Citizen Kane

**Gladstone** · Saturday, March 13th, 2004

Xanadu

"Legendary was the Xanadu where Kublai Khan decreed his stately pleasure dome. Today almost as legendary is Florida's Xanadu, world's largest pleasure ground. Here in the deserts of the Gulf Coast a private mountain was commissioned and succesfully built. One hundred thousand trees, twenty thousand tons of marble, are the ingredients of Xanadu mountain. Contents of Xanadu's palace...paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones of many another palace, the collection of everything. So big it can never be catalogued or appraised. Enough for ten museums, the loot of the world. Xanadu's livestock..the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, the beasts of the field and jungle. Two of each, the biggest private zoo since Noah. Like the Pharoas, Xanadu's landlord leaves many stones to mark his grave...Conceived for Mrs. Susan Alexander Kane, half finished before she divorced him, the still unfinished Xanadu... Cost? No man can say."

The description of a monument a man has built ostensably for the woman he loves; a monument that is not finished before his death and for a woman who ultimately divorces him. The man, Charles Foster Kane, is looking for something his entire life, but never seems able to find this something. When he is not able to find this something, he attempts to buy it, or build it, as with Xanadu. What is this something that Kane is looking for? It's hinted at at the beginning of the movie with the dying word of Kane..."Rosebud". A reporter is assigned to find the meaning of this esoteric name and report it to the world via his newspaper. The reporter never finds the profound meaning of it, but you do by watching this fine movie!

Orson Welles excellent film Citizen Kane premiered in May 1941 and has since been considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time. Welles utilizes many highly sophisticated and revolutionairy film and camera techniques thruout the film. Citizen Kane is one of a select few movies that ages well due to it's high quality and the timelessness of what it has to say. Welles brilliantly explores the power of the media to shape a nation, something of great relevance to our day.

You will go and see this movie now, won't you?

http://websearch.cs.com/cs/boomframe...rg%2Fciti.html

**Scoob** · Saturday, March 13th, 2004

Great movie, based on the life of William Randolf Hearst, I believe. The real-life Hearst had lots of conflicts with Welles too, as I remember.

**Gladstone** · Saturday, March 13th, 2004

Originally Posted by Scoob

Great movie, based on the life of William Randolf Hearst, I believe. The real-life Hearst had lots of conflicts with Welles too, as I remember.

Hearst was convinced the movie was about him, and even tho there is some question about that, he delayed the release of Orwelle's film by several months due to legal challenges he made.