I understand that many people will be making posts about our recently completed movie, Citizen Kane. This film was a very well created film, with some brilliant writing and cinematography. However, the most commented upon component of the film was "Rosebud," of course. In a recent poll done by IMDB.com (Internet Movie Database), the respondents said that Rosebud was the most memorable one word phrase in cinematic history, with it receiving 16.6% of the vote. (It is not a completely accurate poll I do not believe, since "Adrian" from Rocky finished in 2nd place with 10.2% of the vote.) But I digress.
Since everyone is commenting on their beliefs in the significance of Rosebud, I figure I will offer my own commentary. The most notable image that I think of, is at the end of the film when, Welles uses cinematography in order to pan over all of the possessions that Kane had collected and kept. Their were thousands upon thousands of statues, pictures, jigsaw puzzles, trophies, etc. The vast wealth and expansiveness of his possessions was completely unbelievable. However, this is quickly juxtaposed by the audience seeing workers in the mansion going through the garbage. One of the men picks up the sled which says "Rosebud" is simply thrown into the fire with one of his superiors echoing that statement. As the letters begin to burn off and disappear, we notice that the sled will disappear into infamy and will only become ashes. People will never remember that sled, and everything yet they will remember all of the precious gems that he amassed with his enormous wealth and power.
Therefore, I believe a conclusion that can be drawn from this, is that on his deathbed, Kane was burdened with the last memory of his childhood, a childhood that he was never able to experience. The thought that was on his mind at the time was so trivial to everyone else, and was just "tossed into the fire" while everything else was cherished and everyone was valuing all of Kane's possessions, arguably his most cherished memory/possession, was ignored and destroyed, much like his life.
I apologize if this is redundant and I hope that more thoughts from this film will come to mind.
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The fact that your observations are not revisionist in any way does not detract from their accuracy or thoughtfulness. You are exactly right. The film does indeed ask us what value all this stuff has in the larger picture. Welles, at this time was very much a socialist. The film is made during the Great Depression. It's rare to see a historical/economic analysis of Kane, so perhaps your statement is more profound that I first stated.
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