Citizen Kane

I seem to always relate back to Sociology when I see anything remotley related to class struggle. So I may have been watching Citizen Kane with the wrong ideas but hey ho! Here is what I took from it.

Kane started out trying to protect the interests of the underclass, using his power to bring the real news to the people even though he was loosing money. He came across as very modest, and not wanting special treatment (the scene in the news room when he asks them all to sit). He genuinley wanted to tell the news honestly.

It seemed however that the richer he became, buying "someone who collects diamonds" and marrying the President's niece, made him loose site of what he started out to achieve. "People will think what I tell them to think". It made me think about Marxism, and the Bourgeoise pretending to have the interests of the Proleteriat at heart but actually just mystifying issues and creating an aura of false class conciousness.

I may not have been taking what I should from the film, but with regard to Freudianism, the only ideas that seem to stand out to me were the fact that he went to work and his first wife stayed at home, (this seemed like a huge issue as there like 6 cuts to them eating dinner everynight and her questioning why he is always at the paper) and also the fact that he forced his second wife into a career she no longer enjoyed because HE had payed for it. I think this relates to the whole idea that woman are lesser men and an inferior sex etc....stupid ideas.

I suppose the film was meant to portray how power can bring your eventual downfall, and it was an okay watch, but I do not see how it could have ever been hailed as the greatest film of our time. I had a lot of interest in comparing Kane to Branson and Murdoch though.