The movie opens with a series of transitioning scenes of a tall, dark tower on a cloudy night. As each scene inches the viewer closer and closer to a certain room of the tower, the audience passes by many different abandoned-looking objects, such as some boats on a lake, a cage of monkeys, and a wooden crate next to a park bench. One is really given the sense that they are delving deep into the unknown. Once the room is finally reached, we see a man, apparently on his deathbed, clutching a snow globe. In a frenzy of excitement, the man utters the word "rosebud," and dies. The snow globe falls from his hand onto the floor where it shatters.
Following the opening scene is an enthusiastic, high energy film clip of an obituary on News on the March. The old black and white video tells of about a man who recently died named Charles Foster Kane. (At this point, it is assumed that Kane is the man who died in the previous scene.) Kane became a wealthy man when he inherited an old mine shaft from his mother in which gold was discovered. With this money, we learn that Kane built an enormous pleasure-ground called Xanadu, which was constructed on a man-made mountain and is the world’s largest private zoo in history. Besides the pyramids, Xanadu is the most expensive monument ever built for personal use. As a young man, Kane was interested in newspapers, and started running the daily New York Inquirer. As his newspaper gained popularity, Kane gained more personal, economic, and political power. He eventually became the most powerful man in the country, if not the world. He was married twice, and divorced twice. He was a politician, both loved and hated equally. Kane experienced a major downfall, however. His political career ground to a halt when he was caught cheating on his first wife with the woman who was to become his second wife. His newspaper eventually floundered. His relationship with his second wife was fruitless. In the end, Kane was left abandoned in his palace at Xanadu alone to die. He was no longer in the public eye and he no longer had any influence in the nation.
Suddenly, the camera looks away from the film to show a group of men all watching the clip. The man who seems to be in charge of the group states that what the film is lacking is any insight on who Charles Foster Kane really was. He asks the group if they remember what Kane’s last words were. One of them answers “rosebud.” From there the man who is in charge suggests that the group find out the significance of his last word in order to find out more about Kane as an individual. Mr. Thompson, one of the news reporters, takes on the task of interviewing several of the people who were close to Kane when he was alive. The movie now follows a series of flashbacks of Kane's life.
First, Mr. Thompson travels to Atlantic City, where he wishes to speak with Kane’s second ex-wife, Susan Alexander Kane, a former singer, and current owner of a night club. Susan is shown sitting at a table in her empty club in the middle of the night, sad, lonely, and drinking. Mr. Thompson has no luck talking to her, as he is informed by the waiters, she never talks to anyone since Kane’s death. He does learn however, that Susan had never heard of the word "rosebud.” Mr. Thompson leaves the club.
Next, Mr. Thompson visits the Thatcher Memorial Library in Philadelphia, where he gets permission to look through Mr. Thatcher’s personal diary regarding Mr. Kane. Mr. Thatcher was a banker who became Kane’s guardian when he was a boy. Mr. Thompson can find no reference to the word “rosebud,” but he does learn quite a bit about Kane’s childhood. A flashback begins where we see a scene of Charles Kane as a boy, living with his mother and father at his mother’s boarding house. In this scene, Mrs. Kane sends Charles away to live with Mr. Thatcher so that he can receive an education. When Charles finds out he is leaving and his parents are not coming, he hits Mr. Thatcher with anger in the stomach using a sled he had been playing with in the snow. Later in time, we see Mr. Thatcher as an older man explaining to Kane that his 25th birthday is approaching and he will become independent from Thatcher. Further, he will receive the world’s sixth largest inheritance (that is the mine shaft inherited from his mother where gold was discovered). Kane states that he is not interested in gold mines, oil fields, or real estate. As a career, he wishes to run a newspaper.
Kane runs the New York Inquirer by creating eye-catching headlines that are not based on fact. He is extraordinarily successful selling the papers. The goal he states and publishes in his Declaration of Principles is to look out for the interest of the poor, and underprivileged, while providing entertaining and honest news. In this way, it is clear that Kane is a considerate and thoughtful man. We also learn in this scene that he never invests any of his fortune. Rather, he spends and loses money year after year without earning. This is ironic, given his tendency towards expensive things, such as building Xanadu. Kane even admits at one point that had he not been rich, he could have been a great man. In this statement, he is stating that he believes that wealth spoils great men and great men are not made by wealth.
Following, Mr. Thompson interviews Mr. Bernstein, Kane’s old general manager. Mr. Bernstein also has no real knowledge of the word “rosebud.” He tells Mr. Thompson that Kane never wanted money. He says that both he and Mr. Thatcher had trouble understanding Kane at times. Charles Kane was charismatic, intelligent, successful, a leader, and an entrepreneur. He did things in ways that they had never been done before. He was unique, and individual; everyone looked at him in awe.
Next, Mr. Thompson visits Mr. Leland, an old friend of Kane’s. Mr. Leland provides the deepest insight into Kane's personal life than any other character interviewed. Mr. Leland did not particularly care for Kane, but he did respect him. He believed that Kane had no other beliefs or convictions about anything but himself, and what he represented. In a way, he was an empty shell with only a tremendous amount of energy, personality, and wealth as an exterior. He was always trying to prove something or another, even if he was bound to lose. He was a private man, or at least did not share any of his inner being with anyone else, not even his wives or friends. His marriage to his first wife, Emily, began deteriorating when Kane started spending more and more time at his office and stopped participating in the marriage. Mr. Leland continues, saying that Kane did everything out of a desire for love. He wanted everyone, the entire nation to love him. Yet he had no love to give back, and that is how Charles Foster Kane lost everything.
Afterwards, Kane met Susan Alexander, a silly young woman whom he later married. It was around this time that his wife found out about his affair with Miss Alexander. A certain Mr. Getty, a political rival of Kane, knew of the affair and threatened to have it published in the newspaper unless Kane agreed to “disappear for a year or two” during the impending election for governor between Kane and Mr. Getty. He refused, and the story was printed in the paper. Kane lost the election to Mr. Getty, and the incident marked the end of his political career.
Finally, Mr. Thompson revisits Susan Alexander Kane, and she speaks to him. Susan sang as a young lady, and her goal was to be an opera singer. Though she lacked the talent and ability, Kane used his wealth and power to further her career by providing opportunities for her to sing in public and even building her an opera house. Susan lost interest in singing opera and wished to stop, as she was continually embarrassing herself. Kane would not agree however, and persisted in pushing her dead-end career onwards. As Mr. Leland said earlier, Kane was always trying to prove something. That was exactly the reason he pressured Susan into singing. Susan left Charles at their home in Xanadu. She felt that her husband only ever acted for himself and did not care about her. He never gave her anything meaningful, or demonstrated that she was important to him separate from himself and his own interests. He did not really love her. In a fit of anger after Susan left, Kane tore apart her room. He came upon the snow globe that appeared earlier in the film, held it in his hand, and muttered “rosebud.”
At this point, the story returns to present time when Mr. Thompson visits Xanadu after interviews. Confused and disappointed that he never found what Kane's last words meant, he tells the group of newspaper reporters that he doubts “rosebud” had much meaning to Kane’s life. He suggests that “rosebud” may be something that Kane lost; after all, Kane lost everything he had.
Towards the end, the audience witnesses thousands of Kane’s belongings in Xanadu being carelessly tossed into a fire to be disposed of. The viewer tragically realizes that all of Kane’s attempts to earn love and respect were futile. A connection can be drawn here to the beginning of the movie when the viewer passes by all of the broken-down remains of Kane’s estate. We come to understand that it is necessary to get past all of the “things” that acted as barrier between Kane's inner and outer worlds. In this sense, what Kane’s possessions did was guard him from intimate engagement with others. He never opened himself up to anyone. Instead, he surrounded himself with objects, opinions, words, and personality so that nobody could know him on a personal level. It could be argued that perhaps that was what he wanted. Ultimately, it was his obsession with maintaining a persona that lead to Kane’s downfall. This is also the reason that the audience cannot connect with, relate to, or know Kane on a deeper level.
On the whole, the essence of Charles Foster Kane remains in the dark. Though so much information is gathered by both Mr. Thompson and by the audience, we will never know what drove him to do the things he did. He had little success in his relationships. His career was fraudulent, and in the long term, unprofitable. He spent lavishly and built an entire miniature world with his money that never won him the love, companionship, respect, or satisfaction he sought. (In the words of Mr. Leland, "He [Kane] was disappointed with the world, so he built one of his own.") And despite all of what is known about him, his personal feelings were never expressed, nor his beliefs or intentions revealed. He was an oxymoron: High class, but with an eye for the common man. Extremely rich, and generous. Seemingly happy, though not fulfilled. Lonely, yet surrounded by people. Abandoned, while served hand and foot.
Finally, we are shown a familiar sled with the word "rosebud" painted on it from Kane's childhood burning in the fire. The movie promptly ends. At last the connection is made. This can be seen as Kane's sorrow over the loss of his childhood. Rosebud was the sled that Kane used to push Mr. Thatcher away when they met each other. Mr. Thatcher represents the undesirable adulthood that Kane was destined to lead after being separated from his youth with his mother and father. Rosebud represents the happy, hopeful early years of Kane's life. The action demonstrates the young Charles' resisting the intrusion of adulthood.
Rosebud also represents the obscurity of a person's internal world. Thus, Mr. Thompson's inability to determine the meaning of "rosebud" portrays his inability to understand Kane personally.
For that matter, can we ever really know a person? We can watch them, we can see their actions, we can admire them, we can live with them, we can even love them, but that is it. His life cannot be summed up in a word or two. He was, like everyone else, unpredictable and complex.
Citizen Kane is a triumph of the film industry. It beautifully shows the struggles and complexities of humankind. Kane was a particularly enigmatic man. He may or may not have loved. He may or may not have been loved. We do not know what motivated him to act or how he felt about his own actions. However, there is one thing that we can see: We recognize his sadness and loss, and we can sympathize with it because it is an experience common to all people. But beyond common sympathy, as Citizen Kane demonstrates, truly understanding another human being makes about as much sense as "rosebud."
