Citizen KaneAfter 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 werent 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 todays 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 Kanes 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 dont 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 didnt 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 dont believe you would write something negative about your friends wife.
Last, one of the biggest parts of the film was the word rosebud. We didnt 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 arent used in a film was the use of the newsreel footage that was shown at the beginning of the film. The purpose I believe was to show you this mans life from the eyes of all the newspaper articles about him and other things that were going on. It also let you get a feel of the time period and what was going on.
Next theyre many different angles that this film was shot from. Since one of the characters portrayed a powerful individual he was a large man. The majority of the shots were filmed from looking down and looking up angles. The reason I believe is too show his power when he is referring to something. If you shot a shot looking down at someone you will feel like the person that you see is of lower power. Of course the same for opposite way the person you see would see much lager and of great power. They had many shots in the film to depict how powerful of a character Charles Foster Kane was.
Another aspect of any film is the way the lighting is used. Which also makes shadows very important. There were times throughout the film that light represented the time of day. When it comes to a black and white film it is much harder to represent certain times due to everything must have some light or you will not be able to see. Lighting has a lot to do with the feeling of the character at any giving time. When the character is happy and a lot of things are going on there will be a lot of light around. When there are scary and gloomy times there will be less light distributed. Shadows are used again to represent power over someone or something. Also to show the atmosphere or mode the scene is in. When you look at power in our world even today most of it goes toward people with the money. In the films case it also goes towards money. The society that they lived in during that time was a time that the majority of people didnt have much money. For Kane power was something that he never lived without. He was given a newspaper to run on his own, which made him have a lot of people that worked under him. Throughout the film anything he wanted was done. Since he was the one calling the shots in the newspaper he could have anything printed. For example during the beginning of his election he would print articles that would make him look better then his opponent.
For society, during that time period know one knew of anything else but to listen to people that had a lot of power. They would also follow in their footsteps. When people of that time had power they were looked up too as a very high person in life.
To sum everything up this film was one of the greatest films ever made. There are so many different parts of the movie that made other filmmakers take a look at Citizen Kane before starting their own film. This film has change many filmmakers decisions on how to portray there film. Citizen Kane will never be forgotten and will on in every filmmakers decisions.
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