By: Tom Johnson

Tom Johnson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:48:48 +0000

I can understand how someone who enjoys watching Big Trouble In Little China would not be able to sit through Citizen Kane, but to call it “Overrated” is nearly blasphemous. And no, it wasn’t the technology that made the movie ahead of it’s time; they used the same cameras and film that everyone else had (Mitchell BNC 35 MM). That is, in 1941 Orson Welles got RKO to give him a nominal amount of money to make a film no one thought would be a sell; were it to be “technologically advanced” it would have been shot in technicolor like The Wizard of Oz two years before it.
What made the money such a phenomenal success both artistically and financially was the TECHNIQUE. Prior to Citizen Kane, the biggest names in the production of a given film were just that: the producers – generated the story, they hired the crew, they paid for production, and that’s why prior to Rebecca in 1940 no director had ever received final credit during the opening titles (the final credit previous to Hitchcock’s Rebecca had always been given to the producers, as they were more important at the time than the directors). So with Kane, never before had a major release seen it’s entire handling by one man, Orson Welles, in the capacities of executive producer, director, and lead actor; even Alfred Hitchcock couldn’t get David O. Selznick to give him producing credits.
With that freedom of artistry he created the landmark American film, using shots, focuses, character developments, and plot devices in a way no audience had ever before seen. It is rife with one of the richest character developments (from pauper to manic prince) SEEN ONLY THROUGH THE EYES AND EARS OF WITNESSES TO HIS LIFE, yet the audience can still fully envelop themselves with Welles’ emotions and being.
And that’s why, having seen a man grow so powerfully corrupt that he alienated his friends and family, we gasp to learn that even was capable of knowing the frailty of his existence: the only true thing he ever loved that loved him back was his childhood sled.
Overrated? Must be because people these days have a hard time watching black and white movies. That’s not the film’s fault. It’s ours.
But if you like Big Trouble, here’s a few more for your taste:
Fandango (1985)
Maximum Overdrive (1986)
Little Shop of Horrors (1986)
Re-animator (1986)
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Hercules (1983) <- Lou Ferrigno throws a bear into outer space. Yeah. That happened.

Comments on: OVERRATED/UNDERRATED- Movies

By: Tom Johnson