Citizen Kane, The Musical

[Barry]

 
I know I’m being a bit silly here but it’s to make a point. And the point is how much I enjoy our hobby of home theater.
 
When I arrived in New York from the South in the early 1960s, I was impressed with how many TV channels New York had, we only had two. New York had seven. One of those channels, WOR, was owned at the time by RKO and ran a selected movie two or three times a day and a dozen times each day over the weekend. The movies were in bad shape and had cuts and edits and sound problems. But that was not the worst. They cut out 20 minutes to ½ an hour of each movie to stick in commercials rather than make the viewing time longer.
 
So when I first saw Citizen Kane, on our ten inch black and white Dumont, I was not impressed. Of course, as I grew older I read more and more about this movie and how good it was. In the late 1970s PBS showed the movie with no commercial interruptions and I really enjoyed it.
 
A decade later I bought it on LaserDisc and saw on a much bigger screen and I loved it. One of the things I heard on the LaserDisc that I had never heard before was the musical soundtrack, which was fantastic. It added so much to the movie and I had frankly never heard it before. Now we can get this movie on Blu-ray and the soundtrack is prominent.
 
It is wonderful that we get new movies with great surround sound. But it is equally important that we get restored older movies where we can appreciate the visual and the audio.  This is a great hobby.
 
 

[AVSCraig]

I totally agree. I hope that many more classic films get restored and brought out on either Blu-ray or 4K UHD Blu-ray. Looks like a few are coming over the next 24 months. 

[SRW1000]

I'd do hope we see more classics restored and released.  So many new movies feel stale and bland compared to the classics.

I also saw Citizen Kane for the first time on TV.  It was playing on a local station on a weekend afternoon, cut up with commercials, but it was captivating, even to a teenager.  I really do need to revisit it with my Blu-ray copy.

[bmoney]

I’ve never seen citizen Kane. I know I know. It’s on the list lol

[Barry]

Please check it out. You’ll see so much that even current movies are based on.

[David Vaughn]

Citizen Kane is a movie that changed the way movies were made. The cinematography that we find common today was mainly due to many of the techniques developed for that film. Orson Wells literally changed the way movies were shot. Here was my review from the print magazine from its 70th Anniversary release:



Headline (Exact title of disc) Citizen Kane 70^th Anniversary
Deck (Creative headline) Eat your heart out Mr. Hearst

Body of Review
"Rosebud"—the last word uttered by reclusive media mogul Charles Foster Kane before he passes away in his palatial mansion Xanadu. A reporter is quickly dispatched to interview all who were close to Kane in order to find out what the mysterious word refers to. Is it a person, place, or thing? From the interviews, we see how Kane became one of the most powerful men in American and why he died a lonely old man.

The American Film Institute has christened Citizen Kane as the greatest movie of all time and I'm not one to argue with them. But the story behind the story is almost as interesting as the Oscar-winning screenplay. At the time of its release in 1941, real-life media mogul William Randolph Hurst did virtually everything he could to stop the film's release and even went as far as trying to buy the negative since the story was a blatant parody of his life. Not succeeding in this task, Hearst wouldn't allow any of his newspapers or radio stations to air ads for the film, and despite strong reviews (in non-Hearst owned media outlets), the film wasn't a commercial success. Furthermore, the controversy caused by the young director/writer/actor Orson Welles was not appreciated by the Hollywood elite and it's reported that when his name was announced at the Academy Awards in 1942, he was booed and hissed by the crowd. But time cures all wounds and over the ensuing decades the film would be studied and dissected in classrooms for its influence on filmmaking and it certainly deserves its place as the greatest film ever.

Given its pedigree, Warner decided to spare no expense and mint a brand new 4K transfer for this release and it's spectacular. The film has always had a dark appearance (intentionally so) and the 1080p black-and-white image boasts bottomless blacks and abundant shadow detail. Compression artifacts are nonexistent, and other than some occasional ringing, this classic has never looked better. The DTS-HD Mono audio track doesn't disappoint, but it doesn't reach the heights of the video encode. Dialog is intelligible, but the powerful score can sound a tad harsh on the upper end.

Supplements include two audio commentaries, a couple of interviews, a vintage newsreel, a collector's book, and additional swag. Also included are two DVDs, The Battle over Citizen Kane documentary and RKO 281, the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning 1999 movie.


The film that almost never saw the light of day has reached its 70^th birthday and deserves a place in your library.

[David Vaughn]

I've watched two old films over the past week. The first was from a recommendation from Barry, "The Best Years of Our Lives," which is an outstanding film (Thank You Barry). The second we watched tonight, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," one of the greatest films ever made that is completely timeless. America definitely needs a Mr. Smith today, that's for sure!

[AVSCraig]

I saw Citizen Kane at a film class at my community college. Loved it. 

[SRW1000]

Thanks to Barry starting this thread, I finally made time to rewatch this movie, but for the first time on Blu-ray.  

It really is a great movie, and the BD looks and sounds terrific.  We actually used the Auro-3D AuroMatic Movie preset on the HTP-1, which did a good job of spreading out the sound without sounding artificial.  After watching the movie, we went back and compared the standard mono setting, and there was a huge difference.  Without Auro, it felt more like watching the movie on TV.  With Auro engaged, the sound was both more intimate and immersive.

I'd urge anyone with Auro-3D to test the setting when listening to mono soundtracks, you may find you like it.  There are different adjustment levels, so you can set this to your own presence.  

The story itself is just as relevant today as it was 80 years ago.  Themes involving the media, politics, entertainment, perspectives of class, and personal ego can easily be seen echoing through our current society.  That universal relevance certainly helps qualify it as the classic that it deserves to be.

I also noticed some things that I hadn't seen before, such as the snow globe.  I didn't realize it was actually Susan's, and it seen in her apartment. 

Thanks for starting this post, Barry, it was the perfect nudge needed to revist this classic.

Scott