Awesome / Citizen Kane

The Movie

Even though it does ultimately lead to his downfall, it serves him right for wrongfully firing his closest friend.

• While Kane's father was talking about not getting enough money for the family, Kane didn't even care about what was going on. He was too busy having fun in the snow outside. Used to Be a Sweet Kid, indeed.
• "You never give me anything I really care about."
  • After spending the entire movie putting up with Kane's uncaring and forcing nature she eventually gets the last laugh on him. It's mainly a Tearjerker since Kane blew his one chance he had at love, but it's awesome for Susan who couldn't stand up to him until now.
    Kane: Don't you know that our guests, everyone here, will know about this? You've packed your bags. You've sent for the car.
    Susan: And left you? Of course they'll hear. I'm not saying goodbye, except to you, but I never imagined that people wouldn't know.
    Kane: I won't let you go.
    Susan: Goodbye Charlie.
    Kane: (pleading) Susan. Please don't go. No. Please, Susan. From now on, everything will be exactly the way you want it to be, not the way I think you want it, but - your way. You mustn't go. You can't do this to me!
    Susan: Oh. So it's you that this is being done to. I can't do this to you? Oh yes I can.
• The younger Kane gets a great one too when confronted by Thatcher over his newspaper's campaign against a transit company.
  Thatcher: Charles, I came here to see you about this campaign of yours. This Inquirer campaign against the Public Transit Company.
  Kane: Mr. Thatcher, do you know anything we can use against them?
  Thatcher: Charles, I think I should remind you of a fact you seem to have forgotten: that you yourself are one of the largest individual shareholders in the Public Transit Company!
  Kane: Trouble is, you don't realize you're talking to two people here. As Charles Foster Kane, who owns 82,364 shares of Public Transit preferred—you see, I do have a general idea of my holdings— I sympathize with you. Charles Foster Kane is a scoundrel. His paper should be run out of town. A committee should be formed to boycott him. You may, if you can form such a committee, put me down for a contribution of $1000.
  Thatcher: My time is too valuable for me-
  Kane: On the other hand, I am the publisher of The Inquirer. As such, it is my duty - I'll let you in on a little secret, it is also my pleasure - to see to it that decent, hard working people of this city are not robbed blind by a group of money-mad pirates because, God help them, they have no one to look after their interests! I'll let you in on another little secret, Mr. Thatcher. I think I'm the man to do it. You see, I have money and property. If I don't defend the interests of the underprivileged, somebody else will - maybe somebody without any money or any property, and that would be too bad.
  Thatcher: Yes, yes, yes, money and property. Well, I happened to see your financial statement today, Charles. Now tell me honestly, my boy, don't you think it's rather unwise for you to continue this philanthropic enterprise? This Inquirer - that is costing you one million dollars a year?
  Kane: You're right. We did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... sixty years.
• A moment that manages to be more powerful because it occurs off screen: early on, as a young, idealistic publisher, Kane runs a front page article revealing his "Declaration of Principles." Jed Leland asks to keep the handwritten original declaration, saying he thinks "it might be important one day. A document." Fast forward thirty years: Kane is now thoroughly corrupt and in love with his own power. After his wife's disastrous opening night, Leland sticks to his principles and writes a blistering - and honest - review. Kane fires Leland, then tries to mollify him by giving him a $25,000 check (about $300,000 in 2014) as severance. Leland tears up the check and mails it back to Kane, along with the old Declaration of Principles. Not a word inside, nor is one needed. It's a strong contender for the most forceful, and classiest, "screw you" in the history of cinema.
• A minor example, but there's a brief shot after Kane and Susan's break up with an infinity mirror lineup that was pure brilliance.

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