Nakai

Well I've been thinking about buying this for a while now and wondering if I should. I'd like to rent it first to see if it's something I would watch more then once but I can't seem to find it (Wish Canadians had Netflix).

I'm not a huge classic or older movie lover but I can enjoy ones that are very well made and interesting. Recently I rented a VHS copy of Lawrence of Arabia since I hadn't watched it before and thought it was great and plan on getting the Superbit now. Use that as an example I guess.

Anyways I always hear mixed reviews on this. Many people will say it's a very influencial and well made movie but they don't really enjoy it. Others say it's a great movie and they love the story and everything about it. And of course some people just don't like it at all.

So how safe am I blind buying this? On the plus side I heard the DVD has a great documentary that would be very interesting to watch and a good commentary by Ebert.

Rong7676

This is an excellent film. I had seen bits and pieces of the film long before I bought my copy so technically it was almost like a blind buy. Everyone has an their own opinion, however, this is a seminal film and the commentary was quite interesting. No regrets here.

chente

Great film. The documentary alone is worth the price of admission. You are right, it isn't a movie for everyone. It isn't a mainstream film by any means. Don't expect something thrillerish like North By Northwest or any other hollywood fare.

Fok

I haven't seen this either and was thinking the same thing. From what people have told me, its a good film.

flmfreakcentral

Forgive me for rueing that it's come down to this: asking whether Citizen Kane--Citizen Kane!--is a good blind buy.

Forgive me also for saying that if you have to ask, you're probably not ready for Citizen Kane. It's just that simple, really.

Bill C
filmfreakcentral.net

jackson walker

Do college cinema classes still teach that the development of the art of the motion picture begins with "Birth of a Nation" and ends with "Citizen Kane"?
Even so, the two-disc DVD features a most entertaining commentary track by Roger Ebert. And the extra PBS documentary has a nice take on the rise of the power of film celebrity against the fall of the newspaper tycoon in America.
Plus the new transfer is really amazing.

theneobez

I think the film is good, nothing great, but even I must say this is a GREAT blind buy. The documentary and commentary are both some of the best supplements I have seen on a dvd, they really make the set worth it, even if you don't agree with the film being the greatest of all time.

flmfreakcentral

Though I can't tell whether that was a poke at me, I can offer that when I taught a college film history course, I was also the only one there teaching and even placing emphasis on the eighties, with BLUE VELVET and BACK TO THE FUTURE receiving dedicated lectures. I did not stop at CITIZEN KANE, nor did I start at BIRTH OF A NATION. (I went back further, to Edwin S. Porter.)

None of this changes the fact that CITIZEN KANE is a seminal work, nor does the almost subversive treatment of it as a platform for the wisdom of Roger Ebert. The film is a rite of passage for lovers of cinema the way "The Bell Jar" is for teenage girls. And yes, CITIZEN KANE is very entertaining to boot.

Here's our review of the DVD, if anyone's interested - http://filmfreakcentral.net/dvdreviews/citizenkane.htm

Bill C
filmfreakcentral.net

jackson walker

[QUOTE]Originally posted by flmfreakcentral
[B]Though I can't tell whether that was a poke at me, I can offer that when I taught a college film history course, I was also the only one there teaching and even placing emphasis on the eighties.

Sorry if you took it that way, Bill, but I asked the question because when I took a film course in college, this was the mantra. And it looks to me that it is a mantra that seems to stand the test of time.