2. Citizen Kane

I entertained the idea of watching Citizen Kane for a full five seconds from the time the words came out of my mouth until they were shot down.
Apparently that isn't the best place to start, even though it's on the top of every list I could find.

I just said it was at the top and went to cite some sources only to find it at:
#45- imdb.com 
#9- rottentomatoes.com
#52- filmcrave.com
#13- movies.amctv.com
#9- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_considered_the_best

Until finally! A list I hadn't seen until just now- afi.com - That one ranks it #1!
I don't even know if any of these lists are reputable in any way. This is a racket.

So people shot it down and suggested I start with something like Anchorman.
And that was the plan until I was talking to this guy about where-do-you-event-begin? and he was quick to offer Citizen Kane. He seemed like a reasonable guy in pretty much every other way and it was a thought I'd already had so it was basically decided.


All I knew about the movie was the word "Rosebud."
If you've seen , which I have, you might have gotten confused and figured this was one of those billions Funny Farm of Citizen Kane references people were talking about.

When the men are driving the moving truck and they say "Hey Mack! How do you get to Redbud?"
And the old man says, "How'd you know my name was Mack?"
They tell him they guessed and he tells them, "Guess your way to Redbud."

I know Redbud and Rosebud are two different words but in my head I guess I just sort of grouped them together.

That right there, that's EVERYTHING I knew about Citizen Kane before going into it.
And it wasn't even right.

People are so quick to tell you that this movie was groundbreaking and changed everything. I can't tell you if that's true or not. I have no idea. There were phrases that I'd heard before (I recognized a whole piece of the movie from a White Stripes song, okay? Geez...)

And people like to tell you that there were lots of interesting things done with the cameras, apparently. I liked how we got to see behind a lot of the men's ears.

There were techniques used there first, I was told. I don't know if spinning headlines and weird newspaper-y shots are what they were talking about, but it definitely felt, in a lot of ways, like  Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (I've seen that one before).


Clearly I don't know enough to know what I'm seeing. It was suggested that I watch this one again, after the other movies are watched. It would mean more then.



(Hey- thank you Sean for suggesting this, making it happen, proving that macaroni and cheese pizza does exist, and putting up with my endless questions and comments.)