What is Citizen Kane summary?

When a reporter is assigned to decipher newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane’s (Orson Welles) dying words, his investigation gradually reveals the fascinating portrait of a complex man who rose from obscurity to staggering heights. Though Kane’s friend and colleague Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten), and his mistress, Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore), shed fragments of light on Kane’s life, the reporter fears he may never penetrate the mystery of the elusive man’s final word, “Rosebud.”
Citizen Kane/Film synopsis

Why was Citizen Kane so controversial?

It was said Hearst was particularly angry over the movie’s depiction of a character based on his companion, Marion Davies, a former showgirl whom he had helped become a popular Hollywood actress.

Why is Citizen Kane considered so good?

For many critics and film fans, Citizen Kane can lay claim to the title of the greatest movie ever made precisely because, even if only in the form of in-camera effects and a wealthy, lonely anti-villain, Welles’ movie even influenced the direction of Rotten Tomatoes’ highest-rated movie, 2017’s Paddington 2.

What is the meaning behind Rosebud in Citizen Kane?

“Rosebud is the trade name of a cheap little sled on which Kane was playing on the day he was taken away from his home and his mother. In his subconscious it represented the simplicity, the comfort, above all the lack of responsibility in his home, and also it stood for his mother’s love, which Kane never lost.”

Why was Citizen Kane taken from his mother?

At the end of the film, it is revealed that “Rosebud” is the name of the sled Charles Kane was playing with as a boy on that day that his mother told him she would be sending him away. While she believed she was acting in his best interest, Charles’ mother denied him a normal childhood and parental love.

Did anyone hear Kane say Rosebud?

Kane was raised without a family. He was snatched from his mother’s arms in early childhood. None had ever heard of “Rosebud.” Actually, as it turns out, “Rosebud” is the trade name of a cheap little sled on which Kane was playing on the day he was taken away from his home and his mother.

What is the moral of Citizen Kane?

Kane has the plutocrat’s obsession with trying to control those around him in the way that he controls his media empire, whose purpose in turn is to control the way people think. And this is the final unspoken moral of Citizen Kane: a terrible tragedy of ownership and egotism – a narcissistic drowning.

What is Rosebud slang for?

(vulgar, slang) The anus.

What drops from Kane’s hand when he dies?

What does Kane drop as he dies? As Kane dies, he drops a snow globe, which shatters on the floor.

Why does Kane fire Leland?

Over time, Kane’s questionable morals and paternalistic attitude disturb Leland to such an extent that Leland eventually requests a transfer to Chicago to escape Kane. Kane ultimately fires him for writing a negative review of Susan Alexander’s disastrous operatic debut.

What were Citizen Kane’s last words?

Kane’s last word, we learn, was “Rosebud”.