Citizen Kane Critical Study Anonymous 12th Grade

Texts continue to be valued long after their composition by virtue of their exploration of contextually pertinent universal concerns. The timelessness of Orson Welles’ 1941 feature film Citizen Kane lies in its treatment of enduring human flaws, rendering the text worthy of ongoing critical study. By delving into the influences of an erratic persona, love and socioeconomic forces on the complex human psyche, Citizen Kane maintains its textual integrity across contexts.

The ideals presented in Citizen Kane resonate over time as it explores the complex and chaotic nature of human existence through Kane’s fragmented identity. The superficial insistence in the projection room sequence that “Rosebud” is the simple answer to Kane’s multifaceted psyche serves as a “thinly-guised satire of Hollywood” (Ebert, 1998) by satirising the emerging prevalence of procedural noir films in the 1940s. Indeed, the reporter Thomson himself “[doesn’t] think there's one word that can describe a man's life”, with this irony amplifying Kane’s contradictory nature as both “a Communist” and “a fascist” in the newsreel by establishing internal conflict as an integral part of human existence. Welles similarly employs an omniscient point of view camera to...