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Citizen Kane (70th Anniversary Edition)

  PG HD Closed Captioning

Orson Welles

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Plot Summary

Orson Welles' masterwork (#1 in the American Film Institute's list of Best American Movies) dazzles anew in a superb 70th-anniversary digital transfer. It's grand entertainment, sharply acted (starting many of Welles' Mercury Players on the road to thriving film careers) and directed with inspired visual flair. Chronicling the stormy life of an influential publishing tycoon, this Best Original Screenplay Academy Award winner (1941) is rooted in themes of power, corruption, vanity - the American Dream lost in the mystery of a dying man's last word: "Rosebud."

Credits

Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews

TOMATOMETER

100%
  • Reviews Counted: 67
  • Fresh: 67
  • Rotten: 0
  • Average Rating: 9.4/10

Top Critics' Reviews

Fresh: Citizen Kane is far and away the most surprising and cinematically exciting motion picture to be seen here in many a moon. As a matter of fact, it comes close to being the most sensational film ever made in Hollywood. – Bosley Crowther, New York Times, Jul 16, 2008

Fresh: Fifty years after its release, Citizen Kane still seems richer, bolder, more spectacularly alive than any other film of the studio-system era. Regardless of how many times you've seen Orson Welles' 1941 masterpiece, it always feels like the first time. – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, Mar 28, 2011

Fresh: It is a work of art created by grown people for grown people. – TIME Magazine, Jun 24, 2010

Fresh: Welles has found the screen as effective for his unique showmanship as radio and the theatre. – John C. Flinn Sr., Variety, Feb 23, 2012

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Customer Reviews

Honestly Fantastic

Let's get something straight. I am not a professor of film nor am I a film hipster saying only movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey are good. I'm just a 15 year old who loves movies.

I thought I'd see this one for it's historical significance and how much my favorite critic, Roger Ebert, loves it. I wasn't anticipating it to blow my mind; I just wanted to sat I saw the greatest movie ever.

And you know what? I wasn't disappointed. This was a great movie with a superb story, style, and actors. I can definitely see why people love it so much. Is it the greatest movie of all time? I won't make that claim, but there are definitely reasons to think so.

Happy birthday, Citizen Kane. We'll always have room for you in our movie collection.

True Greatness

This is truly a masterpiece of both American and world cinema. Every frame of every scene is left in the movie for a reason. There is no wasted celluloid here. It succeeds visually, dramatically, and artistically. It revolutionized the way movies were both made and viewed. What makes the story of this movie even more astonishing is that Welles was 27 years old when making this film (which was his feature debut, by the way). It is a true work of art, in every sense of the phrase, and should be viewed by anyone and everyone. If anyone tries to tell you that Citizen Kane is not one of the best movies they have ever seen, pay no heed to anything they say, for they obviously lack the mental capacity to truly enjoy great cinema.

THE GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME!

What is it about "Citizen Kane" that makes it a truly one-of-kind masterpiece? Is it the epic, yet tragic, story of Charles Foster Kane, an enormously powerful media mogul who lives in total solitude? Is it the way both his public and personal lives are told: through a series of haunting, yet surreal, flashbacks? Or is it the iconic line he constantly mutters to himself that still rings in the depths of our memories to this day: "Rosebud"? Whatever the case may be, the tale of the man who once had everything and lost it all in the blink of an eye remains a staple of cinematic entertainment 70 years later. And just as everything good seems to ripen with age, I know that the great Orson Welles's crowning achievement will continue to delight generation after generation for many years to come.

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