The Internet is full of lists: Of news article links, of trivia, of quotes, of reviews, of friends, of events, of random personal facts, of favorite things, of best things, Craigslist, Angie’s List, and of lists. In fact, aside from advertisements and porn, the Internet is chiefly comprised of lists. People love reading lists because they do not require any taxing brain cycles beyond what it takes to skim enumerated items organized under a unifying principle, such as: These are the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time! Lists are also easier to form opinions about, because it’s easier to get mad at numbers rather than words.
Some of these lists say that Citizen Kane is the greatest movie of all time (according to the AFI), the second-greatest aside from the Godfather (according to Entertainment Weekly), the fourth-greatest (according to Mr.Showbiz), the 33rd greatest (according to the aggregated ratings of IMDb user), or the 10th most overrated movie of all time (according to some guy.) I’ve been seeing Citizen Kane on lists for years, and yet… yet… I had never actually seen the movie. I’ve always sort of felt like an infidel for missing this cultural touchstone — sort of how I feel about having never finished reading Moby Dick, not being able to sit through a Red Sox game without a magazine, and never having eaten a Whopper.
So the Brattle Theatre has been screening Orson Welles movies all weekend, and I felt compelled to finally see Citizen Kane. Since the movie is so old and presumably has been seen by everyone, the mysterious meaning of the Kane’s dying word “Rosebud” is freely discussed without anyone feeling the need to precede with a “Spoiler Alert!” So I knew that Rosebud was the name of Kane’s sled, an awareness that did, in fact, spoil the enjoyment of the movie but enhanced my understanding of what Rosebud really meant: the fleeting security and innocence of childhood, which can never be relived, and is only corrupted further with the passage of time.
Best movie of all time? Eh, I’m no more informed to analyze Citizen Kane‘s rightful place in the cinematic canon than I am to equipped to make a list of the 10 greatest physicist of all time — or, um, any 10 physicists. But on my own personal ranking greatest movies based on my enjoyment and any sort of life lessons, Citizen Kane would rank somewhere below The Wizard of Oz, Boogie Nights, and Platoon, but above Drugstore Cowboy, Reservoir Dogs, and the Usual Suspects. Maybe someday, I’ll make a list.
