I always believed that the theme of the film wasn't so much "Money can't buy happiness." Kane is immature, selfish, spoiled, and petty. But also sociable, bitter yes, but naive, gullible and unashamed of himself at anypoint. In a sense, he's innocent and ignorant, like a child is. "An abandoned child never grows up." is what I took away from the film. A very very powerful message.
He said rosebud because the snow globe reminded him of his childhood home with his parents. That was the day his life was ripped away from him. When he saw the snow globe, it reminded him of the sled he used to always play on which said rosebud. Basically, he misses his old life and realizes he shouldn’t have pushed everyone around. He misses being happy
What a stunningly perceptive and well done documentary. Wonderful. One of the best I have ever seen on here. Thanks for doing it and posting it. Dennis
Rosebud is a representation of Kane losing his grasp on childhood after he is sent to live with the banker, seeing the snow globe reminds him of a time before all this happened when he could just be a kid and have fun
Ty Cobb lived a similar life in that during his years, he was a ruthless competitor and highly successful in business and his craft, but that he had very few friends where infact very few attended his funeral. He even stated in the end his biggest regret was not having friends.
I disagree ...I think "rosebud" represents the unattainable childhood and life he maybe thought he should have had....but instead due to his mothers best thinking(control) sent him on his journey ...at first resentful and then eventually becoming a lot of what he may have detested....detached and without meaning and majorly depressed and alone........the hollow conceits and possessions fail to fill what he was robbed of as a child.....I thought it was an incredibly thick and rich movie not for the person without empathy or emotional literacy
It represents the loss of love to him. Due to this traumatic childhood event he associates the loss of control with the loss of love. He became the man he was because in his mind loosing control of ones own life meant loosing love. Rosebud represents the wounding that made him the man he was.
I helped create a training for staff of an organization I worked at that helps adults with developmental disabilities and at risk youth. The training concerned ego states, PTSD, and the concept of life scripts. We used different movie clips in the training and we used the scene from Citizen Kane when Kane's parents pretty much sell him. In my opinion that was the moment where he experienced the emotions that started his whole drive for power and impacted his relationships as well as other aspects of his life. The people who were supposed to love him and take care of him gave him away for money/profit. He now knew the only way to gain love was through money and then power though no matter how much he made he could never fill the hole from when his parents abandoned him. In his romantic relationships he couldn't let his lover get too close because that would mean he would have to let his guard down and allow himself to be vulnerable and he equates vulnerability to his childhood when he was hurt the most. He certainly "took care" of his significant other but did so through monetary ways and not through real connection. Towards the end when hus relationship is ending and she's packing to leave he begins to let his guard down and show that vulnerability that is needed for true love to thrive. He then puts the wall up again by saying "how could you do this to me" showing her again that it was about simply having another "thing" to try to fill that void from his childhood. So she leaves and he experiences those feelings of abandonment from when his parents abandoned him all over again and that pretty much breaks him. The end scene shows all the workers going through his house figuring out what should be kept and what should be burned/destroyed. We're able to see all the "pretty" and expensive things he has amassed over the years trying (and failing) to provide him with some sort of security. Of course the last scene us the burning sled, Rosebud, and we see that his whole life has simply been about how he had lost his youth (innocence), faith/love/ability to truly love another person (his parents showed him that love just leads to hurt), and in a slightly cruel twist the only things he really wanted (represented in an old child's toy) is thrown onto a pile of junk to be burned while all the expensive and fancy things he acquired to insulate himself are being handled with care even though in the end they all meant very little/nothing to him.
I named my baby Charles Kane Martin. I thought the nameran together nice. And 'charlie' means enemy in the military. 'Kane' was an enemy in the bible. Then I found out about citizen kane and it further fits the theme we were going for.
Hmm…I interpreted Rosebud as …no matter how much you accomplish…no matter what woes are thrown your way….during your last moment…all you’ll think about is the last moment of beauty and innocence in your life…when you were a child
This reminds me all over again about the Susan Alexander/Marion Davies controversy. Marion was actually a very talented comic actress that William Randolph Hearst tried to turn into a great dramatic actress. She was actually better compared to somebody like Carole Lombard.
If you pause on the scene of Kane hitting Thatcher with his sled you can’t read rosebud. When Kane receives a sled from Thatcher for Christmas it also doesn’t say Rosebud? They probably just had a few sleds on set they were using but it’s kind of confusing.
The term Rosebud was in response to his last discussion with his wife before she left him where she said that he never had real love or affection for anything or anyone. That he had so many things but none of them had any real meaning for him. We find that he realized the last thing he truly adored in his life was his sled, before he was taken away.
The cinematography, sets, acting, makeup and special effects are all among the best ever. The story is a little thin: either you sympathize with Kane or do not - but it was presented in a circular fashion with flashbacks which was revolutionary for the time. Also, the story is very closely related to the life of William Randolph Hearst, who did everything in his power to stop its release. Also it was Orson Welles greatest achievement - he had nowhere to go but down, really. And actually Rosebud was not a sled but WRH's pet name for his mistress' vagina - TRUE STORY. So there is a lot of interaction between this film and real life Hollywood drama. Every director since can trace some influence back to this film. It is not a perfect film, but an amazing achievement, especially for a 25 year-old actor/director who never made a film before.
Watch the movie at that time and then this? This movie was a leap in cinematography, editing, non linear storytelling instead of usual fixed cam production
Uh, I don't think you quite grasped the meaning... Rosebud was his childhood toy. It represented his simpler, innocent, happier childhood self... A priceless moment and feeling which cannot be purchase nor sometimes ever, successfully, repeated...
The lesson of Citizen Kane as expressed in this video is too explicit. The moral of Citizen Kane is open to many interpretations. Yours is one. There are many more.
Well now we know where you guys plagiarized the term " fake news".. It a very old .. history...always repeating .. When was this movie made? Well at least he left a rose bud for ya...
R.S.D, you seriously made me laugh, thanks man, how old are you fella? may be Casablanca might be more of your liking if you like old black and white classics, but make no mistake my friend, this is one of the greatest movies ever made, maybe someday if you are lucky you will understand.
What a HUGE disappointment. Its not a movie, its a gag-reel from the forties-fifties. A Superman Cartoon from the same era posing as a news reel every 30 seconds. An hour long cheap commercial with every male doing a James Cagney impression, having all the answers, dotting every cliche you can imagine and the audience doesn't care about anyone specially the so called lead character. But the worse short coming of all with this so called 'movie' is that its unbearably "boring". I think society as a whole and the movie industry got caught up in "sheep mode", someone said it was a master piece so they all said it was a master piece and kept repeating the same lie until today, because saying otherwise would make the honest reviewer seem incompetent or stupid. Well, it is a piece of B movie garbage. Go ahead, start watching and see how much you can bear. By the time his ugly, ignorant second wife start yelling at him, you will want to slash your wrists. And wonder what's the point of all this? its going nowhere, looks like the director and write are drunk. In short, what a waste of time. Skip it, if you don't you will wish you had.
