"Rosebud"?

[sweetheart]

I've FINALLY seen the film "citizen kane" and as there is no "films"
forum, this thread starts here in fiction writing... (as all films
were books/scripts first).

What is rosebud? Is it the rejection of all the privaledge of western
elitism? Is it saying that a common person's lot is better than that of
the borgeois? Is that the wisdom of the wise of olde, to reject
privaledge, for john kerry to give away his millions and to join the
homeless.

THe morals in citizen kane are profound. They resonate even today with
the bush cabal fitting the screen definition in the film... 1941...!!

Yet the message of the film, is not that being a rich democratic activist
is enough, but that being rich is the problem itself. That we should
all become poor and organize unions in our second jobs without healthcare.

And are we not each "citizen kane", our lives a jigsaw puzzle
of hipocrisy constructed from xanadu? Don't we each position ourselves
in a moral utopia, looking down on society with the atmosphere of
our privaledge. And on your deathbed, would you call out the name
of the tool of your innocence, your moral purity to be free without
class or partisan hackery. Yet citizen kane does, putting us all
to shame for his great heart.

[Kire]

1. classic films forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=254

[ironman202]

2. sometimes a sled is just a sled

I'd just like to note for the record, you wouldn't find this sort of erudite navel contemplation on freerepublic. I congratulate on your insight. It was a PRIVILEGE to read it.

[left hand man]

3. In Real life, Hearst used "Rosebud"

As a term describing his hollywood girlfriends "private parts" .I think it was Betty Davis, may be wrong.
That being said, your post is most eloquent,and a good take on the film.
Orwell did his best work right off the bat. Can't top it. I think of Billy Bob Thornton with "Sling blade". It's gonna be hard for him to surpass that one.

[sweetheart]

4. I'm left without emotion

The film so strikes me of every writer on DU. We are all watching our
"empire" dismantled day by day, and here in xanadu, we portray the world
as it should be... opera succeses and all. Yet the film portrays the
decline as his willing deviance from truth, as his falling in to
his avarice for a woman's company.... and i wonder, does it not portray
us similarly as willing schills for our own good company, willing to
spout the latest partisan adgenda.

Is that partisan adgenda not as muddied as that of our opposition? Are
we not, as in the film, presented with a false conundrum of our egotism
to run for office and put the bad guys in jail... only to be confronted
with multiple lessons... (and none of them bette davis's dead pussy!!)
:-)

Xanadu indeed, with a million ossified statues of the way life should
be surrounding us, do we start off with a dissonant presumption.

Should i be sad that rosebud was lost, that nobody understood a typical
democrat? Should i be postmodernist and see that it was just a bloodly
sled and get over it?

Orson wells definitely created a master work this time out.. one that
many at DU should reflect on from so many xanadus.

[Poiuyt]

5. It was Marion Davies, not Bette Davis

[ruthg]

7. I haven't seen a poiyt in years...

up for a game of 43 man squamish?

[pitohui]

12. yes, marian davis

i don't pick a nit to be a spelling nazi but in case the poster wants to google more abt her it will help to have the right spelling since the name sounded-out is very, very common

[Democrats_win]

6. One aspect is that Kane was misunderstood; he's just a regular guy.

Now bush too is misunderstood. He's NOT a regular guy. He's a manipulator, a liar and does not have a decent cell in his body.

The wicked witch's last words: I'm melting. Ohhhh What a World! What a world!

When bush is melting away, will he resemble the witch?

[abluelady]

8. You Haven't Read "Wicked" yet

Once you read that or see the play you will have to revise your words!

[Democrats_win]

9. Hmmm. You've got me curious. The other Wicked thread has me

determined to read that book soon.

[jackelope72]

10. Yes, I'll never be able to look at "The Wizard of Oz" the same way again.

One has to admire a novelist who can take an established book and so thoroughly deconstruct it and turn it completely on its ear.

[thefamethrowa]

11. Thoughts on Rosebud

I don't think that Welles meant it as socialist propaganda, but the thesis is nonetheless interesting. My impression was that the sled ("Rosebud") symbolized his soul: he loses it at a very young age, expels it when he dies, and then we see it burning up in a suspiciously hell-like furnace after he has died.

The point of the film is largely to piss in William Randolph Hearst's eye, but what I love about it is that it is an examination of someone's life in all of its contradictions, without judgment--hence the reporter's remarks at the end.

This movie, as I think you also agree, is outstanding.