Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane

After watching the movie “Citizen Kane” I realized why this movie was named one of the best films ever. Yellow journalism was in an era from the 1880 to the 1900 and it featured flashy journalism of that time, which made editors write about invented stories. Which went to big headlines on subjects that weren’t true. The two big writers of that time were William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. During the film Kane is depicted as a yellow journalism at different times.

One example is when they put out the article “Charles Foster Kane Defeated, Fraud At Polls”. From that headline you would believe that he was beaten by some illegal purpose, but it was just a headline getting people to read the article and the enjoyment of writing against your enemy. Next, when Kane got all the writers from the chronicle to start writing for the inquirer. He put out an article that said “The Greatest Newspaper Staff In The World” and had a picture of all the new guys standing together. As you can see there it is not so much false information, but he said they are greatest writers in the world. When all these guys came form the opposing newspaper. While watching the film there are many other times that Kane portrays yellow journalism. He was out to help the poor people of the community and just have fun with the newspaper.

In today’s society we think of yellow journalism as tabloids. A lot of those headline stories that we see in the supermarket get our attention. Which always lead to false information on subjects that we are interested in.

In the film there are many ways that loss and belonging have a big part of Charles Foster Kane’s Life. It started when he was taken from his birth parents at a young age to go have a better life. We saw that the mother wanted to get him away from his father because we assumed that he was getting beaten. For many young children being taken away from their home, must really heart the child. We don’t know why he was taken but assume it was because of his father and also not having enough money to raise him. He must of thought that his parents didn’t love him but all they wanted was a better life for him.

Another example of not feeling belonged is when his wife and himself were going through some problems. Even if he was the cause of the problem you saw how he wanted to belong to someone and for others to love him. Throughout the film he never had true friends it was always with people that worked for him. Except for Bernstein, but towards the end of the film he was writing stories about how horrible his wife was at singing. If you were a true friend, I don’t believe you would write something negative about your friend’s wife.

Last, one of the biggest parts of the film was the word rosebud. We didn’t get to know what it meant until the last scene of the film. But, it was his sled I believe that was something that he loved and felt that he belonged to. It reminding him of his family and home. That was probably one of the only things he really cared about. I guess while he was lying there dieing he thought of his sled rosebud, because of all the good times he had with it, and how he had a family that loved him at one point in his life.

There are many unique and innovative techniques used throughout the film. Some were sequencing which are different shots that represent purpose like flashbacks to another time period. Another that was interesting was the use of the newsreel footage. Also the many different angles that were used, and how the lighting and shadows were a big part of the film.

The whole film was done through something called sequencing. They started the film at the end of someone life and by the end of the film you know everything. They had one character trying to find out what his last words meant. By going to friends and family and asking them questions. During each visit with someone they went to a flashback explaining the certain time period in his life along with all his accomplishments. Next one of the odd things that aren’t used in a film was the use of the newsreel footage that was shown at the beginning of the film. The purpose I believe