Friday, October 22, 2010
The Appeal of Citizen Kane
Well, as directed by Mr. Bennett, I watched the news-reel scene again. This offered some more insight now that I was "formally" introduced to a few more of the characters. The truly amazing thing about this second viewing is how my brother caught a glimpse of the news reel, dropped everything that he was doing, watched it, and thought that it was non-fictional. In a way my brother was a monkey in an experiment to test the mass appeal of Citizen Kane. Here, someone who is your average teenage "dude" who's favorite movie is "Back to the Future" impulsively started watching Citizen Kane. He would have watched the whole thing too if it didn't stop at the end of the news reel. On top of that he thought that Charles Foster Kane was a real person, probably because the news reel was so real..... Seeing Charles Foster Kane with Theodore Roosevelt and Hitler probably sold it, but the fact that Xanadu looks like a location and not a set piece definitely helped uphold this facade. To say the least it was funny.
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That's very funny. I'm glad you recognized Teddy Roosevelt, or at least an actor pretending to be him. Hitler was a lot easier to recognize. Let's recall that this was a year before the US went to war against Hitler. By 1941, he was thoroughly hated. Also, Teddy Roosevelt was only dead 20 years. So that would have been fresh in the minds of most viewers of the film.
ReplyDeleteProbably one of the funniest portrayals of Hitler in film is in Valkyrie when he goes on a 5 minute long rant in German, with the scene completely subtitled. People usually put their own subtitles in for a comical effect, usually with Hitler ranting about a current pop culture icon. Its really funny, you might be able to find one on youtube.
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