CITIZEN KANE - DVD review

The question isn't whether "Citizen Kane" is one of the greatest films ever made; that's a given. The question is whether it's THE greatest. The American Film Institute thinks it is, voting it to their number-one spot. Other such lists usually place it at least in the top five, usually at one, two, or three. Not bad for a movie that failed in its initial theatrical run. In any case, it's a self-recommending film, but I'm not here to tell you to buy it. Let me just say I can't imagine anyone even remotely interested in the subject of film not buying it. Warner Brothers give their new DVD edition every advantage a classic movie of this stature should get: newly remastered picture and sound, two full audio commentaries, a documentary as long as the film, and a ton of peripheral material, all contained in a two-disc package.

My best friend, a professor of film, always used to say he thought "Citizen Kane" was overrated. Maybe. I won't argue the point here. I first saw the film in the fifties when I was still in my teens, and I must confess I wasn't overly impressed. Then I watched and studied it more seriously in college in the early sixties and began to see its worth. Having owned several tape copies of it and taught it to a number of film students over the years, I've come to agree with those critics who place it number-one on their all-time-great movies lists. I certainly can't think of any film that deserves more respect or commands a more prominent spot in the history of film.

As everyone probably knows, cowriter, producer, and director Orson Welles based his story on the real publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst, his fictional character of Charles Foster Kane imitating pretty closely the personal and professional life of the famous newspaperman in not altogether flattering terms. The resemblance was so startling, in fact, that Hearst, who controlled a good number of the country's media outlets in 1941, tried everything he could to stop the movie from ever being seen. The disc's accompanying documentary, "The Battle Over Citizen Kane," does a good job detailing the controversy surrounding Heart's attempts to suppress the film, which was made on a modest budget at RKO. Heck, Hearst even tried to buy the negatives (with the help of his pal, MGM's Louis B. Mayer), and when that failed he refused to allow any of his newspapers or radio stations to run ads for it. By the time the film opened, to good reviews in non Hearst-owned outlets, the general public were either brainwashed into believing it was a loser or didn't get a chance to see it at all thanks to its limited distribution. It wouldn't be for another decade or two before the movie was reevaluated and began appearing in art houses and college classrooms as a true classic of the silver screen.

Obviously, books have been written on the merits of "Citizen Kane." Let me just mention in passing that while it breaks little new ground, it does bring together a number of filmmaking techniques that had been in various stages of development previously. For example, the movie refines the use of narrative point of view and flashback storytelling; emphasizes psychological lighting, light and shade (chiaroscuro), and deep-focus photography; embraces a sound track of amazingly wide dynamics for its time; provides frequent instances of overlapping and interruptive dialogue; employs complex and elaborate camera work, unique camera angles, abrupt cuts, multiple exposures, special effects, and agonizing dissolves; uses mirrors, mirroring, and mirrored scenes and imagery extensively; and incorporates numerous other examples of modern cinematography and storytelling in general. The result is a cinematic tour de force that's just as dazzling to watch today as it was over six decades ago. That it has influenced almost every filmmaker since is hard to dispute.

Never mind that at age twenty-four this was Welles's first film, and that he has often been criticized for relying too much on the work of others without giving them entirely proper due. Yes, famed cinematographer Gregg Toland did the amazing camera work and perfected the deep-focus photographic style, Bernard Herrmann did the musical score, and Herman J. Mankiewicz helped write the script. But there's no denying that this was Welles's baby from start to finish; and, besides, at this stage in the game, sixty years later, what difference does it make to the viewer who was responsible for it. The point is that what we have is splendid, no matter who the collaborators were or how much they contributed.

But probably the movie's strongest claim to fame is that it tells a good story. Covering Kane's life from childhood to deathbed, the film is conveyed in multiple recurring flashbacks from several different people's points of view, as a newspaper reporter tries to track down an angle on Kane's dying word, "Rosebud." All of them, we come to realize, actually know the enigmatic Kane less well than they think. Starring as Kane is Welles himself, an actor, writer, director, producer, magician, and pitch man who was almost as complicated as the man he was playing. Be that as it may or perhaps because of it, Welles puts in a first-rate, commanding performance as the poor boy left a fortune, who turned it into an empire the likes of which we shall probably never see again.

For his supporting cast Welles chose largely players he already knew and had worked with before, many of them stage actors from his old Mercury Theater days, like Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Agnes Moorehead, Paul Stewart, and Ray Collins. For the part of Kane's mistress in the film, Welles chose Dorothy Comingore (pregnant at the time but nicely camouflaged) to play Susan Alexander, a role modeled on the real-life actress and Hearst mistress, Marion Davies. Comingore may at first appear a bit superficial in the part, but she amply conveys the emptiness of a life filled with everything and nothing at the same time.

Video:
After living for so many years with the aforementioned video tapes of the movie, none of them of especially noteworthy quality, Warners' newly found and restored print is a godsend. Indeed, it may even be better than the film stock I saw so long ago, although here memory does not serve me so well. There's a not a blemish to be found in this fresh, 1.33:1 ratio transfer, which retains most of the 1.37:1 image. What's more important, the black-and-white contrasts are startlingly vivid, Toland's photography keeps both background and foreground people and objects in crystal clear focus, and moiré effects are minor and generally unnoticeable. For all I know, the film probably never looked this good when it was originally shown in motion-picture theaters.

Audio:
The audio, rendered via Dolby Digital monaural, having undergone some apparent noise reduction sounds almost as clean and clear as the picture is sharp, with little discernible background hiss. The vocals are slightly pinched, and the overall volume level is a tad lower than we find in most movies, but even cranked up the sound is excellent.

Extras:
Warners' special two-disc set (which does not advertise itself as a "special edition" but most definitely is one, a nice touch of modesty for a big studio) includes a multitude of valuable bonus features. Disc one contains the feature film, accompanied by the choices of two audio commentaries. The first is with film director and Welles biographer Peter Bogdanovich, who has spoken lovingly before on the subject of his hero and sometime mentor. The second commentary is with film critic Roger Ebert, who spares us no apologies in his unabashed affection for the movie. Both men supply knowledgeable insights, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, and revealing observations on the filmmaking process. There's quite a difference between listening to an actor talking about an insignificant film and a pair of experts providing important information about one of the world's greatest films. Bogdanovich, for example, tells us that Welles told him that many of the camera angles he and Toland worked out, so discussed and admired today as symbolic and meaningful, were produced simply because they looked good to Welles. OK, so maybe the guy was just lucky; in any event, everything worked. It's hard to make a choice between the two commentaries; I'd suggest if you have the time listening to both of them. I found myself flipping back and forth; when one fellow would pause for a moment, I'd click over to the other. That way I got to hear essentially what both men said about the same scenes.

Anyway, in addition to the commentaries there's a 1941 movie premiere newsreel, a gallery of storyboards, rare photos, alternate ad campaigns, studio correspondence, call sheets, and other memorabilia; thirty-one scene selections; and a theatrical trailer. English is the only spoken language available, but English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are provided for subtitles.

Disc two contains the wonderful, 1995 PBS documentary, "The Battle Over Citizen Kane," which is almost as long at 113 minutes as the two-hour feature film itself. The documentary, of course, chronicles the struggles between Hearst and Welles over the film and its content, two titans of their time in a clash of super egos. Today, Hearst is a footnote, Welles a curiosity, and "Citizen Kane" a monument. The movie outlives them both. The documentary is offered with chapter titles and the option of English subtitles. This second disc concludes with a Welles filmography. The DVD packaging, by the way, is the first I've seen from Warner that is something other than their usual snapper case. The two "Citizen Kane" discs are housed in a handsome cardboard-and-plastic fold-out container tucked into a cardboard slipcase. The discs themselves are rather difficult to extract from their plastic spindles, but other than that the whole affair looks good.

Parting Thoughts:
I've read that the Academy Awards audience in 1942 hissed and booed the film's nine Oscar nominations--for Best Picture, Actor, Director, Writing, Art Direction, Cinematography, Film Editing, Scoring, and Sound Recording. It managed only to win for its screenplay, mainly, it's surmised, because it was co-written by Mankiewicz. The movie made Orson Welles forever a living legend, yet because of the movie's unwarranted notoriety he was also forever an outcast in Hollywood. As an aside, William Randolph Hearst III, the old man's grandson, said in 1985 that he had always enjoyed "Citizen Kane" and that Welles was invited to visit the Hearst Castle, San Simeon, anytime he pleased "on my tab." I suppose time heals all wounds. In the case of "Citizen Kane," time and technology have also helped improve upon a good thing.