Citizen Kane (Warner) (1941) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Listing-Cast & Crew Audio Commentary-Peter Bogdanovich Audio Commentary-Roger Ebert Featurette-1941 New York movie premiere newsreel Theatrical Trailer Storyboards Gallery-Photo Deleted Scenes Gallery-Poster-Ad campaign Production Notes Notes-Call sheets, Press Book-souvenir programs, Opening night Featurette-Documentary - The Battle Over Citizen Kane Easter Egg
Rating
Year Of Production	1941
Running Time	119:20
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (59:48) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Orson Welles
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Orson Welles Joseph Cotten Dorothy Comingore Agnes Moorehead Ruth Warrick Ray Collins Erskine Sanford Everett Sloane William Alland Paul Stewart George Coulouris
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	Bernard Herrmann

    I approached this film with some trepidation. I had never seen it, although I'd purchased copies of both the R1 and R2 versions (more about that later). Citizen Kane features at or near the top of pretty much every list of "best films ever made". That sets incredibly high expectations, and I wasn't sure that any film could live up to them.

    So what did I think of it? I paused after watching the film, and noted down my reactions, before proceeding with the extras. My feelings were lukewarm. Oh, it's not a bad film; it features some rather good cinematography, and the acting is decent, but the story isn't a particularly pleasant one, and I wasn't thrilled with the ending. Strangest thing, though, was that it didn't feel like a film made in 1941 — it felt much more recent. It doesn't feel like a film that is a contemporary of The Maltese Falcon, Here Comes Mr Jordan, or How Green Was My Valley. Or Dumbo, for that matter (did you know Dumbo was that old?).

    So what's the plot? It's the story of a man raised from a young age with vast wealth but little love, who built up a newspaper empire, who tried to enter politics and failed, and who died old, alone, and unloved. Don't worry, I haven't spoiled the entire film for you — you learn all this within the first quarter of the film.

    Although the film is good, I suspect that part of the reason for its fame comes from the stories behind the film. Quite a bit of this comes out in the two commentaries, plus the documentary on the second disc. These three sources disagree in a number of interesting ways, so it's hard to tell what the truth is — I suspect that we can never know all of the truth, but there is some general agreement as to parts of the tale.

    This film was the debut of Orson Welles in the film industry. He was in his mid twenties, and already extremely well-known for his radio work (including a certain very famous War of the Worlds broadcast...) and for his stage direction and acting. He had never directed a feature film, but he was offered a contract that was the envy of everyone in Hollywood (you can even hear the envy in the commentaries!). He had final say on everything: casting, shooting, even final cut — this was utterly unheard-of. This film wasn't the first project he started, but it was the first to reach fruition.

    This film concerns a newspaper tycoon  of a particular kind — a crusader, with a ruthless approach. Part, at least, of this was modelled on William Randolph Hearst. There are claims that Hearst was not the only model for the character; other tycoons, in other industries, are also mentioned in the commentaries, and in the documentary. Welles, himself, is described as the model for some aspects. But it is hard to deny that Hearst was key, particularly when the original author of the script was a frequent visitor to Hearst's estate. Moreover, Hearst's acknowledged mistress, Marion Davies, aligns rather too well with another of the characters, Susan Alexander. This is unfortunate, because she receives rather less charitable treatment than the central character. It is suggested that this was the real cause of Hearst's ire. And ire there was. This film was under attack from Hearst and his empire before it premiered. Hearst tried everything he could to get the film destroyed (it is claimed he threatened the entire film industry), and when that failed, he did everything he could to block its screening. Hearst died in 1951, and Citizen Kane was really only seen in wide distribution in the US on its re-release in the late 1950s.

    Putting aside that stuff, this film is rather interesting because it pioneered a cinematographic technique called "deep focus". Before this film, the cinematographer would arrange a shot so that the person the audience should be looking at would be in focus, and everything in front of, or behind, would be slightly out of focus. This told the audience where to look. In Citizen Kane, the entire frame is in focus, even when there is considerable distance from the front to the back, which means that the audience has to think more. This deep focus is much harder to achieve than you might think, and requires extraordinary attention to lighting (the objects at the rear must be very brightly lit, for one thing). The cinematographer, Gregg Toland, was a genius. That's not the only cinematographic innovation, either. There were all manner of unusual techniques in use, including some extremely long takes, unusual camera movement, and shots from unconventional angles. All this is discussed at length in the commentaries, which I thoroughly recommend.

    A couple of names I'd like to mention: Robert Wise (the famous director — Star Trek the motion picture, The Sound of Music...) was editor on this film. A young Agnes Moorehead appears as Kane's mother.

    So how do I feel about the movie now? A bit less lukewarm now. I have a better appreciation of how radical a departure it was from the films of the time — heck, some of the things it does would rate as unusual even today. Do I rate it as the best film ever made? Not yet — I haven't seen all the others (but I'm working on it...). And I still don't like the ending. Still, it can be argued that you have to see this film to be able to judge others against it.

Video

    This DVD is NTSC. If your system cannot display movies that are in NTSC, stop torturing yourself now.

    This DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is not 16x9 enhanced. The film was originally shot in the Academy ratio of 1.37:1, so that is extremely close.

    The image is awe-inspiring. It is sharp and clear, with amazing depth of field — that is crucial to this movie, and this disc comes through with the goods. Shadow detail is very good (amazing for a film of this age). There is negligible film grain, and no low-level noise. I have no idea how much restoration effort has gone into this transfer, but it is simply stunning (especially after you see the R2...).

    Colour? What colour? This is a black-and-white film. Actually, it's monochrome, and it displays a superb range of tones from inky blacks through lots of shades of grey to bright whites. There are one or two moments where there's an over-bright white (the most obvious being the moment that Thompson opens the books in the Thatcher memorial library), but it doesn't detract from the film. There's some cross-colouration in the documentary, which just goes to show how impressively the film has been transferred.

    There are no film artefacts. There are several instants where I thought I spotted an artefact, but repeated replays confirmed that each one was something else — often a reflection. This is an unbelievably good restoration.

    There is no noticeable aliasing, no moirι, and there are no MPEG artefacts. This disc is trying to put reviewers out of a job (I don't mind!).

    There are subtitles in four languages, including English. The subtitles are easy to read, well-timed, and as accurate as ever.

    The disc is single-sided and RSDL-formatted. The layer change is at 59:48, and I didn't spot it when watching the movie or either commentary — I had to locate it using a DVD player with a layer indicator.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in one language: the original English, in Dolby Digital 1.0 — that's unequivocally mono, but that's what the original was.

    The dialogue is easy to understand. There are no audio sync problems.

    Bernard Herrmann's score is an impressive effort — it's quite varied, and supports the action well. The commentaries suggest that one of the reasons for this is that Welles' experience on radio gave him a deep appreciation of the value of music.

    I hope your centre channel speaker is up to scratch — it is the only speaker that will be working with this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are plenty of extras in this package, and some of them are particularly worthwhile.

Menu

    The menu is animated with sound, but it is very easy to navigate.

Cast and Crew

    A single page listing, nothing more.

Commentary: Peter Bogdanovich

    This is a detailed and thoughtful commentary from a man who clearly cares a lot about the films of Orson Welles. It is especially interesting that he is not convinced that this is the best film Orson Welles ever made. Recommended listening.

Commentary: Roger Ebert

    Another detailed commentary, but a bit less considered. Still worth listening to, but listen to the Bogdanovich commentary first. I found it interesting that he quoted a film historian who described this film as "a shallow masterpiece".

Newsreel footage: New York Premiere (1:09)

    A very short fragment of footage of guests arriving for the premiere. Not interesting.

Theatrical Trailer (3:48)

    A strange and effective trailer that never shows Orson Welles — he is just out of frame, narrating.

Shorts: Production

    Three short pieces about the production of the film:

• Storyboards (2:48) — a running montage of storyboards interleaved with photos
• Call Sheets (0:48) — a montage of call sheets, most of them unreadable because they are too small
• Still Gallery (10:53) — a montage of photos and pictures with a commentary from Roger Ebert — the commentary runs a lot longer than the stills do...

Shorts: Post-Production

    Four short pieces about the post-production phase of making the film:

• Deleted Scenes (1:12) — mostly about a scene that was going to be set in a brothel, something that was forbidden under "The Code"
• Ad Campaign (1:36) — a montage of ads for the film (mostly from the re-release)
• Press Book (0:48) — pages taken from the souvenir programme provided on opening night
• Opening Nights (1:36)

Production Notes

    Divided into four sections:

• In The Beginning (7 pages)
• On the Set (15 pages)
• Postscripts (6 pages)
• Awards and Honours (2 pages)

Easter Egg

    There's an Easter egg on the Extras menu. (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Move right and highlight the sled, then press Enter. You'll get an interview with Ruth Warrick, recorded in 1996, and running for 5:41. Rather interesting.

Documentary: The Battle Over Citizen Kane (113:25)

    This is the entire content of the second disc. It was shot in 1995 for a show called The American Experience (we get a recital of the various sponsors for the programme at both the start and end of the documentary). It is more than a little sensationalist, and spends far too much time early on making ominous pronouncements. It seems determined to take the line that this was a deliberate battle provoked by Welles and taken up by Hearst, and it portrays this as a clash of titans. Not a particularly well-balanced piece, but interesting nonetheless — listen to the commentaries first, I think.

    As I mentioned earlier, I bought a copy of this film on Region 2 DVD when it first became available on DVD. Then I bought the Region 1 special edition when it came out. So how does the Region 4 release compare? This is easier than you might expect. The Region 1 release and the Region 4 use exactly the same first disc — only the region coding is different. The second disc has a different menu, and the R1 has a couple of other tiny text-based extras, including a brief filmography for Welles (that omits The Third Man, and many others), but both versions of the second disc contain the same documentary.

    The Region 2 disc I bought is rather interesting, if only because it provides context — it shows what the film could have looked like, with all manner of film artefacts (spots, flecks, scratches, and so forth), with MPEG artefacts, and with a variety of film-to-video artefacts too. Oh, and let's not forget the crackle and pop on the soundtrack, either! I believe this version is still available, but there has been a special edition released in Region 2 since then. It is supposed to feature a re-mastered feature, one audio commentary (from Ken Barnes), and a second disc with a completely different set of extras from the R1/R4. I don't have definitive information on this special edition, but it might be worth further investigation if you cannot play NTSC on your system.

    You can pick the R1 or the R4 with confidence — you're getting the same brilliant film transfer either way (in NTSC on both).

    A film that is often called the greatest film ever made, presented superbly on DVD. If nothing else, you need to see this film so you can compare others to it...

    The video quality is excellent, albeit in NTSC.

    The audio is good, for a mono soundtrack recorded in 1941.

    The extras are extensive, and interesting.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall