Kinitawowi said:
I feel like I really need to have seen Citizen Kane to get the most out of this comparison, but in the meantime I think this is pretty much obligatory...
Until then... I hadn't seen that old EA advert, but...
damn.
You should also watch it to get the most out of that Gif... Kane is
not clapping because he's just seen a virtuoso performance! (Even so, that's probably my favorite Gif ever, so thanks for posting it.)
But yes, you should watch
Citizen Kane as it's an excellent movie and a piece of art history. As an added bonus, it also still holds up in front of a modern audience and I'd argue - apart from Star Wars - it's one of the few films that deals with broad, universal themes while still remaining extremely clever and quotable. The script really, really is a gem.
Azahul said:
Funny coincidence, I finally got around to actually watching this movie last week. And... wow. That was a staggeringly well-made comparison.
Thank you. I've actually been working on this post for several weeks and re-watched the movie before writing this, but I was on an Air India flight last week and what was one of the movies they offered?
Citizen Kane. Again, universally applicable themes - you're doing it right.
In fact, the movie's universal themes are what allowed me to write this article - I mean you could just as easily turn the comparison around and say that Citizen Kane mirrors the worst aspects of
game journalism. ("If the headline's big enough, the news is big enough!)
Johnny Novgorod said:
The reason Citizen Kane is lauded the way it is, is because it changed the way movies are shot, framed and composed. It's of historical significance. A game-changer. It doesn't matter if the movie's good, bad, entertaining or not by modern day standards. The fact remains there are too many ways of making a video game for there to be "a Citizen Kane of videogames", whereas movies made this side of Citizen Kane (and Birth of a Nation before it) share the same grammar.
Except the magic of it is that the movie really does still work for a modern audience due to incredible writing and powerful performances, though there are some things about the melodrama acting style that modern viewers won't totally "get" - though they should if they've ever seen a Tarantino movie, since his actors tend to go to that same I'm-an-icon-not-a-person territory. But yeah, what you're saying is exactly right,
Kane innovated in so many corners it's hard to separate it from that legacy. It even breaks boundaries most viewers wouldn't notice - for example, I have sound designer friends that could go on for an hour about all the cool things Welles (who'd worked primarily in radio dramas) did that had never been part of filmmaking before.
And yes, I agree that the entire "Kane of Videogames" thing is silly.