Citizen Kane

Less a film, and more a platform to explore certain philosophical, social, moral, and political ideas through the medium of kane's life. It is a character portrait, and a good one; well acted and well shot. It will likely fail to please many modern viewers just as it failed toplease many contemporary viewers in its own time (it is critics who give accolades rather than regular people afterall.) I enjoyed it because I thought it had really poignant commentary on happiness, wealth, and greatness, concepts which are all still relevant to our time. I can also understand why it won't appeal to many people though, as the drama is hinted at without ever being made explicit, it doesn't follow standard film pacing, and there is no action to speak of. In some ways it is a great film because of what it discusses, but in many ways it is a poor 'film' in the sense that I suspect it would have more impact and a more sympathetic audience if it were, instead, an existentialist theatre play. It reminded me a lot of theatre plays actually, especially more modern ones - emphasis on dialogue and character exploration, etc.

Yes, it would be difficult to live up to the hype but it comes close to expectations particularly in the first half. The cinematography is outstanding throughout but the story drags once Kane has reached his peak. It is worth watching and, given its date, the effects are impressive as is the makeup ( if you doubt this, look at other films of the 40's) well worth watching.

It goes without saying that the film is a classic - but we in the UK have been seriously short changed by Universal with this Blu-ray. It is not the same as the well-reviewed Warner release in the USA.

The special features claim that the film has been restored from a copy held by the BFI, but it's hard to believe that they put very much time or effort into it, judging by these feeble results.

It's hard to say which aspect of the video presentation is worst. There is still a fair amount of print damage. The contrast is all over the place, with very few real blacks throughout the whole movie. The contrast also fluctuates constantly. Frequently the contrast varies across single frames, with the middle dark and the edges faded and grey. The whites and highlights are often washed out. Other than in a few scenes, there is very little detail to the image. For much of the time it is hard to believe you're not watching a standard definition DVD; and a bad one at that!

The audio is not much better. The best you can say is that the dialogue is intelligible - but it is also often harsh, as is the music.

Really Universal - is this the way to treat one of the most important movies of all time (and your UK audience)?

This Blu-ray of Citizen Kane is another very poor job from Universal Pictures. The American Warner Brothers disc has good picture quality. I found the pulsing of the picture made it difficult to enjoy the film.