BP’s Top 100 Challenge #1: Citizen Kane, by Sarah Brinks

I decided to undertake a movie challenge in 2017. This seemed like a good way to see some classic movies that I have unfortunately never seen. The Battleship Pretension Top 100 list provided such a challenge.Citizen Kane

is often at the top of any list of the best films of all time. And here it is at the top of the Battleship Pretension Top 100 list and it deserves to be there. The film is masterfully crafted with wonderful usage of extreme close-ups, deep focus, rear projection and much more. I think it is important to keep the time Citizen Kane was in made when discussing its importance. While re-watching the film, it struck me how familiar a story it is, as are the film-making techniques used. But that is because so many filmmakers who came after Orson Wells stole the best techniques. That being said, it is a film that stands the test of time and is still very interesting to watch today.

I love how, at its core, Citizen Kane is a very simple story. It is about a group of men trying to unwrap the puzzle of a rich and powerful man, who in his heart is the same as any man, rich or poor. He wanted to happy, he wanted to be as happy as he was living in a small home with his parents with a sled and a snowman to keep him occupied. Charles Foster Kane was rich enough to try and buy his happiness, but no matter how many sculptures, furniture, or elaborate mansions he bought, he was never happier than with his little wooden sled and his family.

Orson Welles made his feature film debut with Citizen Kane. Nominated for 3 Oscar’s and winning best original screenplay. I thought Welles’ performance as Kane was brave. We only see him young and handsome in one scene basically. All his other scenes were of him older, sometime bald or even in a wheelchair. He clearly wasn’t playing into his sense of vanity from that perspective. Welles also made a believable transition as Kane. He starts off starry-eyed, fighting for the working man, and as he grows older and richer and as he loses more and more, he loses that perspective and becomes frivolous.

I have to give a shout out to the make-up team on Citizen Kane led by the make-up supervisor Mel Burns. Nearly all of the characters that we meet from Kane’s life undergo some sort of aging. Some characters like Kane and Leland are seen at multiple times in their lives and the make-up goes a long way to telling you where you are in the timeline. Even though the film is in black and white the make-up is very effective and adds a great deal to the film.

I particularly like the structure of the film, especially the use of the news reel footage and the newspaper headlines to move the plot forward. We learn exactly what kind of man Charles Foster Kane grew to be before we see him speak more than one word. The newspaper headlines also tell us a lot as the film progresses. It made me think about modern filmmaking and how text messages are often used in the same way now.

I can’t write about Citizen Kane without addressing “rosebud.” Rosebud is the films’ McGuffin, it doesn’t really matter what it is, just that no one knows, so we can keep learning about Kane. But I like that it is a sled. I feel like the punch of that realization has been lost since everyone knows what it is now. In fact, I knew “rosebud” was a sled before I even knew what Citizen Kane was. The second to last shot of the film is a beautiful pan over piles and piles of treasures and art and sculptures to finally land on the little wooden sled. The shot goes on for so long that you finally realize for the first time exactly how rich Kane was and how desperate he was to buy his happiness. But the revelation that rosebud was the sled he had a poor child adds to the depth of his character and his loneliness as the sixth richest man in the world.

Citizen Kane is a wonderful film deserving of all of its accolades over the years and a great way to finish the Battleship Pretension Top 100 challenge.

I’ve decided to rate each film using an arbitrary scale based on the board game Battleship (lowest: Destroyer, Submarine, Cruiser, Battleship, highest: Carrier

Citizen Kane ranking: Carrier

Sarah’s ranking of the Top 100 movies:

1              IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

2              12 ANGRY MEN

3              CASABLANCA

4              SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN

5              AMELIE

6              THE LIVES OF OTHERS

7              PERSONA

8              THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

9              PSYCHO

10           STAR WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

11           SCHINDLER’S LIST

12           GROUNDHOG DAY

13           CHINATOWN

14           M

15           THE WIZARD OF OZ

16           JAWS

17           FINDING NEMO

18           EYES WIDE SHUT

19           THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

20           GHOSTBUSTERS

21           IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

22           STRANGELOVE or: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB

23           THE GENERAL

24           DIE HARD

25           REAR WINDOW

26           FANTASIA

27           THE SEVENTH SEAL

28           LAWRENCE OF ARABIA

29           NETWORK

30           RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

31           STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE

32           PATHS OF GLORY

33           THE THIRD MAN

34           THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES

35           VERTIGO

36           THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL

37           THERE WILL BE BLOOD

38           SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

39           ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

40           CITIZEN KANE

41           THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

42           CITY LIGHTS

43           MAGNOLIA

44           AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD

45           LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD

46           THE APARTMENT

47           GOODFELLAS

48           SUNSET BLVD.

49           SOME LIKE IT HOT

50           BACK TO THE FUTURE

51           FORREST GUMP

52           METROPOLIS

53           RASHOMON

54           MEMENTO

55           THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI

56           GRAND ILLUSION

57           PULP FICTION

58           THE DARK KNIGHT

59           THE PLAYER

60           FARGO

61           8 1/2

62           CITY OF GOD

63           JFK

64           OLDBOY

65           APOCALYPSE NOW

66           THE 400 BLOWS

67           BRAZIL

68           TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

69           THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE

70           SUNRISE

71           THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC

72           LA DOLCE VITA

73           WILD STRAWBERRIES

74           BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN

75           NASHVILLE

76           BICYCLE THIEVES

77           BLADE RUNNER

78           JULES AND JIM

79           RAGING BULL

80           ANIMAL HOUSE

81           FANNY AND ALEXANDER

82           RAN

83           SEVEN SAMURAI

84           THE BIG LEBOWSKI

85           WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES

86           THE GODFATHER

87           ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

88           THE GODFATHER PART II

89           ANNIE HALL

90           TAXI DRIVER

91           BREATHLESS

92           BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID

93           THE SEARCHERS

94           2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

95           DUCK SOUP

96           BLUE VELVET

97           SOLARIS

98           BADLANDS

99           MANHATTAN

100         FIGHT CLUB