Citizen Kane is based on the real life story of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hurst who in the movie is Charles Foster Kane, the New York Inquirer chief editor (by inheritance of his guardian, Walter Thatcher) and that was one of the stepping stones in his own demise. But the first step was out of his hands... (Enter Walter Thatcher) The second major scene in the film is that of Mr. Thatcher at the boarding house of the Kane's, telling Charles' mother that she herself has inherited a fortune but she is signing it all away to Charlie. She tells Thatcher that Charlie will be safer with him and sends him away to New York. Many left wondering why...was it because she could receive more money, was it because his father could potentially abuse her and Charlie, or was it because she did not love him? Well whatever the reason, Charles still refuses to go and yells out in vehemence why is mother cannot go with him and rams into Mr. Thatcher with his sled...Rosebud.
Charles Kane wobbles through life unsure of what he really wants from it. He goes to many colleges around the world but eventually makes it back to New York and takes up his newest hobby; journalism. Before long, he has the people of New York eating out of the palm of his hand and is one of the most well-known and wealthiest men; notice I did not say he was well-liked. After a while of running the paper with his acquaintance Jedediah Leland and Mr. Bernstein, he found his first love, the niece of President, Miss Emily Monroe. He and Miss Emily bore a child together but soon after Emily found out about the affair between her husband and a singer, she and her son died in a car accident. The affair between Kane and the singer, known as Susan Alexander, turned into a catastrophe.
Kane admired Miss Alexander's voice and put it to work for him, such as many other things around him, Kane abused her propensity. Susan had loved singing until Kane insisted and created her her own opera house and ruined her entertainment for life. No one else enjoyed her "talent" but had to succumb when Kane would write whatever he felt in his papers. Jedediah Leland experienced this first hand when he began to write the absolute truth about the singing of Miss Alexander and Kane found out. Leland passed out drunk and Kane continued to write is review; his final review. When Leland wakes up, he trudges over to the typewriter and asks Kane what he thinks he is doing. Kane replies, "Hello Jedediah," "Hello Charlie. I didn't know we were speaking...," "Sure, we're speaking, Jedediah: you're fired." Every man for himself is the best idiom relating to this movie. In the end, Kane pushes away Susan Alexander in his pursuit of fame, fortune, and the biggest castle this side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Xanadu becomes a fortress in where Kane keeps all of his prized possessions; which to a normal human being is needless junk collecting dust in the basement. It is here in the movie where Susan becomes sick and weary of completing jigsaw puzzle after jigsaw puzzle and produced enough courage to leave her mighty and powerful lover. Kane becomes infuriated and begins to launch and heave everything into the walls of his palace but stops with a snow globe in his hands. He turns it around and watches the snow flakes leisurely fall to the ground.
It is at this point in the movie when you feel as though you are going to rip all of the hair out of your head if you do not receive any answers to your questions by the end of the movie...I hope you enjoy being bald...because even though you somehow still believe this is a typical Hollywood film that ends perfectly with a hottie and damsel-in-distress finally hooking up and little deer, baby birds, and freshly grown flowers in the background...YOU ARE WRONG! Kane doesn't find another wife, he ends up dying alone in his fortress of Xanadu, and only grumbles one word that means nothing to a single living soul...
Except for those of us who never gave up on one of the craziest plots ever to be written. Those of us who did not give up discovered in the end that in the end the term "Rosebud" represented Kane and his life in more than one way. "Rosebud" was, yes, the name of his sled but also symbolized Kane's life and how he never truly grew up to become a fully normal human being. "Rosebud" also signifies the last memory and thing that made Kane justly happy. Yes he traveled the world, yes he married two women, yes he had an newspaper empire, but something so little that many of us take for granted is the one thing left in the world that reminded him of his joyful and happy childhood.
On my scale of 1-10, I have decided to honor the movie with a 8.5. If you are curious as to why I have place that rate with the movie, read the above paragraphs.
