|
Citizen Kane [VHS] | ![Citizen Kane [VHS]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41QFSW0H5AL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Orson Welles
Actors: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick
Studio: RKO Radio Pictures
Category: Video
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $1.92
You Save: $18.06 (90%)
New (28) Used (46) Collectible (5) from $0.92
Rating:  736 reviews
Sales Rank: 3218
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Special Edition, NTSC
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: VHS Tape
Edition: New digital transfer
Discs: 1
Running Time: 119 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6304119046
UPC: 053939638431
EAN: 9780780614277
ASIN: 6304119046
Theatrical Release Date: May 1, 1941
Release Date: August 13, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Arguably the greatest of American films, Orson Welles's 1941 masterpiece, made when he was only 26, still unfurls like a dream and carries the viewer along the mysterious currents of time and memory to reach a mature (if ambiguous) conclusion: people are the sum of their contradictions, and can't be known easily. Welles plays newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. The result is that every well-meaning or tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event. Written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, and photographed by Gregg Toland, the film is the sum of Welles's awesome ambitions as an artist in Hollywood. He pushes the limits of then-available technology to create a true magic show, a visual and aural feast that almost seems to be rising up from a viewer's subconsciousness. As Kane, Welles even ushers in the influence of Bertolt Brecht on film acting. This is truly a one-of-a-kind work, and in many ways is still the most modern of modern films from the 20th century. --Tom Keogh
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 736
 Believe the hype September 5, 2010
Jason R. Conger (Tampa, FL USA)
After Magnolia and JFK, this is my third favorite movie of all time. What makes it so special is how it seamlessly balances the intellectual and the emotional in an almost perfect way. Rosebud is the symbol of Charles Foster Kane's youth. It is the only thing that gave him joy and that is why I believe he muttered that final word on his death bed. He longed for love and yet never knew how to obtain it. This movie is humanistic to the core. Orson Welles creates this masterpiece in the mold of a Shakespearean tragedy with uncanny visual flair and innovation. The script is probably the best of all-time since Welles finds the perfect mixture of driving the storyline with gritty and emotionally resonant dialogue bringing out the best in all actors involved. Kane's upbringing brought about a ruthless ambition, well-educated and yet never knew the meaning of the concept of fun or love. The movie is told in three parts: the mystery of Rosebud, the rise of the newspaper tycoon, and the fall of the newspaper tycoon. The movie has so many layers and I don't want to give away too much. The movie in a nutshell is about how a man's ambition can really cloud his judgment and bring about chaos and disorder to the events and relationships that surround him. The performance by Orson Welles is one-of-a-kind and the fact that he both directed and co-wrote the amazing script is nothing short of stunning. Welles' visionary masterpiece packs an emotional wallop like few movies have before or since. The DVD comes with audio commentaries by Pulitzer prize-winning movie critic Roger Ebert and Orson Welles biographer Peter Bogdanovich. The gold-standard. A+
Hey kid, wanna make a movie? August 22, 2010
Michael A Neulander (VA)
I think Orson Welles was the greatest creative genius in film who never really reached his full potential. Having said that, he remains one of the greatest creative figures in American cinema and radio!!! This review is primarily about Orson Welles the creative genius and some information on the movie that made his reputation "Citizen Kane."
After creating a sensation across America with his radio rendition of H. G. Wells "War of the Worlds" on Halloween night in 1938, this twenty-four year old "wunderkind" was lured to Hollywood to make movies in 1939. His first film idea unfortunately was rejected by RKO studio; it was an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness." He had done the story on Radio with his Mercury Theatre Players to great acclaim. I would have loved to seen Welles' make a film on this great haunting story. A loose adaptation would not come for some forty years later with the incomparable Francis Ford Coppolla film "Apocalypse Now." However, Orson's first film for RKO was "Citizen Kane" (1941). He directed, starred and co-wrote the screenplay with Herman Mankiewicz, it was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won for Best Screenplay. Still considered by the American Film Institute as the greatest movie ever made!!! I do not disagree. Here are a few interesting facts about this film.
Orson had no experience in film; he was primarily a radio entertainer. He had to learn about cinematography very quickly. He got his cinematographer Gregg Toland to give him a "crash course" on how to shoot a movie, the great camera angles of the film proves that Orson was a very quick study.
Film scholars and historians view "Citizen Kane" as Welles' attempt to create a new style of filmmaking by studying various forms of movie making, and combining them all into one. The most innovative technical aspect of Citizen Kane is the extended use of deep focus. In nearly every scene in the film, the foreground, background and everything in between are all in sharp focus. This was done by cinematographer Gregg Toland through his experimentation with lenses and lighting. Specifically, Toland often used telephoto lenses to shoot close-up scenes.
Another unorthodox method used in the film was the way low-angle shots were used to display a point of view facing upwards, thus allowing ceilings to be shown in the background of several scenes. This technique happens to be one of my very favorite used in the movie. Since movies were primarily filmed on sound stages and not on location during the era of the Hollywood studio system, it was impossible to film at an angle that showed ceilings because the stages had none. Welles changed all that. There is one great story of how Orson wasn't satisfied with the camera angle of a particular scene, even after Toland had put the camera on the floor of the sound stage. Toland told Orson it was impossible to get a better angle. Not being satisfied, Orson took the fire axe off the wall and proceeded to hack a hole into the floor of the sound stage allowing the camera to be lowered an extra three feet; thus Orson attained his desired cinematic angle and the student surpassed his teacher!!!
When execs at RKO couldn't decide on greenlight-ing "Citizen Kane" (1941), Orson asked for film equipment and a small crew released so he could spend the mid-way time doing test shots. Not wanting their New-York-import to grow cold with the RKO deal, they granted the request ... Orson proceeded to shoot actual scenes of the movie. By the time execs realized what he had done, Orson had many key scenes complete. They green-lit Citizen Kane (1941) ... Already having financed the picture, unknowingly.
Finally, Welles prevented studio executives of RKO from visiting the set. He understood their desire to control projects and he knew they were expecting him to do an exciting film that would correspond to his "The War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. Welles' RKO contract had given him complete control over the production of the film when he signed on with the studio, something that he never again was allowed to exercise when making motion pictures. It is a great pity to of ham strung a creative genius like Wells.
In 1975, in spite of all his box-office failures, he received the American Film Institute's 3rd Lifetime Achievement Award in 1975 from its Chairman Charlton Heston, who said of Welles in his remarks; "The first AFI award went to a director (John Ford), the second to an actor, (James Cagney). In Orson Welles, we honor both crafts." In 1984 the Directors Guild of America awarded him its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award. His reputation as a film maker has climbed steadily ever since.
Almost Lives Up... August 20, 2010
Marie J.
Whenever people start proclaiming something 'the greatest ever', I always get a bit wary. One, because hype is usually, well, based on hype and not fact, and it eventually becomes self-sustaining (ie people jump on the bandwagon of acclaiming something, just because they feel all the 'critics' have done so). Two, because even if it isn't overblown too much, I am usually disappointed when I had my hopes in the sky.
'Citizen Kane', well, I think it's hard to make its case as the greatest movie ever made, but it *is* Damn good. Do yourself a favor, and don't just watch it once, pass judgment, and reference it to your friends every once and a while just so you can feel Cultured. Actually THINK about this movie. ^-^ I promise you it's worth your time. I watched the documentary about it, read various reviews/essays about it, then re-watched it...only then did its scope truly sink in. "Gee," I can hear you saying. "Shouldn't something truly Great strike you the first instant you see it?" Yes, I agree, but truly great things also require digestion. This movie is Good upon first viewing, and becomes Great when you give it the time it deserves.
Quite apart from the movie, the story behind how it was made was also larger than life. Do yourself another favor, and read up about the Orson Welles - William Rudolph Hearst clash. It's Fascinating, and sheds another layer of light on this fantastic film.
My only negative comment as that the DVD skipped a little (straight out of the box!). Apart from that, Highly recommended.
MY CITIZEN KANE EXPERIENCE August 19, 2010
Will Munney
Here's my review of Citizen Kane:
When I was in high school, I had an English teacher who was tenured and never missed an opportunity to take advantage of her days off, which were often. Whenever she did so, her lesson plan instructions to her substitutes were simple and clear - she would merely leave a movie for the sub to pop into the vcr, and we would sit for an hour and watch.
Trouble was, even if it were a movie that we'd get into, she'd invariably come back the next day, and so we only ever watched the first hour of all these movies, unless we went and sniffed them out on our own dime. So in a sense, it was worse to enjoy the movie than not.
She'd always give us the heads-up as to when she would be taking the following day off, and also inform us which movie she'd be leaving for us to watch. One such day, she told us it'd be Citizen Kane.
I've always been somewhat of a prankster. Not on the professional level or anything, like a Bin Laden. More of a leisurely hotfooter. So I formulated my own lesson plan, and the next day I snuck in my own movie, which was The Hitcher with Rutger Hauer and C. Thomas Howell. A friend of mine was in on it, and while he looked out, I switched the movies in the vcr.
The substitute told us we were going to watch Citizen Kane, and out went the lights and on came the movie, which, as you have been informed, was not Citizen Kane.
So here's the thing: I thought for sure that as soon as the sub realized it was the wrong movie, he'd put the brakes on it, and then I'd `fess up to the gag, everyone would have a good laugh, and then the real movie would be cued up, and that would be the end of it. But on this day, this particular sub was apparently stupider than a lot of people, because all he did was say, "Oh - I guess it's not Citizen Kane today. I guess it's The Hitcher." And the whole class sat rapt and watched a movie they could truly get behind for once. Even when the finger turned up in the french fries, this sub just didn't understand how the forces of the universe were barking at him to wake up.
Well, it was a good gag, a solid gag, and when it was over, I thought it would stay over. But then, a few classes later in the day, the vice principal and a couple of other people I'd never seen before stormed into my class, spotted me and dragged me out of the class for a chat. It seems someone in that English class spilled the beans. In the vp's office, he talked at me while the unrecognized people simply stood there, wordlessly taking it all in. And he didn't ever ask why I did it. He just seemed intent on learning how I did it.
He suspended me for the next day, almost as an afterthought. We never saw that sub again, and from then on, whenever the English teacher took a day off, there would always be a more substantial and engaging lesson plan in place in her absense, which she would have to address upon her return, and which seemed a terrible inconvenience to her.
When I got home that day, my dad was cleaning the swimming pool. I told him I had been suspended. He asked what for, and I told him. "Oh" is what he said. Then he continued cleaning the swimming pool, which I swam in the next day, which, as I have explained, was a day off.
great storytelling !........bad scull cap appliances August 17, 2010
Beatrice A. Lafave (so falls wichita falls)
nothing i could possibly add but my vote in most instances . especially here . intro by TCM's Robert Ozborne (always a pleasure) and closed captions on this vhs . aspect ratio is the same weather vhs or dvd so i sprung for the small potatos . this probably marks about my 5th viewing . i wish the make up department had spent a bit more time on Mr. Welle's prosthetics . oh well . a true "must see" for curious young people with a passion for film .
Showing reviews 1-5 of 736
|
|
|
Powered by Digital TV Antenna | |
