Of the eight films nominated for the 2020 Academy Award for Best Picture, four can be categorized as historical movies: Judas and the Black Messiah, Mank, Minari, and The Trial of the Chicago 7. For cinema history buffs, Mank may be of particular interest because it is a movie about a movie. The biographical drama follows Herman J. Mankiewicz, the screenwriter for the iconic 1941 film Citizen Kane. Directed by then 25-year-old Orson Welles, Citizen Kane is an important landmark in film history, widely considered one of the greatest movies of all time. Thus, familiarity with Citizen Kane may be essential in fully appreciating Mank.
Orson Welles in Citizen Kane
Numerous entities rank motion pictures. Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic are popular review-aggregation websites that compile movie critics' published opinions to arrive at a composite score. Their methodologies are different in that Rotten Tomatoes considers a binary data set (either a positive or negative review) while Metacritic calculates a weighted average of numerical scores of each review based on a 0-100 scale. But in both instances, Citizen Kane is at or near the top of the critics' collective assessment. It is the fourth highest-rated film of all time on Rotten Tomatoes (as of 7/23/21), only behind It Happened One Night (1934), Modern Times (1936), and Black Panther (2018). Meanwhile, Metacritic considers Citizen Kane the greatest movie ever. Furthermore, when the Sight and Sound magazine, published by the British Film Institute, polled 846 international critics in 2012, Citizen Kane came in as the second greatest film in history, only behind Vertigo (1958).
In addition to critics, film industry professionals highly regard Citizen Kane. In a separate 2012 Sight and Sound magazine poll of movie directors, the 1941 classic claimed the spot as the third greatest movie, behind only Tokyo Story (1953) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). And when the American Film Institute polled more than 1500 film industry professionals in 2012, Citizen Kane came out on top.
So undoubtedly, Citizen Kane is one of the greatest movies of all time, based on the opinions of artists and film critics, a group of people that are presumably most knowledgeable. But what does an average moviegoer think about the film? Is it possible that Citizen Kane is more recognized for its reputation than its merits? Does a film's rank on a list say more about the methodology than perhaps its inherent quality?
IMDb is an online database that allows its registered users to rate each movie from 1-10. Although their methodology in "weighting" the reviews is a secret, with more than 80 million users, it is probably safe to assume that the results are representative of the general moviegoing audience. With that in mind, Citizen Kane ranks as the 94th highest-rated film of all time (as of 7/23/21). Not too shabby, but far from the greatest movie ever.
Familiar with its reputation, I delved into Citizen Kane with some trepidation. It's a movie I desperately wanted to enjoy. Perhaps, if I love it, my sensibilities would be in tune with knowledgeable professionals. And if I like it, I can claim solidarity with the mainstream 21st-century audience. But what if I hate it? What does that say about me?
Well...I hated it. And not in the way I hate horror movies. I disliked The Shining, for example, but I can appreciate that it is a well-crafted film, successfully messing with my mind and giving me nightmares. But Citizen Kane is different. It is not simply unenjoyable. Rather, I think it is just a bad movie.
Why did I think Citizen Kane is not good? I can list numerous reasons why I didn't appreciate it, but that would be a pointless exercise. Sadly, the only logical explanation is that I am ignorant. I am a 17-year-old high school student who only recently transitioned into "grown-up" movies, trying to leave behind the cinematic universe dominated by Adam Sandler and The Avengers. I am just beginning to enjoy a wider array of films, daring to watch black and white movies and read subtitles. So my goal should be to learn more about Citizen Kane rather than to critique it.
Scene from Citizen Kane
But the realization that one's ignorant is a tough pill to swallow. It’s easier to label those who praise Citizen Kane as pretentious "Hollywood elites" who claim to appreciate what is inherently unentertaining in order to cast others as unrefined.
As the general public weighs in on the merits of films by purchasing tickets at the box office, their opinions often clash with the "experts." In recent history, the Academy Award winners for Best Picture are far from the most popular movie. In 2019, for instance, the Korean film Parasite received the prize and brought in more than $250 million at the box office. Not bad. However, it earned far less than some of the other nominated movies of that year, including Joker ($1.1 billion), 1917 ($380 million), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ($370 million). And the top-grossing film of 2019, Avengers: End Game ($2.8 billion), wasn't even nominated.
Unlike quantum physics and neurosurgery, many Americans feel qualified to critique movies and doubt the experts. Few would argue the math behind the theory of relativity with a physicist or demand to operate on their child's brain. Still, the same folks would not hesitate to denigrate the expertise of film industry professionals. Instead of trying to figure out why critics and directors think Citizen Kane is so great, it can be much more satisfying to discredit them. And the public's rejection of expert opinions that clash with their personal bias is not isolated to the film industry.
When a con man dressed up as a politician summarizes economic principles into sound bites that appeal to a receptive audience, the public is more than willing to dismiss economists who toil in data to explain complex principles. And when 97% of climate scientists agree that climate change is real and exacerbated by human activity, up to 18% of the general public have no problems doubting the experts.
Citizen Kane's place at the pantheon of cinematic achievement comes at a price. Because the film lauded by experts may not have universal appeal, an average moviegoer may be emboldened to reject expert opinions and less willing to watch other highly regarded movies. For my part, I am going to learn more about Citizen Kane. My first step is to watch Mank.
Andrew’s grade: C
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