I don't like Citizen Kane

[Generic Skinhead]

Birth of a nation is one of the most racist films of all time...DW Griffith was a 19th Century man playing with a 20th Century artform...Fight Club is very good though...

[eddie]

I thought citizen Kane was great, that zither, those shadows, the corruption, the sewers, the dutch tilting, the mysterious man, the creepy kid.
Mind you I watched Tomb Raider last night and I liked that too. No accounting for taste then is there.

[Chance1234]

I dont like Beetroot.

Question, Citizen Caine first incarnation of Motion Control ?


Chance

[miker]

the side that wins writes the history

[ilpostino]

eddie aren't you thinking of The Third Man?

[eddie]

oops, yes I think I am.....damn Im such a cool know it all.....

[Generic Skinhead]

"another stupid American film critic teacher"...so insulting shirt. I am a 19-year old film student from Ireland as my profile surely suggests. (sigh)

Having studied the film I find your comments mystifying to say the least. It is based on a rather poor play "The Clansman." Upon the films release the black audience left the cinema in tears. The film became the greatest bit of Ku Klux Clan propaganda of it's time...Birth of a Nation is a fine technical achievement, but it is in NO WAY an artistic accomplishment. So go back to school shirt and stop wasting my time.

[This message has been edited by Generic Skinhead (edited August 03, 2001).]

[SmokescreenProdsGirl]

Hey everyone, first of all I'd like to say thanks to shirt for not harrassing me. :-) Also, I would like to clarify the one thing that ruined Citizen Kane for me...the story dragged. I would have rather seen more of the reporter, and less of Kane, but as a first attempt I give it a standing ovation and shoot down Hearst for ruining a genius's career. I also would like to say that not ONE of you defended the pace of the film, or the story structure, you either talked about visuals (which I commend), or that it had "great ideas." Now that I've said that, I must ask many of you why you assume that I have bad taste just because I didn't really enjoy Citizen Kane. I absolutely love The Matrix, When Harry Met Sally, the Scream trilogy, and Pretty Woman. Other movies I love: The Silence of the Lambs (all time favorite), Gone with the Wind, Casablanca, Some Like it Hot, Beauty and the Beast, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Psycho, Dial M for Murder (anything Hitchcock really), The Graduate, Pulp Fiction, Go (if you haven't seen it, you must, but first you see Pulp Fiction bc it is better), Fargo, American Beauty...I could sit here all day. The point is I'm not an ignorant, idiotic, American teenager with no taste just because I don't like Citizen Kane. And, Thousanth, I really don't appreciate you insinuating that I am not capable of paying attention to a film, or that it is a new concept to me. Not all teenagers have attention spans *gasp* for only five minutes of intellectually stimulating activity. (though most people I know do, so I can see where you get that <wink>) I don't intend to sound mean or condescending, just trying to defend myself.
~Paige

[Generic Skinhead]

Listen to the girl, watch "Go"...quite a diverse selection, I presume you accidentally forgot Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club and Toy Story? I mean surely?

[ulrichsd]

Shirt brings up an interesting question...
Quote:
>If that film is racist, then does that mean EVERY war film is?

A war film is racist when it depcits one culture/people as being totally evil and another as being completely good. As this is never the case. So a war movie like "Apocalypse Now" I would NOT consider racist, because it depicts people of different cultures as actual people and not of a stereotyped group.

However, Birth of a Nation is just propaganda, falsely depicting the African American race as a inferior, unintelligent, evil group of people. The KKK still uses this film today as material for their cause. The film glorifies lynching of a black man, and in my opinion is propaganda, not art.

Noone can dispute that Griffith advanced film a great deal technically with his creative use of camera angles, shots, effects, etc perhaps more than any other filmmaker, but the subject matter of the film itself is not artistic.

I did a report in college on film and its effect on history and researched and analyzed Birth of a Nation, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Dr. Strangelove. Fun project.

Just my opinion,
Scott