Have you seen Citizen Kane?

It's amazing how many people here haven't. That is insane to me. Then again, I had to watch it because I took several film classes.

I've seen the first half hour of it. It was on the TV a while back and I thought I should watch it to see what the fuss was about. I got bored and decided to do something else. I'm sure in it's time it was amazing and groundbreaking, but I don't think it holds up.

@blu3v3nom07: It's my favorite movie, hope you like it. Also, I posted my paper about it a few weeks back in my blog

I watched it my in my sophomore year of high school for my English class. I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the class that enjoyed it.

When I first got Netflix years ago, Citizen Kane was one of the first films I got from it, just to "check it off the list" I guess. Like others here I came away disappointed. After hearing about how it's the "greatest movie ever" for pretty much my entire life, and not being deep enough into film studies or what have you to get how groundbreaking it was in a technical sense, it just didn't have an impact on me. I'm sitting here trying to think about it and I can't remember much from the movie itself.

Yes, I've seen for film studies as some others here have. I think many young people view Citizen Kane as some artsy-fartsy film snob's raison d'etre, when in actuality it created many techniques used in film making to this day. It shouldn't be a requirement to be viewed to enjoy movies, but you cannot deny what that movie did FOR film as a whole.

i replied yes but I was distracted because actually I have no seen it, now the results are polluted

Just to represent the other perspective:

• I watched it for the fist time ~ 5 years ago.
• Never been into film seriously.
• Thought it was amazing.
• You don't need to know anything to love some of the cameras in that movie. It's like appreciating Amnesia's scary ass camera angles. Some stuff is just obvious.

@jesuislorde: Rosebud.

It's a very good movie. Though it doesn't crack my top ten, I definitely understand why it tops "best of all time" lists. It's greatest and most unique feat is how inherently watchable it is after 74 years. It's well shot, terrifically acted, well written, and emotionally raw in a way many classic films aren't. It doesn't feel reserved.

It is watchable in ways that The Godfather and 2001 will never be, which is especially incredible considering Kane's age, length, and scope. Excellent flick.

I must admit that the ratio of people who haven't seen it to those who have is higher than I expected it to be.

Nope.

Yes I did about 10 years ago too, its a film that if you care about films in any other way than just entertaiment you should see, if you are the kind of person that only want fun in movies then no stay away from it.

Yeah I saw it because everyone said it was good and it was. :)

It was good. The really tradigty was that Orson Wells' last roll was Unicron in The Transformers: The Movie, a movie designed to sell new toys...

in a totally unrelated note, Jimmy Stewart's last role was Wylie Burp in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.

I saw it like 10 years ago and thought it was OK (I'm 30). I wanted to appreciate old movies more so I started a project where I try to see all movies worth seeing since 1915 in chronological order. About 40 films later I'm getting there. Currently at year 1936. I've seen some really good movies that most people will never watch. It's kind of sad. (Metropolis from 1927. Holy shit it's impressive for its time.)

Yes but only once I got to film school, it wasn't bad at all but things like The Simpsons and pop culture had kind or ruined the ending.

If blockbuster was still a thing I probably would have gotten to it by now. Probably won't see it unless it comes to netflix

I've seen it, but honestly missed whatever was particularly brilliant about it, which isn't to say it isn't, just that I didn't 'get' whatever it was that made it such a classic.

A lot of it may have to be that while it was a ground breaking film, I had already seen hundreds of films that had come after, and thus didn't get the impact. Then again I also saw Kurosawa's films after I had seen a lot of films and thought they were brilliant, so yeah... I didn't get it, whatever 'it' was.

I've seen it five times now. Absolutely love it.

No, I have absolutely no desire to.

As distasteful as its subject matter is, I would argue that D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" is comparable to "Citizen Kane" in influence. It was basically Griffith taking all these randomly-applied techniques of early film-making – the "throwing stuff against the wall to see if it sticks" approach, if you will – and synthesizing them into modern movies.

@ronniebarzel: Birth of a Nation is most certainly an influential film, maybe not as influential as CK, but it is definitely up there.

I read a good chunk of the book but never finished it. And never seen the movie either.

I'd really like to sit down and watch it but unless it pops up on Netflix at some point I doubt I'll spend time/money seeking it out.

If my local theater (like old school theater not a typical multi-plex) had it showing I might go see it there. Get a "truer" experience.

saw it while in high school, found it boring.

No but I have seen Touch of Evil. I'm sure I'll watch it eventually but it isn't particularly high on the priority list vs stuff like Kurosawa.

Yup. Believe the hype.

Yeah, I have. Credit for what it did at the time it did it in, but as a movie in this day and age... so slow, so... yawn. I'll take Casablanca, only one year later, any day. Now there's a movie that still holds up, also pacing-wise. Hell, Browning's 1932 Freaks has better pacing. And I love me some old-ass movies, but Citizen Kane, not so much. Which reminds me, time to watch Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari again.

I watched it once a few years ago. I remember being fascinated by it at the time, but I've yet to watch it again and, honestly, I don't remember much of it now. As far as old-ass b&w movies go I'd much rather watch 12 Angry Men or Metropolis.

The first 10mins are dreadful. Enough to not care to watch the rest.

Yeah, it is fucking badass. It's totally not my favorite but when people want to say it is the greatest, or one of the best, that's totally valid.

I think that Citizen Kane is overrated by people who put more value on historical importance than whether the film holds up to the behemoths that have been released since. I have watched the movie twice and the second viewing only reinforced my opinion.

It's still pretty watchable for a movie in its 70's.

No, but I own a copy of it and have been meaning to watch it for the past year or so.

I saw it when I was 15, when I wanted to understand jokes in Tiny Toons and Simpsons. God, the amount of popculture spoilers from those shows. Animaniacs I had to watch Apocalypse Now to get that joke.

@sethphotopoulos: Am I saying that it is a bad movie? No. Am I saying that it is worse than the movies that came out in the era? Fuck yeah, I am. What I am saying is that movies like Citizen Kane were groundbreaking and instrumental to the development of the genre, but that doesn't mean that it should automatically be held on a pedestal for all to admire because of that. I believe that movies should be judged in the context of the viewer in their present state, not the context of a viewer seeing it back in the day. As someone who watched Citizen Kane after spending 40 years watching the great films, released in that time, that CK seems a bit basic and underdeveloped in comparison to the movies that have expanded and perfected what Orson Wells was trying to accomplish in the first place.

I watched CK and thought that the cinematography was alright (groundbreaking for its time, but there has been a lot of progression in this area since), the pacing was inconsistant, I have never been a big fan of that fragmented storytelling (plus I think that Lost did a better job than this movie), and this film didn't change my opinion of the acting from this era (the acting felt like an extension of a Broadway play instead of the realism that was perfected in the 60's and 70's).

Yep. Saw it on my own accord in High School and loved it and then saw it again in my university film class. It's amazing how well it holds up.

Yes.

To really appreciate Citizen Kane, you have to realize the impact it had on the movie industry. Watching movies before 1940 is almost like watching film from a stage play. Orson Welles practically taught Hollywood how to frame their shots, how to use perspective, and tell a good story while going so. Not to mention that this was his debut. No movie has influenced filmmaking as Citizen Kane has. When they talk about the Citizen Kane of video games, they shouldn't talk about a refinement on existing ideas, but something entirely new that will define video games going forward.

It's like watching Seinfeld for the first time now. You might think it's just a run of the mill sitcom, but really it informed the next few decades of sitcoms.

I've only seen Seinfeld for the first time a few years ago and I think it's one of the best sitcoms out there. But yeah I see where you're coming from.

Yeah I saw it when I was about 16, really loved it. Have watched it a few times since, still one of my favourite movies (number 15 to be exact!).

The historical significance and technical innovation is definitely a cherry-on-top, but honestly I just really enjoyed it. I feel like you could largely take the same script and shoot it now, and you'd still have a fantastic character study of a man's rise and fall.

People that watched it thinking "Well some critic said it was the greatest movie ever made" and came away disappointed, I have no idea what you were hoping for, especially if you were looking at it from the perspective of "Well yeah but some things that were made like 60 years later do some things better".

If you love cinema, you cant miss this movie :)

Nope, but I probably should.

I saw it for the same reason as OP, it was part of the movies to watch in my film class last year. It's conceptually interesting and I can see how it influenced cinema in many important ways, but Citizen Kane didn't hold my interest as a standalone story.

I've seen it twice so far. The first time about 5 or 6 years or so ago. Watched it because I made a point to watch (and read) everything that's generally considered to be an all time classic.

I think it still holds up as a great movie, but maybe isn't as good as most people say it is.

Noooooooooope!

It´s a really good movie and certainly impressive, it has ceilings! Welles really tought a lot and gave birth to modern film making, and i always have tought that the title of best movie of the history has hurt it more than helped it, people usually comes in with crazy expectations that couldn´t be met, there´s a lot of movies that i like more from Wells himself i like more chimes at midnight, but anyone who loves movies should see the movie at least once

Yes, I have, and I still put it in my top 3 films ever. It shows a golden age of acting that is long lost today, and the shooting techniques/cinematography/camera work is still absolutely fucking amazing.