Rosebud

After viewing the revolutionary film entitled "Citizen Kane" by Orson Welles, I realized that a lot of the things that I admire and consider to be pretty normal or mediocre in the contemporary field of cinematography and photography are deeply rooted in this film. So a lot of firsts in the film and photo industry actually took place within the conception of this film and hence, the tremendous influence among other film makers.

The setting, the characters, the cinematography, it all falls into place pretty well. I don't consider myself to be a die-hard fan of old films, but man, this film is just remarkable.

There are some desirable traits that I see within the character of Charles Foster Kane and I consider these traits as strengths. The strong build up of Mr. Kane's character emphasizes a man who is made up of discipline, responsibility, power and at the same time, he is also a man who longs for attention and love. Being an independent, self-made person who's always pushing the pace, building and burning bridges whenever necessary with the people surrounding him, I can see a clear picture of a man with a heart of a Lion.

Albeit his head is always held up high, not afraid to step forward into the great abyss of life, he is still leveled out with his ability to look back in to the past with a patched out heart who is always longing for affection from the realm outside of his own. There's this broken man that lies underneath the tough exterior. It takes a lot of courage to pull these things off one head a time, and for that, I admire him.

With all of the flowery words that I've mentioned above, I am not totally endeared with the entirety of Mr.Kane's character. Through the look in his face and  through the glare in his eyes, I see a man filled with rage and discontent manifest as the film unfolds. His pure and good intentions overlap with one another and results to something that is not quite desirable.

It isn't really a rare occasion that we see these kinds of things happen from time to time, especially in our modern period. I think that the world of politics is an example that stands out for this kind of situation. A lot of politicians started out carrying little pouches of hope and big body bags filled with plans for improving the welfare of the whole country, but eventually, they failed to deliver. They all get consumed and get pretty well spent along the treacherous road to success. With the fault lines of selfishness getting wider and the detours of corruption seemingly overwhelming them along the way, they get stuck with their unhealthy habits of tricking people out on what they truly deserve.

At times we succumb and make believe that we can buy happiness with the money we have, with the expensive earthly possessions we see lying within arms length away, that we can dictate the lives of other people with the thrust and the power we are granted into our pedestals, but the truth is, we all long for something simple, for something immaterial, we all long for genuine happiness. All we really want is a pair of interesting ears ready to listen to whatever we have to say and a set of open arms always there for us through the hard times. We may have differing interests with one another and sometimes it even leads us to burn bridges, even with our loved ones, but we all carry on with the weight of the world up on our shoulders and the prize of a heavy heart is cursed upon us with our good intentions. 

The experiences we surpass, the struggles that we overcome, that defines our existence. We are sometimes obliged to turn a blind eye for the past. We all have to move on.