Have you seen Citizen Kane?

Unfortunately yes.

No but I have played Metroid Prime.

I have. Sort of. I watched it in a class in college and didn't pay it all that much attention.

I have. Sort of. I watched it in a class in college and didn't pay it all that much attention.

I mean, no, but I also didn't major in film studies.

I watched it at while I was in High School at some point, so that would be at least 10 years ago if not more. Honestly I hardly remember any of the movie now.

I have seen it no fewer than ten times. Once for a film class, once because I did a paper on it, once for a different film class, and then every other time just because it's a good movie. Citizen Kane's one of those movies where the thing that makes it great is the techniques it brought to film making as a whole and not specifically the content of the movie, and I always feel the need to bring that up any time someone brings the movie up.

Yes, but only because of a college film studies course.

It was alright.

Yes, its an amazing film that everyone should see

Yeah, I watched it so I could know and I'm glad I did. It's amazing for all the reasons people say it is.

No. Nor do I ever plan to.

Watched it when I was in middle school

Watched it in High School a long time ago. I was one of those fortunate souls who somehow managed to get through life up until that point not knowing what Rosebud was, so the ending actually kind of got to me.

Yes, I have seen it. Although maybe the better phrase would be "it was inflicted upon me." I thought it was tortuously boring.

Yeah, I watched it as part of a film studies class in high school. I enjoyed it.

Divorced from its historical significance, I wonder how well regarded Citizen Kane would be. Is it praised because of it's significance, or because it's just crazy good?

@nightriff: I feel about Citizen Kane the same way Jeff feels about Half-Life 2; it's a super important and super influential. I don't think it is possible to name a more influential film than Citizen Kane, but I don't think it is a "great" film. It's a good film, but that's as far as I will go.

@hunter5024: It's not a bad film, but I don't think it would be as highly regarded if it were divorced from its historical significance.

Yeah. It was pretty good, a little slow... a lot slow...

@hunter5024: Divorced from its historical significance, it is still a great film in the same way that Super Mario Bros or the Legend of Zelda on the NES are still some of the most fun games to play.

Reading the comments in this thread. You people, you deserve Michael Bay. YOU DESERVE MICHAEL BAY!!!!!

no.

is it a big deal? no.

i'll get to it eventually i s'pose.

Nope. My expectations are too high and it'll never live up. So I avoid at all costs.

Yeah, and I love it. No judgement on the folks who haven't or aren't interested, but I do recommend it.

I one day decided to just watch it even though I had been afraid of the same outcome as you. I implore you to keep up the good fight and avoid it.

I watched it with Roger Ebert's commentary so I understand what's so great about it.

Yeah, and I both love it and loved it when I first saw it in some fucking art class when I was 9 or 10.

Yes. It's certainly not the Colossal Cave Adventure of movies.

I watched it in a high school film class and loved it. It is so relentlessly creative on the technical side, so ahead of its time in terms of camera tricks and editing. If you can get your hands on the DVD or Blu-Ray version there is an amazing Roger Ebert commentary that breaks down each trick and visual symbol, shot by shot.

It tells an intelligent, tragic story but that's not necessarily why critics call it the GOAT movie. It's all about Orson Welle's ballsy filmmaking techniques. I feel like the people who don't like Citizen Kane fall into two camps. People who don't care about film-making aesthetics, and people who only like stories with happy endings. I respect the first group, the latter group are just sociopathic assholes.

@htr10: @hatking: I love it, too. I saw it in college when I was seventeen or eighteen and I thought it was pretty but boring at the time, but I was able to appreciate it a lot more when I saw it on TV a few years later. It's genius on a technical level when you compare it to contemporaneous films, but I think it's also just gorgeously shot and well-executed by any standard. It's a pretty intriguing and moving just as a character study as well and Welles's performance is superb.

Classic Hollywood movies definitely have a whole different style and pace to them than anything from about the mid-60s onward, so I totally understand and accept that some people who can't overcome that not-insignificant hurdle might find Citizen Kane and other movies of that era dull, but I bristle whenever those people draw the conclusion that it's overrated upon seeing it.

Yes, and I feel the same way about it as I feel about Casablanca: Pretty good, but I expected more.

Which one? Metroid Prime or The Last of Us?

I'm a fan of Citizen Kane, although if your young then it's hard to see the cultural impact it left behind. Imagine how amazing something like Shadows of Mordor would be if Batman or Assassin's Creed did not exist. CK serves as a demarkation between how movies were shot and how they are shot now. Movies prior to CK felt like stage productions. The camera was passive like an audience member. CK not required watching these days unless you are a film major or you want to learn more about the history of cinema. But it's still a good movie although harder to digest the younger you are.

When I saw it I knew why people consider it the best film ever made. Problem is, because it has that title, people will bitch about how overhyped it is because it didn't blow their minds. They don't realize that most movies owe something to it.

I'll watch it someday, perhaps more than ever now. I have to know my own take.

Add me to the list of people who watched it for school, specifically, film studies. Personally I loved it

Happy kid becomes miserable adult. Miserable adult dies with last words being "Rosebud". "Rosebud" symbolizes his childhood happiness and innocence.

I find it a better story than "It's a Wonderful Life", that's for sure.

I could certainly see over time each successive generation having fewer people that have seen it, but I think it will always be something that people with a deeper interest in film should watch.

Perfect.

Nope. When I watch movies or anything else it's because I want to and not out of any sort of obligation to have movie credentials. I'm sure I'll catch it one of these days.

I was lucky enough to see it at a screening at the local theatres I think three years ago? I thought it was quite good, but don't get why it's one of the greatest films ever made... until you realise that much of its reverence comes from the revolutionary/innovative ways of filmmaking that influenced films that came after.

Many times. I did go to school for film, but I only saw it once there, in an intro class. I'd already seen it on my own a dozen or so times before that. It's certainly not an overhyped movie, but you have to be into the whole process of film production and analysis to really get into it because most of the techniques it introduced are commonplace now and so won't seem so incredible.

There are many things about it that don't date, though, especially Welles' performance, which is towering and Tolland's cinematography, which stands among the best ever. Also incredible that Welles was only 25 when he made it.

Great film, utterly important historically, but I'd still rather watch Taxi Driver or The Godfather any day. Just because people say it's the best film ever made--which it kind of is--doesn't mean it has to be your favorite movie or anything.

@nightriff said:

I haven't seen it yet, but I plan to eventually, in the same way that I read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea a while back, I was just curious at an early example of an entertainment/art form I really enjoy.
20,000 Leagues bored me for more then half the book, but I'm glad I read it as it was a curiosity, so I'm looking forward to watching it eventually regardless if it winds up being good or bad to me. I'm just in no rush, got a lot of other movies to catch up on first.

Yes I have and as a matter of fact own the film .... still I prefer Passion of Joan Ark by Theodor Dreyer and silent films more (but that just me , but Citien Kane is a good watch anyway , far better made than many of today´s films and better acted.)

Trailers used to be really weird.

Saw the movie for class, though not for film studies. It was a communications class. I understand and respect its significance. I would not call it my favorite movie. I'll take Hitchcock films over it as a work of entertainment any day.

You know it really is pretty good.

I saw it after hearing so much about how it changed cinema. I found it to be pretty okay. Definitely a dated film, but I could see how it influenced future flicks and why so many movie-goers enjoy it. The narrative has a fantastic grabber in the beginning with the mystery behind "rosebud", and it has a relevant message about how our lack of free choice as children leads to our loss of innocence, a path most of us wish we had the ability to not choose. Plus, with all the crazy camera angles and subtle imagery that film makers at that time would simply find crazy, the movie was no doubt ahead of its time. I'd probably enjoy it more if I saw it in theaters when it was first released.

When looked at when it was released Citizen Kane is absolutely brilliant and holds up well for a film 74 years old.