Sightlines · reception
How Citizen Kane was received
1941 · Orson Welles · Citizen Kane on Sightlines
The arc
A box-office disappointment in 1941 — William Randolph Hearst's papers refused to advertise it and pressured theaters — it was rediscovered after the war (championed by French critics and a 1950s re-release) and topped the Sight & Sound greatest-films poll every decade from 1962 to 2002.
What’s debated
The eternal fight: is it genuinely the greatest film ever made, or the ultimate 'homework movie' whose reputation now works against anyone watching it fresh?
Its footprint
'Rosebud' is one of the most famous words in movie history, parodied everywhere from The Simpsons to Peanuts — and Kane's slow, defiant solo clap lives on as one of the internet's most-used reaction GIFs.
Where it stands
The default answer to 'greatest film of all time' for over half a century — less a movie than the benchmark other movies get measured against, until Vertigo finally dethroned it in the 2012 Sight & Sound poll.
Did you know? Welles was just 25, directing his first feature, and RKO gave him a near-unheard-of contract with final cut — yet the film won only one Oscar (Original Screenplay, shared with Herman J. Mankiewicz) and lost Best Picture to How Green Was My Valley.
Named by the director
- Stagecoach (1939) — Welles said he screened Ford's Stagecoach dozens of times as his 'textbook' while preparing to direct Kane.
- John Ford — Asked which directors he'd learned from, Welles famously answered 'the old masters — by which I mean John Ford, John Ford and John Ford.'