The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: Citizen Kane

written by Herman J. Mankiewicz and Orson Welles

Citizen Kane is widely considered to be the best American movie ever made. Far ahead of its time in non-linear story-telling techniques and cinematagraphy effects, today it is a reminder of how even daring innovation of its time still honors the 3-act paradigm. The classic foundation -- beginning, middle, end story-telling -- is firmly in place in this masterpiece.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (0-2 min.)
    • A "No Trespassing" sign immediately grabs our attention. We enter an incredible mansion, a palace, where the lips of a man say his dying words, "Rosebud..."
  2. Complication (5-13 min.)
    • A newsreel (the use of which was innovative) gives us a capsule biography of Charles Foster Kane, the man who just died -- wealthy, controversial, in the end lonely.
  3. Call to Action (13 min.)
    • The reporters putting together the "obituary newsreel" have a missing part of the puzzle, however. What does the dying word "Rosebud" mean? A reporter is assigned to find out.
  4. Act One Plot Point (23, 31 min.)
    • Now two narrative lines develop side-by-side: the reporter's quest to find the meaning of "Rosebud" and the deeper biography of Kane that he learns along the way. In the latter, Kane inherits great wealth as a young man (after being shipped away as a child by his mother, who wanted to protect him from an abusive father) but turns everything down except a struggling newspaper: he thinks it would be fun to run a newspaper (23 min.) The reporter is told that it wasn't money that Kane wanted, that to learn about the real Kane he must go talk to his oldest friend.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (56-60 min.)
    • Unhappily married, Kane meets a young woman who likes him even though she has no idea how rich and famous he is. He begins an affair with her, which he continues even after entering the race for governor. Later he will choose the other woman over his wife (69 min.), even as it destroys his political career.
  6. Act Two Plot Point (104-6 min.)
    • Kane builds an opera house for "the other woman" who becomes his wife. She's a terrible singer, and when she attempts suicide after his continuing bullying about her doomed career (96 min.), he retreats with her into the seclusive life of the palace. She finally can't stand it any longer and leaves him (104-6 min.).
  7. Climax and Resolution (114-7 min.)
    • The reporter never learns what "Rosebud" means. As Kane's possessions are burned, his childhood sled is thrown into the fire -- the sled named Rosebud. All his life, Kane longed for the simple but momentary happiness of his childhood before he was sent away.

    Notes

    Citizen Kane is both a mystery, a puzzle -- who or what was Rosebud? -- and the biography of an extraordinary man. The device of the newsreel reporter searching for clues permits the biography to unwind slowly, keeping our interest, and the biography also follows the classic structure of beginning, middle, end story-telling. For all its innovation, this movie retains the oldest foundation of them all.

    MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

    [BACK TO TEXT]
     1/99