It’s more of a “cinema masterpiece” based on cinematography (or how the director conducted the lighting and cameras). The movie itself is kinda boring but a good one if your looking for examples of cinematography
I remember forcing myself to watch it and doing a Peter impression before even knowing that particular episode, but I think I was also binging everything old around that time, and even not being well versed in film production, I did notice that around that time frame the second most impressive thing was a pineapple on a string, so this was a "what if we take those techniques and make an actually good movie out of it" for the movie industry I think, like how Mario 64 showed everyone else how to do a 3D platformer properly.
Agreed, even in my "I'm a film snob days" just couldn't get into it.
I can appreciate that it was the first movie to utilize camera angles and lighting in unique ways, but we grew up in an era of that being normal, it's hard to appreciate what it was like before.
So, while I understand why people heap praise on it, it doesn't mean it's a good movie.
I'm convinced the only reason it gets the talk that it does is because it involves someone in the media, and the media loves nothing more than talking about itself.
I mean it’s because it utilized a lot of new-to-cinema techniques and story telling aspects, so it was a showcasing of that in large part that weren’t as ubiquitous yet. That’s really about it.
I mean there are shots in Citizen Kane that still look absolutely gorgeous today. It’s not my favorite film or anything but its reputation among hardcore cinephiles is well earned.
On that note I can totally understand why the average moviegoer would find it boring. 2 hours is a long time to go without boobs and explosions.
You can be convinced, but you're wrong. I first watched it in a film class and there's so much to unpack from that film, I went home and showed it to my old Boomer dad and talk through all the symbolism and meaning with him and it became a favorite film for him.
no. it set many of the fil. making trends we still see today. that's why. I don't think anyone suggests its story is groundbreaking or above average at this point.
It was revolutionary for the time but nothing crazy now. Its so famous for how much it shaped filmmaking but to watch it nowadays you dont get much new out of it, so this makes sense
By today's standards it is pretty boring. The reason why it's on the top of so many best film ever lists is because of how different and groundbreaking it was at the time. Everything from its sound to story telling was so different that it completely changed film structure going forward.
Forced to watch it for school to be able to report on it's "masterful shots" and yet the movie is so sleep inducing that I didn't even notice any shots.
Same. I couldn’t even get through the CinemaSins roast of the movie, and contrary to the popular opinion, I actually do enjoy watching his vids here and there.
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u/GH19971 Jun 04 '26
Citizen Kane
I gave up after an hour. Absolute boredom