The "Citizen Kane" Of...

Citizen Kane is regarded as one of the best/most influential films of all time; whenever there's a "Greatest Films of All Time" list, Kane's typically number one.

Anyway, I figured it'd be a neat thread idea to figure out what the "Citizen Kane's" would be for each genre of film.

Here are some genres to get us started:

Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Action/Adventure
Noir
Comedy
Musical
War
Western
Horror/Thriller
Drama (and it's subcategories: Romance, Crime, etc.)
Independent/Cult
Animated
Documentary

I'd like to hear what you guys think is the cream of the crop for each genre, feel free to add genres too as you see fit. Explanations would be nice. I'll probably post mine later.

Comedy: The Big Lebowski.

Dialogue is witty defined. Great characters. Story flows seamlessly.

Good thread, btw.

Surely a film like Big Lebowski comes far too late to be clled a 'Citizen Kane'? Wouldn't it fail the 'influential' test? You might consider it the greatest comedy film made but I'm not sure that's the same thing.

With a relatively undeveloped genre you could do new things- for example, there is a case for saying that LOTR is the watershed in fantasy films, giving them a Citizen Kane moment- but comedy films are close to the oldest genre out there.

Science Fiction is a main film genre, Fantasy is separate from it when it comes to Film, though can cross obviously. 😛 Can go on about others in the list. But yes, know what you mean. 😛

Originally posted by SnakeEyes
Citizen Kane is regarded as one of the best/most influential films of all time; whenever there's a "Greatest Films of All Time" list, Kane's typically number one.

Anyway, I figured it'd be a neat thread idea to figure out what the "Citizen Kane's" would be for each genre of film.

Here are some genres to get us started:

Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Action/Adventure
Noir
Comedy
Musical
War
Western
Horror/Thriller
Drama (and it's subcategories: Romance, Crime, etc.)
Independent/Cult
Animated
Documentary

I'd like to hear what you guys think is the cream of the crop for each genre, feel free to add genres too as you see fit. Explanations would be nice. I'll probably post mine later.

Sci-fi/ fantasy: Alien (just beats Blade Runner)

Action/ adventure: Die Hard

Noir: Would

Comedy: Pulp Fiction! It fits as much into comedy as anything else, and it sure as hell is influential.

War: Apocalypse Now

Horror: Alien

Crime: The Godfather/ Mean Streets (tough choice between the 2, if you're looking for influential films. They led to 2 distinct kinds of gangster films).

Western: Unforgiven

Animated: Toy Story

Drama: Taxi Driver (doesn't really fit into a more specific genre)

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Surely a film like Big Lebowski comes far too late to be clled a 'Citizen Kane'? Wouldn't it fail the 'influential' test? You might consider it the greatest comedy film made but I'm not sure that's the same thing.

With a relatively undeveloped genre you could do new things- for example, there is a case for saying that LOTR is the watershed in fantasy films, giving them a Citizen Kane moment- but comedy films are close to the oldest genre out there.

Instead of just pointing out why TBL isn't in regards to the comedy slot, why don't you tell me what is and why?

BTW, what influences has Citizen Kane had?

Edit: Don't get me wrong, I don't mind you telling me my opinion was/is shit, just be kind enough to give me yours and why it's more suited to the question at hand.

It's mostly an influence from the technical film making side of things, a lot of films before Kane had created the film shooting and editing techniques but he worked it all into one film and was more mainstream and a lot hadn't seen that type of film making before, he was credited with most of the influence from what I learnt.

Rating the most influential (NOT my personal favorite or even close to it, for that matter):

Sci-Fi: 2001: A Space Odyssey for the intellectual, cerebral sort of science fiction and Star Wars for creating the the 'special effects popcorn film'. As to who actually had a greater impact upon the genre... well, I'm going to have to go with Star Wars here. Tough call, though.

Action/Adventure: I'm going to have to go with Die Hard here, too. It pretty much is the template for the modern action picture.

Film Noir: I honestly don't know, being that most of the influential film noir pictures were released before the 60's, and I find it very difficult to associate with such films. I suppose I'll go with traditional 'best films' list and choose either Double Indemnity or M.

Comedy: Tough call yet again, as comedy is an immensely broad genre. Now, naturally, Charlie Chaplin is the founder of slapstick comedy... but what about other variations? For political humor, it's easily Dr. Strangelove and MASH. Etc, etc, etc.

Musical: Singin' in the Rain.

War: Yup, definitely Apocalypse Now.

Western: Probably one of Sergio Leone's flicks, like Once Upon a Time in the West and the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Horror/Thriller: Psycho.

Gangster: Gonna have to go with Kovacs (again) here. The Godfather probably wins, but Mean Streets and Goodfellas certainly deserve recognition.

Animated: Snow White is easily the most influential animated movie of all time, even if I can't stand it.

Documentary: Well... I reckon documentaries only became mainstream entertainment as of late, and, ultimately, the format for the modern documentary was established by Michael Moore. I would guess that, if I had to pick a film of his, I'd go with Bowling for Columbine.

Romance: Casablanca.

Fantasy: LotR series.

For horror i'd put "Cat people" for inventing "the bus" technique....

Sci-fi: Star wars....clearly been the standard to which all sci-fi is compared with before and since

Documentary...Night and fog...to this day, probably the single greatest documentary ever made.

War: Saving private Ryan...almost every war film since has used the shaky camera technique to portray the power of the weapons used.

Action: Indy

Comedy: Blazing Saddles

Animated: Beauty and the beast/Toy story...both took animation away from hand drawn to computer aided....Should also give a mention to the pioneers of stop motion technique.

Western: The Alamo

Science-Fiction: The Empire Strikes Back. No, this is not just because it's my favorite movie of all time. It's epic. Just epic.

Action/Adventure: Radiers of the Lost Ark. Say what you will, but this movie is the definition of action/adventure.

Noir: Blade Runner. It may be sci-fi noir, but it's still noir. And a damn good one.

Comedy: Blazing Saddles. No explanation needed.

Musical: The Wizard of Oz. It will never be surpassed.

War: Platoon, in my opinion, is far more accurate than Apocalypse Now.

Western: Unforgiven is such an awesome film. It's even better than Tombstone.

Horror/Thriller: Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). No other film in history has shocked and awed as much.

Drama: Schindler's List is so real, so true, and so heartbreaking.

Independent/Cult: Clerks. 'Nuff said.

Animated: Toy Story. It's genius paved the way for everything. Period.

Documentary: Man on Wire was awesome, but The Bridge was so breathtaking to me.

Science-Fiction/Fantasy: Star Wars Saga, LOTR
Action/Adventure: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Comedy: Fargo
Musical: Grease
War: Platoon
Western: The Unforgiven
Horror/Thriller: Halloween
Drama: The Departed
Animated: Toy Story

The Departed is hardly an influencial film, especially a remake.

True. It's not even a great film. I like it, but it's actually one of Scorsese's worst "dramas"...

Originally posted by Robtard
Instead of just pointing out why TBL isn't in regards to the comedy slot, why don't you tell me what is and why?

BTW, what influences has Citizen Kane had?

Edit: Don't get me wrong, I don't mind you telling me my opinion was/is shit, just be kind enough to give me yours and why it's more suited to the question at hand.

I wasn't saying it was shit or anything of the kind, just not quite what the thread was looking for. I feel that the rather well-entrenched status of Citizen Kane as one of the most influential films of all time needs no specific statement from me to back it up, and it was in that spirit that this thread was created (and hence its status can be assumed). As everyone else is answering in that spirit I feel my comment was well warranted.

As I say, comedy is such an old genre you have to go a long way back to find its Kane equivalent. Laurel and hardy were already putting the fundamentals into place and Some Like it Hot was as clever as any modern comedy film, likewise Dr. Strangelove... and once you are past Blazing Saddles I think trying to nominate any comedy film for being a Kane type is entirely pointless.. TBL is just way too late and it hasn't actually influenced very much, despite being an extremely good film. (And with all due respect, Fargo isn't even a comedy, it just happens to have darkly funny bits in it).

I think with sci-fi you are kinda stuck between Star Wars- clearly a definitive moement- and the whole Blade Runner/Alien split, which are also definitive moments but for another sort of sci-fi.

Science-Fiction/Fantasy-Star Wars/LOTR
Action/Adventure-Raiders of the Lost Ark
Noir
Comedy-Holy Grail/Blazing Saddles
Musical-Jungle Book/Mary Popins(if they can be counted as musicals)
War-Platoon/Saving Private Ryan(just for the opening)
Western-Unforgiven/Zulu?
Horror/Thriller-Nightmare on Elm Street 1/Exorcist
Drama (and it's subcategories: Romance, Crime, etc.)-LA Confidential
Independent/Cult -Clerks
Animated-Snow White/Toy Story
Documentary-Inconvienent Truth

Originally posted by Nihilist

Western-Zulu?

😆 Gold.

I'm pretty surprised no one has said "Jaws" for Horror.

Especially over Alien. Since it was pitched at the studios as "Jaws in Space"

Good point.

Just asking, but what's the big deal with Unforgiven? I got around to seeing it two years ago and was sitting there the whole time thinking what is all the fuss about...

It's a genius deconstruction of the Western genre, maybe?