"Mr Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it"

This week there was a screening of Orson Welles’ 1941 American drama film ‘Citizen Kane’. I was looking forward to seeing it as I’d always been intrigued after hearing it referenced in other programmes, namely one time in The Simpsons. The film is based loosely around the life and legacy of William Randolph Hearst, portrayed as Charles Foster Kane; an American newspaper magnate. The story is told through narration and flashbacks, and revolves around a newspaper reporter’s attempt to discover what significance Kane’s last word before he died, ‘rosebud’ held.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when watching the film, but I enjoyed the way Welles’ decided to set it out; a series of flashbacks and interviews with the people closest to Kane, which included his second wife Susan Alexander, his personal business manager Mr Bernstein, his best friend Jedediah Leland, and lastly his butler Raymond. I loved the fictional estate of Kane’s called ‘Xanadu’, which looks like something out of a horror film where kids would never dare to go trick or treating. The estate claimed its name from a real ancient Mongolian city, and in the film it was described as being the world’s largest private estate, “cost: no man can say”. In relation to the film, it represented the excess of lavish lifestyles such as Kane’s, and their inability to spend their money wisely, gradually becoming disconnected from the ‘norm’ of the everyday world. It seems to me to represent a need to distance oneself from the rest of society to make the difference in power and wealth more obvious to other citizens; he created his own prison to live in. Massively wealthy individuals often become greedy and self involved, thus being portrayed as living in an oversized house often alone or with only a butler for company. Kane was not alone at the start of the film but he drove his wife out towards the end, adding to his misery and loneliness.



The way that Kane came into power and wealth is important for the film’s focus. He was born into a poverty stricken family, but then changed when the ‘world’s third largest gold mine’ was discovered on an assumed to be worthless property that his mother acquired. He is forced to leave his mother when she sends him away to live with guardian Walter Parks Thatcher, where he is educated and protected from his abusive father. At 25, he enters the newspaper business and takes control of the New York Inquirer, hiring all of the best journalists, some who worked for the Chronicle beforehand, his newspaper’s main rival. The film focuses on Kane’s downhill; the way he pushes his loved ones away and manipulates others to get what he wants. The relationship between him and his first wife disintegrates, and a ‘love nest’ scandal with his soon to be second wife, Susan Alexander, is uncovered. With his domineering personality he forces her into an operatic career which she has no desire or talent to be in, and gradually destroys his relationship with her, forcing her to leave him.

At the end of the film, it is revealed to the audience that ‘Rosebud’ was the name of a sled from Kane’s childhood; a time before he was taken away and gained all of his wealth. The sled is burnt in the furnace along with Kane’s other belongings, thought to be worthless, and they are left with no answer to their question. I thought the way that his last word related to his childhood where he was part of a poor family was highly significant; this suggests that Kane was perhaps at his happiest when he was a child and had no fame or wealth. The film is wrapped up with a rather pleasant moral that you don’t need fame and money to be happy, and suggests that if you have those things your life might be on a downward spiral as Kane’s was.

Quote of the film by the reporter Thompson:

“Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get, or something he lost. Anyway, it wouldn't have explained anything... I don't think any word can explain a man's life. No, I guess Rosebud is just a... piece in a jigsaw puzzle... a missing piece.”