
1-Terrible, don't waste your time
On my rating scale, I give this movie an 8/10.

This movie is definitely worth watching. I truly enjoyed the plot. The characters of Scarlet and Rhett were so complex and improper that I was constantly wondering what would happen next. They were so completely unpredictable that my guesses were never right. All-in-all it was a great film and one that everyone should watch sometime in his/her lifetime.

This film's genres: war, romance, and drama.

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