CITIZEN KANE - 1941

The most celebrated line from this movie is not a line at all but a single word..."Rosebud" - the final utterance of the rich, powerful newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane (played by the one and only Orson Welles), but what does it mean? The whole movie follows reporter Jerry Thompson as he interviews various people from Kane's life to figure out the meaning of his last word. 

Jerry Thompson never does realize the true meaning behind Rosebud, instead coming to his own realization stating "I don't think any word can explain a man's life". Which brings up the larger question, did "Rosebud" and ultimately what it came to symbolize describe Charles Foster Kane's life? There are two answers to this question, as there are to nearly every question in life: yes or no.

To ruin what Roesbud is and ultimately what it came to symbolize would be a crime against cinema that I am not willing to commit if any reader has not seen the film for themselves. However in my humble opinion (and this may be an ominous statement for those readers that have not seen the film) Rosebud did not explain Kane's whole life instead a fraction of it. Though he was rich and powerful he did not come from that type of lifestyle and to him Rosebud represented a simpler time in his life. All I can say is that it seems whenever we as humans are at the end of anything whether it be finishing school or a relationship or even life it seems we tend to look back on everything we do with regret at the way things didn't turn out instead of the way they did. 

What has let this movie stand the test of time is ultimately the message that is taken from it. Don't get me wrong the rest of the movie is amazing too, but being a black and white film with a slow ascending story plot in the 21st century, there is a lot going against it. But the message at the end is grandiose in the way that it can be perceived in many different ways by many different people, and that is what makes the film able to be called "the best American movie ever made". It is magical in the sense that it reminds each and every watcher of not only a common sense of humanity among men but also of the short timeline that is given on this earth. 

Of course no one can say that Orson Welles did not only a spectacular job acting but an impeccable job directing. What also makes this movie stand out is the way in which the plot is told. There is no traditional setting or way in which the plot is told, instead there is constantly switching settings as the reporter Jerry Thompson interviews nearly everyone close to the deceased newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane, hopelessly searching for the meaning of "Rosebud". 

Whether one is forced to watch this movie in a high school film class or stumbles upon it while flipping the channels or watches it just for fun, this film will strike a cord in all. Rosebud may have no meaning to anyone but the larger-than-life Charles Foster Kane but each and everyone one of us has our own "Rosebud".