The Arc of Kane: The Influence of Citizen Kane’s Non-Linear Structure

Critics regard Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane as not only a perfect film, but an influential one. In fact, it’s excellence grants it the title of the the most influential film in cinema history. One can attribute this achievements to its technical mastery of stunning camera work and sound design. However, the brilliant story structure that is broken up to create a non linear narrative is what really makes Citizen Kane influential. Orson Welles’s puzzle-like story structure in Citizen Kane rivals early cinema rooted in traditional linear narratives, establishing a new form of storytelling for cinema and earning its reputation as the most influential film of all time.

Before the premiere of Citizen Kane and even before the advent of sound in film, there were silent films. This popular form of entertainment thrived with audiences who saw them in theaters with films like Chaplin’s Modern Times and F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise. These films borrowed blocking techniques and dramatic elements from theatre, and the basic set-up, rising action, climax, and resolution plot structure from books. All of these components of the story were captured on the fairly new invention of the camera, contributing to the young art form of cinema. Nonetheless, the structure of these films emulated an older art form. They commonly showed a protagonist’s change from beginning to end in a linear fashion. These films lacked structural experimentation and filmmakers didn’t realize the full potential for cinema’s storytelling ability. Citizen Kane revolutionized this with it’s use of non-linear structure by manipulating traditional narratives, showing a new way of looking at storytelling.

One key event in cinema history that helped Welles manipulate these standing traditions of visual storytelling within silent cinema was the arrival of sound in film. Silent films relied on a strong visual story to convey to the audience with films like D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance that provided expositional tracking shots and dolly moves. Brilliant camera work already existed in cinema, but invention of dialogue helped cinema convey the story both audibly and visually. Welles borrowed old visual language that existed in silent cinema and used it in part with dialogue to clearly convey exposition to his audience. In Citizen Kane, the camera reveals Kane’s gigantic home of Xanadu and then shows the main character, Charles Foster Kane, on his death bed. After briefly exposing Kane through visuals, the audience hears him utter his final word, “Rosebud,” the word that audience will spend the rest of the film learning the meaning of. After showing his death scene, Welles exposes the life of Charles Foster Kane in detail through a dialogue based news reel obituary. The obituary reveals Kane to be a wealthy newspaper owner who gained a huge following of readers as well as enemies who opposed his newspaper. The audience learns the essential information about the the character so they can piece together his life in the rest of the film as it told through a non-linear structure.

The dialogue teaches the audience about the main character as they are guided through his life in a non-linear fashion and connects the audience emotionally so these scattered story points resonate with them. Citizen Kane could only function as a sound film because the audience becomes emotionally connected with the characters through dialogue. The dialogue in the scene where Kane’s wife, Emily, becomes aware of his affair with Susan Alexander shows the tension between their marriage that is now broken. Another scene with Kane’s governor campaign speech where he delivers powerful dialogue shows the dominant nature of Kane’s character that the audience will ultimately see fall. Even Kane’s final word, “Rosebud,” that the investigators in the film are determined to discover the meaning behind is uttered to the audience. This invests the audience with Kane in his final moments of his life that they will learn more about throughout the film. Having this dialogue in the story resonates with the audience emotionally so they can clearly connect the scattered dots of Charles Foster Kane’s life events.

Welles’s Citizen Kane navigates through the narrative with a jigsaw puzzle-like structure. The end of Kane’s story when he dies is shown in the beginning of the film. However, the audience can still comprehend the disjointed narrative because the story points move deeper and deeper into Kane’s life despite the order that they are presented in. After the news reel introduces Kane’s life on the surface, the scene that follows illustrates that the news reporters are determined to find the meaning behind his last word “Rosebud.” We follow reporters until the end of the film as Welles exposes the audience to the scenes of Charles Foster Kane’s life through the accounts of other characters. Kane’s second wife, Susan Alexander, reveals his troubled childhood where he is adopted from his parents by Walter Thatcher. Kane’s newspaper partner, Mr. Bernstein, explains Kane’s rise to power starting from him as a young newspaper owner, to him buying out the most powerful newspaper company, making him a mogul and dominating the print news industry. Kane’s colleague, Jedediah Leland, recalls how Kane’s first marriage falls apart when his wife Emily catches Kane and Susan Alexander together, which later results in a political scandal that destroys Kane’s governor campaign. Finally, Kane’s butler, Raymond reveals his ultimate downfall when Susan Alexander leaves him in his gigantic house Xanadu. After she is gone, Kane becomes violent with anger and destroys his bedroom. Welles depicts Kane’s lowest point in the story to the audience that spent the entire film watching him grow. When the film cuts back to the other characters who take the audience through Kane’s life, the narrative of his life story is broken up. However, each scene deepens Kane’s character and the audience can still comprehend the disjointed story of Kane’s rise to power and ultimate downfall as Welles navigates through Kane’s life in a non-linear fashion.

Though many films of today still follow a linear progression of story structure, Citizen Kane opened up the door for contemporary cinema to experiment with non-linear story structure. Citizen Kane’s ability to disjoint the structure of a narrative allowed contemporary films to emulate this nonlinear approach and experiment with story progression. Films like Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump show the protagonist, Forest Gump, at the end of his journey of finding his true love Jenny. As he sits at a bus stop waiting to catch a ride to her apartment, he recounts his life to strangers waiting with him for a bus. Gump illustrates how he met Jenny, how he thought of her through his service in Vietnam, his ping pong tour in China, and even in his success in the shrimping business. The film resolves with Gump at the bus stop just as it was in the beginning of film. He leaves the bus stop and runs to Jenny’s apartment instead, reuniting with her once again. Like Citizen Kane, Forrest Gump’s narrative develops throughout the progression of the story even though the structure is disjointed when the protagonist reveals events of his past. This nonlinear approach that Citizen Kane follows influences contemporary films who experimented with the puzzle-like progression of a nonlinear narrative.

Citizen Kane’s reputation of being the most influential film of all time is associated with how revolutionary it was to cinema history. Though its technical mastery contributes to the films excellency, the nonlinear narrative structure is its most influential aspect because the puzzle-like approach to its story structure completely changed silent cinema’s form of linear storytelling. This innovation in narrative structure influenced contemporary cinema and allowed filmmakers to experiment with the progression in which stories are told. The puzzle-like story structure of Citizen Kane that contended with early cinema’s traditional linear narratives caused a breakthrough in how a film is structured, which is why Orson Welles’ masterpiece will remain the most influential film in cinema history.