Is this one of the greatest movies in the world? I don't feel qualified enough to say, personally. I can appreciate it as a great movie but I don't know enough about the technical aspects to say it's one of the greatest. I can say that Orson Welles is absolutely magnetic and for that alone this would be worth watching. Fortunately, it also has a compelling story and a stellar cast. Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), newspaper magnate and one of the privately richest men in America, has died with the enigmatic last word "Rosebud". A journalist (William Alland) is sent to interview Mr. Kane's friends and family in order to find out what it meant. What he finds is a complex figure, both public and intensely private, a man driven to succeed on his own terms, despite having a vast wealth. Heir to an immense fortune in gold, Kane is sent to boarding school at a young age by his mother (Agnes Moorehead), and given into the care of bank manager Mr. Thatcher (George Coulouris). After being kicked out of nearly every Ivy League college, Kane adopts a failing newspaper and uses it to lambast the rich and powerful. Never shy of an opinion, Kane's newspaper becomes an extension of the man himself. After the Depression and a number of personal tragedies, Kane secludes himself in his unfinished palace, Xanadu, stuffed with all the treasures money can buy.
Thousands of film students and critics have pored over every frame of this film, parsing out the meaning behind every item on screen. There's certainly enough room to do that, but you can also just enjoy it as a complete entity, a sympathetic drama of a man desperate to be loved yet unable to allow people close to him.
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