Blu-ray Review: Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane on Warner Home Video

Warner Home Video has made the release of Citizen Kane one of the few genuine Blu-ray events of this year.

Citizen KaneThe ghosts that haunt barons of industry and commerce—breeding obsession, greed, arrogance, vanity, and cruelty of the most malicious sort—are the same as those that envelope, corrupt, and exhaust the titans of the screen and those most talented of artists, a fact that has never more evident than in Citizen Kane. Wunderkind Orson Welles’s deeply haunting depiction of the life of William Randolph Hearst, from working-class hero to failed political powerhouse to newspaper baron, has long been synonymous with the director’s spectacularly odd and genuinely tragic career, and for good reason. Hunger for power and control were at once central to both Hearst and Welles’s legacies and the fatal wound that led to their most devastating pitfalls.

To now return to that famous image of Welles’s Kane in his paper-strewn office after losing a bid at political office, towering above Gregg Toland’s camera as he gets a proper moral thrashing from his only true friend in the world, it becomes impossible to not consider all those similar thrashings that friends, colleagues, and complete strangers gave Welles at the impetus of the project, during its production and upon its release. Hollywood threw an epic hissy fit, but what appeared on the screen was immediately recognizable of a singular artistic vision that made many, if not all, of Welles’s peers and colleagues look behind the times.

Structured largely through the recollections of supporting characters, including Kane’s best friend, Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotton), and the showgirl, Susan (Dorothy Comingore), who inadvertently bungled his political aspirations, Kane’s story is as much about locating the psychological bruises that shape public figures as it is about the essential enigmas of said figures. The pioneering of gossip journalism and the social ills proliferated by that advent are here just as interesting and important as the building of Xanadu and the collecting of all those exotic treasures. Following the investigative pursuits of reporter Jerry Thompson (William Alland), we see Kane as the adopted son of a steel-hearted tycoon, Walter Parks Thatcher (George Coulouris), but miss that crucial hint to the elusive “Rosebud,” which Welles, in a beautiful stroke, reveals only long enough for it to be destroyed and lost forever.

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Considering that “Rosebud” was rumored to be a nickname for Hearst’s mistress’s, er, loins, it’s not completely surprising that most of Welles’s projects met a similar fate as that most memorable of all sleighs. But like most great cinematic artists, it’s less the drama of Citizen Kane that’s remembered than it is the rich, vivid look of the picture. One remembers the vast, echoing main hall of Xanadu, where Comingore’s showgirl wastes away while piecing together puzzles, or the newspaper office transformed into a den of indulgence and shadowy sin following Kane’s ascension to the upper echelons of the newspaper industry.

Rather than overwrite the dramatic turns, however, these glorious set pieces, each one more jaw-dropping than the last, accentuate those forgotten moments of tension, grief, disappointment, good humor, and potent heartbreak. Less famous scenes, such as when we finally see Kane’s political opponent James W. Gettys (Ray Collins) quietly eviscerate Kane with his own sense of pride, is all the more powerful in the cramped environs of Susan’s dinky apartment than it is, nowadays, over the phone or in massive meeting rooms.

Citizen Kane remains as hard to talk about as ever, due largely to its symbiotic relationship with its own making and its reception forever complicating and deepening the psychological and philosophical valleys that exist within the proper narrative. You may stare at it, amazed and entertained, but feel dwarfed by the very idea of attempting to untangle the crow’s nest that’s formed through its ever-expanding histories. And what continuously stupefies this critic is that time works no miracles on the film: Scenes remain familiar, but the narrative seems to shift every time that you return to it. No wonder it’s such a pain to pin down. It sounds hyperbolic, but I might as well be trying to say something new about the life of Jesus.

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Image/Sound

Warner Bros. is a smart enough company to know where to put its strengths and with the Citizen Kane Blu-ray, they really pull out all the stops. Gregg Toland and Orson Welles’s inky aesthetic has never looked so magnificently balanced between rich black levels, peerless whites, and stable greys. Toland’s abilities are here magnified tenfold, as each shot offers a chance to investigate his craftsmanship, from the aforementioned celebratory dinner at the newspaper office to that dip through the rainy roof of the club where Kane’s showgirl is drinking her way into a grave. I won’t say there isn’t a single problem, but they’re so incredibly minor that I don’t feel the need nor the want to name them. I have a similar attitude toward the audio, which isn’t as impressive as the visual treatment, but is still incredibly effective and admirable. The lossless DTS-HD monaural mix reveals a few audio problems that must have come up in production and post-production, but it also allows the film a fuller sound. Bernard Herrmann’s titanic score sounds phenomenal and dialogue is clear and out front. There will be nitpickers, inevitably, but I can barely find fault with this release.

Extras

This is an incredibly well-rounded assemblage of extras. To begin with, we have two excellent audio commentaries: one from Roger Ebert, the other from Peter Bogdanovich. Ebert gives a lot more information on how the film can be read, the history of the film’s reception, and some notes on the production, whereas Bogdanovich’s take is far more personal, dealing a lot more with Welles the man. Pulling back yet another layer is an extensive documentary about Welles, William Randolph Hearst, and the production of Citizen Kane, and for good measure, there’s RKO 281, a feature-length drama based on the production of the film and its controversy. There’s a boatload of clips from the production and post-production, including newsreel footage from the world premiere of Citizen Kane. Also included: a hardback book, theatrical trailer, and reproductions of advertisements, an opening-night program, letters, key art, and other correspondences.

Overall

Warner Home Video has made the release of Orson Welles’s tremendous Citizen Kane one of the few genuine Blu-ray events of this year.

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Score: 
 Cast: Orson Welles, Joseph Cotton, Dorothy Comingore, Agnes Moorehead, Ruth Warrick, Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford, Everett Sloane, William Alland, Paul Stewart, George Coulouris  Director: Orson Welles  Screenwriter: Orson Welles, Herman J. Mankiewicz  Distributor: Warner Home Video  Running Time: 119 min  Rating: PG  Year: 1941  Release Date: September 13, 2011  Buy: Video, Soundtrack

Chris Cabin

Chris Cabin co-hosts the popular We Hate Movies podcast.

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