Citizen Kane Movie Review

Citizen Kane was an extravagant movie to watch. This film is mainly based on flashbacks from several people who worked with Charles Foster Kane. It’s a classical film that is made for great discussions and we the readers are put to the test to use inferences throughout the film. One question remains: why did the director make the movie the way he did?

We are given the view of Jerry Thompson questioning people due to the death of Mr. Charles Foster Kane. Now, he said one particular quote, “Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn’t get, or something he lost. Anyway, it wouldn’t have explained anything… I don’t think any word can explain a man’s life. I guess Rosebud is just a… piece in a jigsaw puzzle… a missing piece.” This quotation can be broken down into 3 different sections: “Words can’t describe a man’s life,” “Rosebud is just a missing piece,” and “he got everything and then lost it,”.

“Rosebud is just a missing piece”, is an interesting statement. We are wondering who and or what is Rosebud. At first, some may think it’s an important person in his life, or maybe the snow-globe. But, what if it’s something different? What if it was a crucial part in his life? Like he was searching for something, or maybe because something didn’t feel quite right. We learn that his mom planned to separate him from the house. It’s possible ‘Rosebud’ was left behind at his mother’s house.

Then there’s the second part of the quote: “I don’t think any word can describe a man’s life.” We can use this part because there are several words that can describe PART of a guy’s life. One word would be anger. We can infer that anger is one word because his mother decided to sepaate him from his house. It can be heart breaking because they have to say goodbye to the house they grew up in and leave their childhood toys. Then there is grief as he lost his first wife and son in a car wreck. He lost two people he loved and cherished and they were ripped from his heart. Next comes desperation. It can be seen that he that he got married just two weeks after Emily’s death. It is a side of desperation to continue to search for whomever or whatever Rosebud is. Apparently, it wasn’t Emily or his son. Susan plays and interesting part for at the end of the movie, we see her working on a jigsaw puzzle. She has to look through every single piece just to find one to complete the puzzle.

Then we hit the biggest part of the quote, “He got everything and then lost it”. We know that his mom owned a gold mine. But, then she plans to make him leave his house. Later on, he gets married to Emily for 16 years and has a child later on. But little do we know, he will face yet another tragedy. He loses his wife and son in a car wreck. These can be tied together as it explains that he lost his childhood. He lost his son’s childhood as well as his own… At the very end, we find a children’s sled being tossed into the fire put. As it slowly burns, we see the word “Rosebud” come across the middle of the sled. That’s when we find out our mystery, or as Thompson called it, “The missing piece in a jigsaw puzzle”. The single sled itself, represents Charles Foster Kane’s childhood and happiness.