# Movies that were the "Citizen Kane" of their genre **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 2, 2013, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-the-citizen-kane-of-their-genre/672943 "2013-11-02T20:33:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2013, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-the-citizen-kane-of-their-genre/672943/21 "2013-11-06T22:46:12Z")
Once Upon a Time in the Old West… …both pretentious. …both too long. …both attempt to make a point about the wicked wealthy. …both were director driven. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-the-citizen-kane-of-their-genre/672943/22 "2014-07-29T12:39:15Z")
Bumping this thread because of a review I read in the paper this morning for “Sharknado 2: The Second One”, in which the original “Sharknado” was described as “the Citizen Kane of schlock movies.” ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-the-citizen-kane-of-their-genre/672943/23 "2014-07-29T12:49:09Z")
Just now seeing this thread. It has to be the Citizen Kane of semi-zombie threads less than a year old. Would that be a zombiette, a zombita, or a stillborn zombie. Maybe it’s a Citizen Connie? We could use this thread as a collecting base for other threads in a similar vein. I remember one not much older that had “\_\_\_\_ is the Kenny G of \_\_\_\_\_” and I’ll try to beat the timeout with a link if I can find it in time. What are some others? ETA: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=681159&highlight=kenny](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=681159&highlight=kenny) So-and-so is the Kenny G of \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ 02-03-2013, 10:02 AM ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-the-citizen-kane-of-their-genre/672943/24 "2014-07-29T13:20:24Z")
_Shakes the Clown._ ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-the-citizen-kane-of-their-genre/672943/25 "2014-07-29T17:37:01Z")
> [@ruh-roh](#): > > I have never understood the fascination with the movie Citizen Kane. As much as I always liked Orson Welles as an actor, I found the movie to be extremely boring. _Citizen Kane_ can be boring - on TV. If you want to give it a fair shake, you have to see it in the theater. The film was composed and mixed to be seen on a huge screen in a movie theater, and in that environment it is amazing. The scene where Kane is in his huge, empty mansion with all these crates of art and antiquities from all over the world has little power on even the biggest TV set, but is emotionally devastating when seen on a big movie screen. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-the-citizen-kane-of-their-genre/672943/26 "2014-07-29T19:16:45Z")
I’d say that Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is the Citizen Kane of SciFi Future Society movies and Nosferatu is the Citizen Kane of vampire movies. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-the-citizen-kane-of-their-genre/672943/27 "2014-07-29T20:00:29Z")
Isn’t \*\*Die Hard \*\*the Citizen Kane of “regular guy gets into an action thriller” movies? Or of thrillers self-contained in a location? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-the-citizen-kane-of-their-genre/672943/28 "2014-07-29T20:49:41Z")
_Spinal Tap_, mockumentaries. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-were-the-citizen-kane-of-their-genre/672943.md?page=1)