"Citezen Kane"
...ve ever seen. “Citizen Kane” was a revolutionary movie in terms of editing, camera angles, and story. It was also ahead of its time. When this movie came out, there was no other movie like it. "Citizen Kane" is a film that one can call great without feeling stupid about it. It is nothing less than the Bible for filmmaking. There is no doubt that in 1941 Orson Welles created a masterpiece that would be copied by many but equaled by none. "Citizen Kane" added more to the vocabulary of filmmaking than any other director had done before or has done since. The unusual narrative patterns, shock cuts, deep focus, eccentric camera angles, the exaggerated soundtrack foreshadowed the techniques that would come into widespread use over the years. It is doubtful that any good director has not been influenced somewhat by "Citizen Kane." Although the themes which form the foundation of "Citizen Kane" are serious, Orson Welles' directorial style is jaunty and, at times, rather aimless; therefore, the picture is never deceiving. There is hardly anything that Welles doesn't try. His movie is deceptive, and the apparent lightness of touch nevertheless smashes the serious points through with more power. Orson Welles is a daredevil filmmaker. When you compare “Citizen Kane to movies such as, “Saving Private Ryan” (directed by Steven Spielberg) which opens with a 30-minute cinematic tour de force that is without a doubt one of the finest half-hours ever committed to film. This sequence, a soldier's-eye view of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, is brilliant not only in terms of technique but in the depth of viewer reaction it generates. But the overall movie does not have all the qualifying aspects that would make it be considered as the greatest movie of all time. When you compare “Silence of the Lambs“ (directed by Jonathan Demme) its remarkable use of subjective camera, the audience is placed right in the shoes of the lead character, Clarice Starling, and goes with her on a journey that is both frightening and rewarding. This thriller is not your typical gore movie, it is told ...