The Impact Of Citizen Kane On The Film Industry

Citizen Kane is considered by many to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest film of all time, and while I find the notion of labeling one movie as “the greatest film ever made” a bit overzealous, the contributions that Citizen Kane made to the film industry and the impact that it had on the audiences in its era is remarkable. Citizen Kane a substantial influence on the audience and the film industry through its use of innovative narrative style and technical cinematic elements that may not have been widely used in classic Hollywood cinema. The narrative style of Citizen Kane challenged the traditional Hollywood narrative by developing the story through the use of flashbacks and first person voice over narration from different characters throughout the movie. Each character, from Jed Leland, Kane’s “friend”, to Susan Kane, Kane’s second wife, to Jerry Thompson, the reporter looking for the meaning behind Kane’s last words, all contribute an aspect of Mr. Kane’s life in the form of a flashback. The film utilizes the flashbacks in a nonlinear fashion; Mr. Kane’s life is not presented chronologically within the film, but is told through flashbacks that jump …show more content…
Citizen Kane’s use of narration and innovative technical elements stood out against the traditional linear narrative and commonplace technical aspects of classic Hollywood cinema, garnering positive support from movie critics and attracting large audiences, proving that the novel technical and narrative element’s used in Citizen Kane are not only innovative, but can also be successful in terms of studio profit and viewer attraction. Citizen Kane remains entrenched in cinematic history as a transformative film both in cinematic experience for the audience, and a standard of film making for the film