Citizen Kane (1941)

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Released: September 5, 1941

My Rating:  
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I wouldn't call Citizen Kane the greatest movie ever made, but, even to this day, it's definitely a great piece of cinema and a wonderful example of storytelling.

Citizen Kane has been lauded the best film ever made by many people.  Do I particularly agree?  No.  But nonetheless, I think it is a great movie.  It has some of the dated characteristics of cinema of it's period, the 1940's, but a lot of it's characteristics are still strong nowadays.  I understand that the plot has some parallels to the real life story of William Randolph Hearst, but I don't know all that much about him, so I'm going to talk about only the film, which is great itself.  The film is an important figure in the history of cinema, technologically and in terms of storytelling.

The story is really not all that complicated, but the way it unfolds is great and engaging, and almost makes it seem complex, and it's told from a number of perspectives.  The film opens up with the death of Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), the owner of the Inquirer, a New York newspaper.  Just before dying, Kane utters the word "Rosebud".  Then an approximately ten minute long newsreel summarizes the story of Kane, representing the public's view of him, and an overview of the story.  Then, for the rest of the film, we are shown more details and depth of the story via flashbacks as news reporters go around and obtain information about Kane and his life.

For those of you who haven't seen the film, I won't fully spoil it for you.  I'll just give an overview.  Kane achieved success and rose to power, but eventually suffered a major blow to his reputation, and he crashed.  Along the way, he even gets married and divorced twice.  With the aid of his closest friend, Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten), Kane starts builds a nationwide newspaper empire.  He is ruthless as he achieves this, yet generous at the same time in a few ways, such as being willing to lose a million dollars a year to gain more newspaper circulation.  Eventually, he runs for a political position, but his success to this is lost as his rival uncovers his affair with a "singer", and after this, his reputation is destroyed and his life's success declines.  There is more to the story, but, like I said, I'm only giving a summary; I'm not giving the full story away, for those of you who haven't seen the film.

All the while, we, the audience, and the reporters in the film, wonder who Kane really was, not just the story of the events of his life, from his rise to his fall, but who he really was underneath.  They believe that a key to finding this out lies in his dying word, "Rosebud".  At one point in the film, a reporter, Thompson, says, about the word, "Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get, or something he lost."  At another point, someone (I don't remember who) says, "I don't think one word can describe one man's life".  The entire movie is a puzzle, a puzzle of Kane's life, and not just that, but of who he really was (for lack of a better, deeper term).  "Rosebud" is just one piece, a missing piece, of that puzzle, but it may be an important piece.  Although, then again, maybe not.  We do eventually find out what the word represents and what its origin is, and it represents one of the important messages of the movie, but I won't spoil it for, again, those of you who haven't seen the film.

The film is great in terms of its storytelling.  In addition to its storytelling, the film is also an important point in cinema in terms of a few other factors, such as cinematograpy.  One of the most striking of the cinematographic effects is ths stark contrast between brightness and darkness.  Also notable are the camera angles - which create many unique shots throughout the film - and the use of deep focus, enabling images both in the back ground and the foreground to stay clear in focus.  I also liked the music score.  Bernard Herrmann, who also composed the score for Psycho (1960), created an effective score with very good combinations and uses of harmony, orchestration, melody, and other musical elements, and really supports the drama and moods of the film.

So, in summary, while I personally don't think Citizen Kane is the best film ever made, I did find it to be great.  Watching it was a very good experience for me.  It's great in terms of storytelling and technical aspects, and, overall, like I've said, it's a great piece of cinema, and an important landmark in cinema history.

Cast and Credits:
Charles Foster Kane: Orson Welles
Jedediah Leland: Joseph Cotten
Susan Alexander: Dorothy Comingore
Walter Parks Thatcher: George Coulouris
Jim Geddes: Ray Collins
Mrs. Kane: Anges Moorehead
Emily Norton: Ruth Warric

Directed by Orson Welles
Black and White
Approx. 120 minutes

No MPAA rating.

John Carter (2012)

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Released: February 9, 2012

My Rating:  
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Overall, in my opinion, John Carter is basically a two-and-a-half star film, but it hits enough high notes and sustains enough energy along the way to be enjoyable as a sci-fi blockbuster and scrape a three star rating from me.

            I saw John Carter in the theater on Friday, March 14.  I've never read the books that the movie is based on, but based on the reviews I've skimmed, I had pretty low expectations for the film.  And a lot of the negative aspects I sort of expected of the film were confirmed.  Overall, I didn't like the film, but I did sort of enjoy it a little, sort of as a guilty pleasure, almost.  The CGI is great, and very convincing, and I enjoyed the visual experience.  As for the story and other important aspects, the film is a bit weak.  There are many flaws in the film; there's no denying that.  The story is derivative, and it suffers from a somewhat sloppy and slightly convoluted plot.  Overall, in my opinion, it's basically a two-and-a-half star film, but it hits enough high notes and sustains enough energy along the way to be enjoyable as a sci-fi blockbuster and scrape a three star rating from me.
            The movie is about John Carter, a Civil War veteran who is trying to lead a normal life.  He is locked up for refusing to join the Army, but he escapes and is pursued.  After a bit of action, he hides in a cave, in which he encounters someone holding a medallion.  When Carter touches the medallion, he is transported to Mars, where the lower gravity enables him to leap incredible heights.  His first encounter with the natives are with the tall, green-skinned, four-armed, horned Thorks.  Soon, he ends up rescuing a princess, Dejah Thoris, of another native group on the planet called the "red" humanoids, and he soon learns of the civil war going on between that group and the other group, the "blue" humanoids.
            The director, Andrew Stanton, has previously directed animated films, such as Finding Nemo and Wall-E, and this is his first live-action movie, which may have contributed to the flaws in the movie.  Like I said, the movie is very flawed.  It's somewhat sloppy, and a bit confusing at times, and not fully coherent (but it's not incoherent).  The progression of the story and the interrelation and connection of everything in it doesn't completely fit, and is not really how it should have been.  A few things actually felt to me like they were almost thrown together.  And in a few ways, it felt almost like a cartoon.  However, the movie does maintain acceptable coherency, etc., and it maintains a level of energy that kept me at least somewhat entertained; surprisingly, I never got bored during this movie.  The movie is a bit confusing at times, and there are a few twists, and I had a bit of trouble keeping track of some names and stuff, but it doesn't really matter, because it's pretty easy to understand the overall plot.  In fact, I actually left the theater at one point to go to the restroom, and I came back three minutes later, but it didn't matter because it was pretty easy for me to pick up on what was basically happening.
            There are some positive things that I can say about the movie.  The visuals are great, and everything in the movie is very well portrayed with the CGI, and in pretty good detail.  The movie introduces a new cultre/world/etc., although it doesn't stand out as a character within itself, like the new world in Avatar did.  But it's still pretty nice.  I also liked the ships; they were very well designed.  In fact, all the special effects were good.  Dejah Thoris is very pretty, and she's a highlight of the movie.  I liked the cast of the movie, especially Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins.  I also somewhat liked the music score.  The story, plot, progression, development, and pacing all needed to be much better.
            Overall, I didn't like the movie or anything, but it was better than I thought it would be.  I found it a bit enjoyable, although I would definitely not recommend it for any awards or special recognition or anything.  If fact, I wouldn't be surprised if this movie is forgotten in the near future.  In my opinion, it's basically a two-and-a-half star movie, but it does hit enough high notes to be a bit enjoyable as a sci-fi blockbuster and to scrape (although barely) a three star rating from me.  Although, it's not a movie that I could really watch over and over again; once was really enough for me.


Cast and Credits:
John Carter: Taylor Kitsch
Dejah Thoris: Lynn Collins
Sola: Samantha Morton
Tars Tarkas: Willem Dafoe
Tal Hajus: Thomas Haden Church
Matai Shang: Mark Strong
Tardos Mors: Ciaran Hinds
Sab Than: Dominic West
Edgar Rice Burroughs: Daryl Sabara

Walt Disney Pictures presents
A film directed by Andrew Stanton
Based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novels

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action