Citizen Kane

[Cassie]

Techguy,

thanks for the tip on what Rosebud meant to Hearst. I hadn’t realized. I am sure if Randolph was alive today he would agree with me. That Rosebud stands for making a person feel “warm and fuzzy”.........but….I don’t think that is what Wells was trying to imply by bringing Rosebud to the big movie screen….just a gut feeling. I knew that Wells did not care for Hearst. Now I need to learn why.

Techguy said:

Even after viewing "Citizen Kane" for the umpteenth time this past weekend, those final shots still get to me and provoke more questions about what is really going on in the mind and heart of Kane as he gives up his last breath on his death bed.

hmmmm, now you really got me wondering. At first glance I would think that him saying Rosebud on his deathbed, that he is at peace with himself. "warm and fuzzy" Now I am not too sure at all what Wells is trying to imply. I will have to rewatch the movie again

thanks

[LOCIfan]

I agree that in the end, we know what Rosebud is, but are left with only speculation as to what Rosebud meant to Kane. And I think that's what Welles was getting at -- the difficulty, perhaps impossibility, of ever truly knowing another human being...

[Cassie]

.....or even ourselves.


While searching for the issues between Wells and Hearst I came across this short essay, where it states:
www.essaydepot.com/essayme/1129/index.php

“ Kane's dying word and the name of his childhood sled, "Rosebud," (Citizen Kane) was the name of a town twenty miles east of where Hearst's parents were born and grew up”
Just another way/word, that Wells used to cross reference Hearst to Kane. When you think about it, back in the days of Hearst parents, Rosebud, could have been the closet town to where they lived.

I am not sure why Wells would have issues with Hearst. In 1941 when the movie was made, Wells was 24, and Hearst 76. I don’t think the two men would have a whole lot in common. They were at different stages of their lives. Sure, there are a lot of similarities to the life of Kane and Hearst. Hearst tried everything to prevent the movie from being seen. From what I have read, it was to protect his Marion. Whom he deeply loved. As for Wells, the movie might be considered the greatest movie ever made, but he lost a lot of money. Also Wells, unintentionally brought the issue of the moviemakers responsibility. He misused his power. For many of us, like myself, I will always think of Hearst as Kane. And if you look a little deeper. You will find a loving relationship between a man and woman, Randolph and Marion. Although they never married, lived as husband and wife for almost 35 years. When Hearst was in financial difficulty Marion sold her jewelry and help pay the way. And in 1951 when Hearst died at the age of 88 he died in her home.. 10 years after the movie was seen.



Just a little trivia, Ruth Warrick who played the 1st Mrs. Foster Kane, gave a brilliant performance as Mrs. Phoebe Tyler Wallingford, the snooty Matriarch of Pine Valley on ABC’s soap opera "All My Children" from 1970 until her death in Jan of 2005

[Metella]

I still see the first half of Kane's life as not buying friendship; but using his money as a tool to try to give his friends what he thinks they want .... even when his boyhood friend wanted to leave - he let him work in a different city & did not hound him until the friendship clashed with his love's reputation. Then he sadly let his friend go - no argument; just fired.

The collecting of stuff - though, that has to point to toward a real deep need; he needed to feel he had all he thought he wanted? Since he lost what he wanted when he was young? Gee, wouldn't it have been better for him to be beaten by his father every once in a while & still love from his father and his mother? Spare the rod, spoil the child?

[NikkiGreen]

Personal matters kept me from viewing the film all week.

I still have the rental copy and hope to see it this weekend.

[Cassie]

I have been thinking a lot what does “Rosebud” really means. I would like to believe that Rosebud is the town, close to his parents birthplace. But, I don’t know.

Anyway….

I asked my husband this morning, what does he really love about me. He gets that question a lot, and like most men, scratches his head, looking for the right answer. He said to me “ I love it when out of the blue, you call out “Daddy”. Then it dawned on me, what Rosebud really means

When I was 8 years old, my father went to work. Their was an accident. He died. He was a good man, and a lot of fun. Life changed drastically for me and my family. My mom, had to go to work, and she had to work many hours to raise 4 children on her own. She did a good job. Life though was never the same.

Rosebud is that very moment in your life when everything changes abruptly. Its that’s last moment, before you really lose your innocence. You want to hold on to those good memories

[Cassie]

I also think, he and I, might be questioning what would our life be like if that moment in time had played out differently

[Metella]

yes, that is exactly what I was trying to get at .... that last moment when you felt childhoodish safe & loved; before you know life doesn't come with a guarantee. That last time you were ...... whatever.

for me it was the end of a stay at a place we lived (we moved every 3 years or so as my dad was in the Air Force). My "rosebud" is a picture of me, my mom & dad on the tarmac on our way to the plane to leave that "home"

[Techguy]

Two of the most memorable quotes from this movie really do underscore and emphasize the mystery of "Citizen Kane" and its title character.

The first is from one of the searchers going through the warehouse of treasures left behind by Charles Foster Kane: "I don't think any word can explain a man's life,'' he says just before we get the final shots of a burning sled and the closeup of the word "Rosebud'' on it.

The second quote is from Thompson, the reporter assigned to the puzzle of Kane's dying word: "Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get, or something he lost,'' he says. "Anyway, it wouldn't have explained anything.''

When Kane utters "Rosebud" with his last breath, he is telling us in a single word what is most important to him at that moment, but the word does not explain why it is so important in his last moments of life. Kane's dying word and the final shots of the sled burning and peeling in the fire tell us what Rosebud is, but not what it means to him. Maybe matters of great importance can never be explained, they can only be felt and experienced.

My own personal Robebud moment is a photo of me taken the day I enlisted in the Army. Sometimes when I look at that picture, I wonder whatever happened to the guy looking straight at me from the photo. Other times, I wonder if that guy ever really existed. Strange what time and memory can do to one's perspective and feelings about one's subsequent experiences.

[Metella]

.... and maybe time and memory have tricked us into creating a rosebud that we can nurture and keep and turn to in times of trouble .... that there never really was a perfect time; but we want to think so to sooth us through the troubles we have now.

[Cassie]

I know I am starting to beat a dead horse
but....
I was thinking....

Techguy said:

When Kane utters "Rosebud" with his last breath, he is telling us in a single word what is most important to him at that moment, but the word does not explain why it is so important in his last moments of life. Kane's dying word and the final shots of the sled burning and peeling in the fire tell us what Rosebud is, but not what it means to him. Maybe matters of great importance can never be explained, they can only be felt and experienced.

There are only two times that Kane says the word Rosebud. The first time was after he trashed Susan’s bedroom when she left him. While walking out of the room, under his breathe he said “Rosebud”. Then on his deathbed, he said it again…"Rosebud"….and with that he took his last breathe. When he died, “out of his hand(s)” fell a snow globe to the ground and broke.

In those last scenes they were settling Kane’s estate. The sled, after all those years of being in storage, looked brand new to me. When you think about it. It was, what 10 years younger then Kane? The painted letters on that sled were not chipped off at all.. I saw a perfectly fine sled being put into a furnace. They could have sold that sled at a garage sale easily for a buck. Maybe even made 2 dollars on it just because it belong to Citizen Kane. Could the sled be representing Kane? As I watched that sled burn, I cant help but think of “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” That phrase comes from the funeral service in the Book of Common Prayer, and it is based on Genesis 3:19. which is

“By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."

All his hard work, in “collecting his fortune” would be for NOT, because he couldn’t take it with him.