"All he really wanted out of life was love. That's Charlie's story---how he lost it. You see, he just didn't have any to give."
---Jed Leland
To me, Citizen Kane is one of the saddest movies ever made. It is the story of an enormously successful man who is surrounded by wealthy, luxury, and people who obey his ever demand. The one thing he does not have is love. And Citizen Kane is really about this man's search for love, and the ultimate failure he suffers when he cannot demand love from the people around him (his wives, friends, coworkers, the American public). From his failed marriages to his unsuccessful bid for political office, Kane (Orson Welles) is forever searching for ways to get people to love him. He builds an opera house for his second wife (Dorothy Comingore) because he thinks it will please her to become a famous opera singer. What he does not realize (until she leaves him) is that what she really wants is just him. She wants attention and affection from Kane; all he gives her is solitude in his palatial home Xanadu, completing jigsaw puzzle after jigsaw puzzle alone as the two grow older and less social. Whether or not he actually feels love for his wife is debatable.
The big mystery to solve in Citizen Kane, for the characters and for the audience, is to figure out the significance of the word "rosebud", the last word Charles Foster Kane uttered as he took his last breaths. Although the meaning is ultimately left to the audience's interpretation, the actual object is the key to why Kane lacks the ability to give love and in turn receive it. He was given away as a young boy by his mother in order to live a life full of wealth and opportunities. Consequently, Kane learned at an early age that money and success are the things a person should dedicate their lives to obtaining, not the intangible qualities of humanity like compassion and kindness. In Kane's mind, the way a person shows another that they love them is by showering them with money or decadence. As a result, the sad truth is that Kane does not know how to love and therefore his character is one that is incomplete. He is an incomplete human longing for something he cannot obtain, no matter how monetarily successful he becomes, and that is one of the saddest ways for a person to be.
Perhaps this is why Citizen Kane is one of the most highly-acclaimed movies of all time, and is, in fact, counted as number one on AFI's "100 Greatest Movies of All Time". Much is said about how Citizen Kane revolutionized film-making at the time of film's release with its specialized lighting, creative camera angles, and the extensive depth perception of each shot. Though I agree that this is part of what makes the film so great, more importantly I think Citizen Kane serves as a warning to us about what a pathetic life we might be burdened with if we do not revere love as we should.
FUN FACT: Orson Welles was just 24 when he wrote, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane! Quite a lot to accomplish at such a young age!
FAVORITE QUOTE: "Five years ago, he wrote from that place down there in the south - what's it called ... uh ... Shangri-La, El Dorado ... oh, Sloppy Joe's - what, what is the name of that place? *laughs* Oh, alright - Xanadu."
— Jedediah Leland, Citizen Kane
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