Rating: 
Summary: A great film on many levels
Review: This is quite simply, one of the finest movies ever. I could go on for pages about the way Citizen Kane changed movie making forever, but I won't. I agree with the reviewer who says that the movie tells a great emotional story. It seemed to be one of the more intellectual reviews I've read. Except for one thing...in any review of a classic film, or any film for that matter, you cannot simply cast aside the 'special effects' or any other aspect of the film. To say that all that is secondary and that only the story is important is ludicrous. The camera work, the directing, the cinematography, the performances, the writing, all of these are essential parts of the story, and Wells is a master. The use of circular narrative, the deep-frame focusing, the high and low camera angles, the use of light and shadow(you only have to look at Conrad Hall's work in American Beauty, to see Kane's impact). This is a master work because every aspect of the production works together, not because the story is good. Whether you like 'Star Wars' or 'Ma Vie en Rose', watch this movie and see cinema's greatest achievment.
Rating: 
Summary: I understand, but I don't agree...
Review: I know all the reasons that this is regarded a great film. And yet, I find it almost unwatchable. Sure, if I point to individual elements of the film (the structure, camera work, script, symbolism, theme, etc.) then I'm impressed. But no matter how many times I watch the film, I remain emotionally unaffected. I don't care about the characters, I don't care what happens, I just don't care. I honestly envy the reviewers who find it emotionally compelling. But I've given it several chances, and it gives me less humanity than Kane gave the people in his life. A case can be made that Welles employed the imitative fallacy, and the emotional distance I experience mimics Kane's emotional inabilities. Well and good, but I still don't enjoy watching a movie that doesn't engage me.
Rating:
Summary: Humanity
Review: I had to write again... Glad to see so many recent reviewers speak of this film in human terms. At least I know there are still some of us out there who can get past the camera angles (which are great, of course) and all the rest and just respond to a very sad (and very good) movie about the universal desire to be loved.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic (And I Won't Tell What "Rosebud" Is!)
Review: This was a movie we had to see in our History of the Cinema class (and the professor warned those who already saw it not to give away the significance of "Rosebud"!). Orson Welles outdid himself with the direction and the different effects (and made an enemy of William Randolph Hearst, who this film is supposedly about). Beranrd Hermann, who also contributed music for Alfred Hitchcock movies (particularly Psycho) and the Twilight Zone TV series, does an excellent job with the score. For me, the most interesting part of Citizen Kane is seeing the kind of person Charles Foster Kane (Welles) was to others (he is seen as an egomaniac, shallow, lonely, private, and mysterious by each of them). Nobody knows the real Kane in the end, not even the viewer. This is one of those movies you should see at least once in your life (and if you really like it, you should see it again!).
Rating:
Summary: All's Welles that ends Welles!
Review: Do not judge this movie by its critics, prestige, editing or "camera angles"; it's not about any of those things, and I wouldn't blame you if it failed your expectations after reading so much pedantic praise from art-house know-it-alls. Truth is, you don't need to be "deep" to enjoy this great film. Quite the contrary! Just being not an imbecile will do!
Rating:
Summary: This is the number 1 movie of all time? What a joke!!
Review: I was very surprised when I saw this movie. I thought it was going to be great. It wasn't. I thought I'd love it. I didn't. This movie is the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. The characters are childish, immature and just plain unlikable. The whole movie is just absolute lunacy. Ok, ok, every movie has SOMETHING good about it, yes, even this movie. The start and the end aren't too bad. Do you know why? Because it wasn't stupid. It was dark, mysterious and it's what the whole movie should have been like. Instead, the movie can't decide what it is. At times it's serious and at other times it's just silly. The thing I will agree on that is great about this movie is the camera work. That is good. In fact, it's outstanding for it's time. But a movie isn't just camerawork. I can't understand why so many people love this movie. I just don't get it. But most of all, why is it number one of all time??? I've probably offended just about everyone who's read this review and it will probably say something like "0 of 100 people found the following review helpful", but, sorry, this is my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Unloved Kane
Review: I had to watch this movie five or six times before I realized what a truly great film it is...and it's not because of the acting or cinamatography or special effects or any of that kind of thing. Citizen Kane, more than any other film that I am aware of, lets us into the most inner reaches of the soul of the main character. The ... review of this film sums up the conclusion of this film as "...people are the sum of their contradictions, and can't be known easily". But that's not true - Charles Foster Kane is a remarkably simple man, whose whole life has been a fruitless search for one thing - unconditional love. I've known people like this--wealthy, influential, who seemingly have it all. The problem here is that everyone wants something from them. They are loved, but conditionally. Pay their salary, and people will love you. Stand up for their rights, and people will love you. Imagine being 8 years old and sent away by your mother, the one person you were sure loved you unconditionally, never to see her again. And on top of that, you are one of the richest people on the face of the earth. How could you ever be sure again that anyone loved you for yourself? This movie is the story of that unsuccessful search for unconditional love, and the longing for Rosebud, the symbol of the last time Kane experienced it. Citizen Kane is known to have been based on the life of William Randolph Hearst, but I doubt Orson Welles had ever met the man prior to making this film. He must have known well someone similar to Kane to so thouroughly understand how a wealthy and powerful person can be, deep down, so insecure.
Rating:
Summary: Unsinkable.
Review: In spite of the hoopla, lavish praise, superlatives designating this as the most critically acclaimed film of all time, "Citizen Kane" simply can't be dislodged from its preeminent place in the history of cinema. But don't let all that's been written about the film scare you. It's a compact, fast-paced mystery story (What's "Rosebud") at it's most accessible level. But it's also a microcosm of the American dream, suggesting the direful consequences of its realization. Why is it a great film? Because it works on every level--scripting, casting, acting, editing, photography, mis en scene, sound. Take any frame of the film and it's possible not only to reconstruct the rest of the film (it's that organically whole) but to compose a dissertation on the meanings suggested by that frame alone. In the end what we're left with is not only a great movie but the image of a young boy whose loss of innocense is ours to share.
Rating:
Summary: A cinematic masterpiece -- yet still entertaining!
Review: It's too bad that so many first-time viewers approach CITIZEN KANE with the good-for-you stigma attached, as though it were the cinematic equivalent of cod liver oil. Plainly put, Orson Welles' masterpiece is both an exquisitely crafted work of cinematic genius, and a fun movie to watch. Zippily edited, stirringly scored, brilliantly acted, peppily written, KANE is a movie I can go back to again and again, both for its delicate subtleties and for its sheer entertainment value. Okay, if you're the sort of film watcher who can't stand anything in black and white or (like someone whose name I won't mention) doesn't like to see films made before you were born, there's nothing to be done for you. But give this movie half a chance, forget that the AFI and your film professor told you that you are honor-bound to love it, and just enjoy the spectacle, the drama, the exhilaration of CITIZEN KANE. (Confidential to Ted Turner: Is this thing coming out on DVD sometime this century, or *what*?)
Rating:
Summary: "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here..."
Review: The quotation cited is from Dante. The Poet ascribes it as the oriflamme that burns eternal curse-in-greeting to the Souls of the Damned as they enter THE INFERNO to suffer poena damni..."the pain of Loss". It is difficult to know if 25 year-old Director Welles was consciously aware that he seems to be essaying the role of a modern Virgil escorting viewers through the Circles of Hell. It is certainly...now...irrelevant that the film may have been intended as an arch-satire on the life of William R. Hearst. In CITZEN KANE, the viewer is granted an abject lesson in terror that cinematically answers The Biblical question: WHAT DOES IT PROFIT A MAN TO WIN THE WHOLE WORLD...IF HE LOSE HIS IMMORTAL SELF? In stark black and white the film often functions like the alleged "out of body"/ near death experience. Again and again Kane is "offered" graced opportunities to renew his life and experience Love. But again and again....pride orders his choices. The chance for Love becomes for Kane another exercise in Will-to-Power or a frenetic, ultimately disparing, attempt to "demand" God-like worship. And of course, Citizen (or: "creature") Kane fails...whether he is "blessing" world leaders like Hitler and proclaiming "There will be no war". Or building Opera Houses for paramours who cannot sing. Or Garden of Edens for Eve's (and Adams) who do not want to live in paradise-on-Earth" because they cannot.(They know they are "unredeemed" creatures and Kane is not The Redeemer). Perhaps many viewers will not accept this anagogical (mystical) interpretation. But it submitted to complement "technical" appraisals observing the film's well-known artistic virtuosity. In CITIZEN KANE, Orson Welles has presented more than a parable of Power corrupting possibility and good intention. The scene where young Kane "attacks" Thatcher...in the presence of his Mother...with the symbol of his innocence is crucial. The hatred manifested by the boy is Original Sin and forgiveness, in humility, must be sought to experience healing love. Kane's life is an endless, rebellious odyssey in prideful Self-Homage. That the final scene evokes damnation of Citizen Kane is clear unless the entire metaphor of the story is discounted, ignored or unaccepted as virtual. CITIZEN KANE is about a powerful, gifted man (and perhaps a NATION) seeking salvation and always seeming to RESENT the moment where innocence was lost and Redemption became Necessary. There may, indeed, be a salvic act or WORD that can redeem even the most icy, hardened Heart. But...as Orson Welles' terror tragedy powerfully demonstrates...that act is not of earthly power and wealth and The Word is not ROSEBUD.
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