Directed by Orson Welles (played by Tom Burke in Mank), Citizen Kane tells the story of Charles Foster Kane (played by Welles), a media mogul who dies with the final word “rosebud.” Told by a series of innovative non-chronological flashbacks, the film sees its cast trying to understand exactly what those final words meant.
Though it only won one Oscar in 1942—for best screenplay, leading to a debate ever since of who exactly wrote Citizen Kane—the movie has loomed large over Hollywood history ever since.
Every decade since 1952, for example, the British film magazine Sight & Sound has asked film critics internationally to vote for the greatest film ever made. Kane held the top spot in these polls for 50 years from 1962 (when it took the top spot from Bicycle Thieves) and 2012 (when it lost it to Hitchcock’s Vertigo). The They Shoot Pictures Don’t They 1,000 list, which collates over 11,000 best-of lists, meanwhile, also has Citizen Kane at number one.
How to watch Citizen Kane online
Though Mank is currently streaming on Netflix, the movie that inspired it has a different streaming home.
There are currently two streaming services currently offering the iconic movie in the U.S.: HBO Max and Turner Classic Movies. The former offers a seven-day free trial, which allows viewers to watch Citizen Kane online for free for a week, after which time the service costs $14.99. Cable subscribers, meanwhile, can log in with their TV provider details on TCM to watch the movie.
Citizen Kane is also available to purchase and buy from Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu, Microsoft and DirecTV.
Legendary director Martin Scorsese, meanwhile, credited the movie for making him want to make films. He said of the movie in an American Film Institute interview, “when I really discovered what a director does was when I saw Citizen Kane on television for the first time.”
Mank is streaming now on Netflix.
