With the credits rolling across the television screen of Citzen Kane I have hearby watched the first of the American Film Institute's top 100 films. I'm woefully ignorant of the silver screen, unless of course it has the word 'Disney' attached. So I figured, with some more recent and fun fillers added to the list, I'd start at the beginning and work my way down the list! That isn't to say I've never seen any of the films but rather that I have not seen the majority of them. I am starting more or less in order but I will deviate as films present themselves to me. I am also open to films that I really should have seen in my life but I have somehow avoided.
Regardless, part of the idea of Citzen Kane is a man who controls everything, or at least wants too and how he creates lots of little projects and ways to spend his time and money in order to have that control. He even constructs a Xanadu of sorts in Florida during the film. Kane is both an everyman and a 1% to use a word unknown to the 1940s when it was created. The sole heir to the 6th largest fortune in the world, he can do as he likes, yet, in the time when the american dream began, he (with flashbacks to the 1870s) both earns everything and loses everything, outliving his own usefullness and ability.
I enjoyed it, as I suspect I will of most of the films on the list, after all, there is a reason they are considered some of the top films ever produced. As I said I am suplimenting the list somewhat with films I am curious about and never got around to seeing.
One interesting note to end on is that Charlie Kane (the main character for those as ignorant as I about these things) is said to be constantly starting projects but not finishing them. Well, as proven by the 700 or so cranes in my apartment, I'm not exactly the best example about finishing projects. Here's to hoping that this is one project I complete!
The complete list:
I hope that I can keep track of list on here as I go through it, though I promise not to spam facebook with these in between posts as it is more my personal project than anything else.
