Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Citizen Kane a Search for Love

Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece which he directs and in which he plays the title role, Citizen Kane is considered by many critics and students of film to be the best American movie ever made. It has earned this distinction because it is so well constructed and conceived. This black and white film employs many standard and new (for its time) film techniques and is executed in a concise and economic style that adds to its overall visual elegance.

On first viewing, the film seems of epic proportions, enhanced by its low camera angles and the deep focus cinematography of Gregg Toland, but after seeing it several times you realize that it is the portrayal of the title character Charles Foster Kane, played by Welles, who is larger than life. The movie itself is quite simple. In fact director Welles begins the movie by showing us the end -- the death of Charles Foster Kane and the utterance of the now famous and enigmatic word "rosebud." He proceeds to tell us the entire story of Charles Kane by way of a recreation of a newsreel obituary recapping the life of the central character. The movie continues with a series of flashbacks or reminiscences by characters who were witness to the rise and demise of Kane.

Welles and co-writer Herman Mankiewitcz (with un-credited John Housman) use the device of the Kane's dying words to drive the plot and find a meaningful conclusion to this great man's life.

The character of Kane's second wife Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore) is often seen working jigsaw puzzles. The film itself comes together in much the same way. We supposedly see the whole picture by way of the newsreel at the beginning. But we must fit in the odd piece, "rosebud," how does it fit and what meaning does it have to the overall story? At the very end when "rosebud" is revealed, it is itself obscured in a jumble of fragments or pieces from the life of Charles Foster Kane.

Like working a jigsaw puzzle Welles forces us along with the character of the intrepid reporter, Mr. Thompson (William Alland), to examine and reexamine the "picture" of Kane he has created. As the picture fills out and becomes seemingly more clear, we attempt to fit in the "rosebud" piece. In the end, like any good puzzle the answer was before our eyes all the time.

Welles himself was many things, including a magician. The revelation of "rosebud" brings us the same delight and surprise we might find in any well executed magician's illusion. We, the audience are also treated to the inner secret which is withheld from the characters in the film. The very first and very last images in the film are of a "No Trespassing" sign suggesting that we can never fully know anyone and that some parts of a person's life are just their own private area where other's no matter how intimate are not allowed to tread.

Many have seen "Kane" as a man's quest for power and money and how this quest leads to his loss of idealism. I see Kane as a quest for love. Ironically it is Kane's mother's love and good intention that sends him on this lifelong quest. In the beginning we see Kane a happy young boy playing in the snow in rural Colorado. When his mother, Mary Kane (Agnes Moorehead) inherits an unexpected fortune, she sends little Charlie off to be schooled and properly raised "back East." Charlie internalizes this as an act of rejection rather one of love and it becomes the defining moment where innocence is lost. Ultimately Kane is from this point on in search of his lost youth and mother's love.

Just as the Beatles song of the 1960's later suggested, Kane finds that "money can't but me love." He tries ceaselessly to fill the void in his heart with possessions, mostly works of art including paintings and statuary. His success in business is also a result of his quest for acceptance and need to be loved. Kane is successful as a newspaper tycoon because he gives the people the news they want and promises in his important "declaration of principles" to be the "tireless champion of people's rights." Later his good friend and conscience Jeb Leland (Joseph Cotton) points out that he is not so much giving the people what they want, but what he things they should have. In return he expects to be loved for his great generosity. This concept is later echoed when his second wife Susan Alexander leaves him.

She says:
"You never give me anything I really want"
"You just try to buy me into giving you something."
"You don't love me, you just want me to love you."
"You'll give me anything as long as I love you."

In response to her determination to leave Kane says, "You can't do this to me." This is the final straw for Susan because it affirms for her that it is all about him and his neediness.

Kane's first marriage was impulsive and power related. Emily Monroe Norton (Ruth Warrick) was the niece of the President of the United States who he presumably met during a tour of Europe. In an important and well executed montage, Welles shows the couple in a series of breakfast shots which suggest a period of several years. It starts with an intimate two shot of the newlyweds then continues rather rapidly with a series of medium shots and close-ups separated by flash-pans as the physical distance increases punctuated by increasingly more terse comments between the two. It ends with a medium long shot of the pair noticeably separated at the opposite ends of an unusually long breakfast table. In a matter of a minute or so Welles effectively compresses years of growing separation and the disintegration of marriage as though it is the opening of a flower in stop action time lapse.

Charles and Emily Kane divorce after his affair with Susan is revealed to the press by Kane's political rival, corrupt politician, "Boss" Jim Gettys (Ray Collins). It looks as though Kane will be a "shoe-in" for the gubernatorial election but the affair proves to be more than even Kane can overcome. When offered an ultimatum by Gettys and Emily Kane, that would have allowed Charlie to walk away without a scandal he retorts "You and this public thief want to take the love of the people away from me." Again the theme of lost love is a character flaw that causes Kane to make the more damaging decision which results in his public humiliation and rejection by the masses.

A lot of time is spent on Kane's relationship with Susan because it is the closest clue we have to understanding Kane's real motivation and the key to "rosebud." Kane's chance meeting with Susan is the picture of innocence. In fact in a small way she comes to his rescue. The small and powerless comes to the aid of the larger than life representative of the sixth largest personal fortune in the world and she does not know who he is. Kane is attracted to her because for once he feels that maybe someone loves him for himself. However he continues almost immediately to undermine his own happiness by assuming that everyone else is on the same quest he is on and seeking it in the same place. Kane tries to make Susan happy by giving her things because that is what he thinks will make him happy. Susan does not want material things, she only wants to be loved. Kane's tragic flaw is that he never understands this about himself or other people.

When he and Susan first meet, Kane reveals that he was on his way to a warehouse to look at some of his mother's belongings that are stored there. This shows that he is a reflective and vulnerable mood which includes a search for his past, lost youth and innocence. Upon entering her apartment Charlie closes the door leaving us the viewer in the hall. Almost immediately the door opens and Susan says that her landlady prefers the door stay open when she entertains a gentleman caller. This tells us and Kane that we are dealing with an innocent, a "good girl." The camera shows us among the bric-a-brac in her apartment a glass snow globe inside which is a small wood frame house. This is the very image of Charlie's lost Colorado home and the promise that he expects Susan can fulfill.

In their first meeting Kane innocently asks Susan what she would really like to do. In an offhanded sort of way, not knowing that she is speaking to a genie that can grant her every wish, and with some uncertainty she says she would like to be a singer. She quickly adds "Well that is what my mother wanted for me. You know what mother's are like?" "Yes I do." replies Kane wistfully. Before long Susan is singing in an opera house custom built for her. However Kane has done to Susan what his own mother did to him. He has decided what is best for her and sets her on an empty path of unhappiness and self-destruction as he attempts to make her happy by fulfilling his own ambitions for her. The more he lavishes on Susan the more unhappy she becomes. In a scene reminiscent of the breakfast montage, Susan and Charlie sit impassively across the great hall from one another, in the Xanadu castle he has built for her, their voices echoing in the big room as he insists that what will make her happy is a picnic. Again he can only provide things for her, he seems incapable of giving of himself and unaware that this simple gift is the key to happiness for both of them. When Susan finally leaves, Charlie physically destroys her room stopping only when he comes to the snow globe. The image of his ideal happiness calms him down and he leaves the room perplexed, exhausted and utterly alone with the snow globe in hand.

Susan's departure signals the beginning of Kane's decline. It reminds him of his separation from his mother. He continues to live reclusively and unhappily to the end which for us was revealed in the beginning. He dies alone in his room. The snow globe drops from his hand and he breathes his last word, "rosebud."

A small group representing the executors of his estate are seen taking an inventory of his sizeable cache of possessions great and small. They walk amongst the accumulations of this great man's life and comment dispassionately on objects they encounter. Outside the context of a living life they have little value or meaning, they are only things. They further speculate on the meaning of the enigmatic "rosebud." Mr. Thompson says, "I don't think that any word can explain a man's life." This important statement is a hint from the writers that we should not take the search for "rosebud" too seriously. It is intended only as a device to give us an excuse to examine this man's life. Rosebud will be revealed. It will perhaps be a surprise but in effect it will merely signal the end of the story.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older