# What's so good about Citizen Kane? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 11, 2009, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-good-about-citizen-kane/513443 "2009-10-11T22:24:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-good-about-citizen-kane/513443/61 "2009-10-15T19:20:21Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > I just find that Kane was a jerk and I don’t have a lot of sympathy for him. Simplistic and shallow, perhaps, but the film did its work too well for me in that respect. If it helps, really take a hard look at the scene where he first meets Susan – and note what’s _ **just** _ been brought front-and-center for him, including Rosebud and everything it stands for, right when she refers to (a) her sidelined dream of being a singer and (b) what mothers are like, and he responds in a peculiar fashion. That moment is quick and quiet and if you’re not watching for it you’ll miss it, by IMHO it’s _ **essential** _ to understanding why it all starts going downhill for him thereafter. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-good-about-citizen-kane/513443/62 "2009-10-15T20:11:36Z")
Yeah, but that raises another irony. The implication is that Kane would’ve been happier had he stayed in relatively innocent Colorado instead of being foisted by his mother onto an urban millionaire to be educated and civilized, and Susan would’ve been happier as some good-time music-hall singer instead of being pushed by Kane into opera (and, presumably, Marion Davies would have been happier making lightweight comedies instead of the overblown epics Hearst pushed her into). ---
**Author:** ![Ralpho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dc4da7/32.png) [@Ralpho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ralpho)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2017, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-good-about-citizen-kane/513443/63 "2017-01-27T01:48:29Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > No, it’s not particularly slow paced, even for its time. Actually much of it moves pretty rapidly. … > > It is a truly great film; any list of great films that ignores it is not to be taken seriously. You don’t have to list it first – but if you don’t list it, you don’t know movies. But there is also the matter of taste and personal preference. I happen to dislike Citizen Kane. I understand all of the technical triumphs, the clever dialog and so forth, but I just don’ t like the movie. Various aspects of the film annoy me. “De gustibus non disputandum est.” (“There is no use arguing over differences in taste.”) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2017, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-good-about-citizen-kane/513443/64 "2017-01-27T04:31:36Z")
It’s one of the few black and white movies that I had never heard of that I actually sat down and watched all the way through when it was running on AMC. I didn’t even know it was Citizen Kane for the longest time, until I heard that movie described. I didn’t get the “it was his sled” part, since I missed the beginning. Note, this isn’t because I can’t stand black and white. It’s just that that era had a different language of filmmaking, and I normally just don’t like that era. I also think that, if I’d have known it was a classic, and thus had any expectations, it would have colored my viewing. What I liked about it at the time was more how weird it was. I didn’t actually understand it, and I came in a little ways in. (I’d guess 30 minutes, but I really don’t know.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-good-about-citizen-kane/513443.md?page=3)