What's with the Cockatoo?
Movie: Citizen Kane
Rarely do I post review titles that are cryptic, but I simply could not resist with this one. Every so often it comes time for me to review a film from the American canon, but I only selected this one because it had been sitting in a Netflix DVD sleeve for the past four months. (Seriously, who has DVDs sent through the mail anymore? Me, apparently.) Not too sure of the allure that Citizen Kane had from the start. I had no idea what it was about and was not previously familiar with any of Orson Welles' work. But boy oh boy do I love it when a film strikes a chord with some of the most modern themes. In this case? Censorship.
We live in a society governed by the sometimes sweeping hysteria that can arise from a singular news event. Whether mass shootings or lost airplanes, the "news" today has a captivating control over the American audience. I find myself addicted at times, even though I regularly rebuke most of what I read in the headlines today. (Speaking of, anyone know of quality, independent news sites?) Citizen Kane tackles the issue of slanted news presses during a time in our country when people were more than happy to oblige to the printed word, especially if it used the name "Hitler" in vain. The title character shows us how easily people can be manipulated, bought, or sold, almost overnight depending on what the newspaper headlines read the following day.
As I watched the film, there was a striking resemblance to the rise of power of Jordan Belfort from The Wolf of Wall Street. Exuberant spending, surrounding one's self with countless treasures and artifacts. All of these were symptomatic of Kane's rise to power, and Welles did a fine job of portraying that on the screen. We learn at the end of the film that Welles was surrounded by an amateur cast, more or less, and that certainly showed on the big screen. Hardly any of these actors and actresses did anything else too notable in their careers, but they played their parts well, which I'm guessing is a result of the hand Welles had in selecting the cast from the start.
Another impressive aspect of this film was the makeup department. Unfortunately for the makeup department of Citizen Kane, the Academy Award for Best Hairstyling and Makeup was not introduced until the early 80s, but they did a fantastic job given the release date. Can you tell that the materials used to depict agin characters and graying hair was fake? Obviously. However, when Welles used soft lighting and silhouettes, you could hardly notice, which made for a very compelling couple of dialogue sets.
The film definitely opened up a cultural door for me, as I now know and understand the subtle references of "Kane" and "Rosebud" that would routinely leave me scratching my head previously. As for the cockatoo, you really just have to see the film in order to understand what I'm talking about. It was a thoroughly confusing moment for me, and in fact it was a bit frightening, but those who know me know that I am quite jumpy when it comes to movies, haunted houses, and beyond. Of course, there are certain aspects of this movie that are incredibly cheesy, but hey, that's what 40s and 50s movies are for, so don't be too hard on the pre-modern, cinematic great.
This is definitely a movie worth watching for those that are into the "classics," and so long as you watch it with that mindset, you most certainly won't be disappointed.