The Citizen Kane of Something

You often hear a really good product get described as the Citizen Kane of that medium. For example, The Last of Us has been called the Citizen Kane of videogames, or Watchmen the Citizen Kane of Comic Books. What they're saying is that these products are so good that they could be argued as being the best product of that medium, the new standard of quality and everything will now be compared to it...but that's not what the description means. Citizen Kane is not something I would personally describe as the greatest film of all time, however, i would describe it as the most influential film of all time. The cinematography, the editing, the lighting, the pacing, everyone in some way is copying what Citizen Kane did, whether they intend to or not, it so much that was different for the time that movies these days just take for granted. So next time you compliment something by saying it's the Citizen Kane of something, take that into consideration.

With that being said, what are the Citizen Kane's of other mediums? Let's start with the youngest of the mediums, videogames. Videogames have only in recent years had enough leg to stand on and claim themselves as high art, while some would still disagree with that statement, they're mostly those who are unfamiliar with the medium. So is The Last of Us the Citizen Kane of gaming? Who knows. It's possible, it broke a lot of boundaries, but whether or not that's going to influence everyone else to make games like that is too early to be said. What about Mario then? Well Mario was one of, if not the first game to leave a massive impact on culture, but on a more internal spectrum, i would say it's influence was limited in both time and technology, it was a period where what you could do creatively with videogames was just simply move left to right with differently coloured characters. As time has gone by and potential has expanded, games like Super Mario Bros have become less common, so maybe it isn't as influential as people would think. Or maybe Gaming hasn't hit it's Citizen Kane yet, it is only 30-40 years old and only recently has begun achieving higher praise as an art form, but there is one game out there that could have a solid argument behind it, one that's old enough to have seen it's influence, but experimental enough to stand out from the crowd. Metal Gear Solid, a franchise with heavy focus on narrative, character development and professional voice acting, as well as experimental and creative gameplay mechanics that we see the lasting impact to this day, not just on it's own genre, but gaming as a whole. It fulfils the criteria that i've designed and many would agree with me on it's influence and ingenuity, and as of right now, i can't see any game topping it.

What about comic books? ...It's Watchmen. I'm not gonna argue against that, it's a genius piece of work that analyses it's characters, it's genre and it's form, it's intelligently written, unique for it's time and multiple comic books and graphic novels since then have tried to replicate the success of Watchmen. It's the comic book that showed that comic books could be smart, could have ideas, could influence and provoke conversation while still telling a fascinating narrative, regardless of the message. It wasn't the first comic book to try and have an intelligent moral, and it wasn't the first to succeed. But when I think of a comic that changed the game for comic books since, Watchmen is the one that I would go too.

Television is much more difficult to decide, videogames, films and comic books can be compared because there is usually a continuous narrative or theme driving them that is unlikely to change. Television is much more of a gamble, most shows will see a massive change the longest it goes on and adapts. Don't get me wrong, other mediums will see a change or growth in their narratives and ideas, but they're usually planned out from the beginning. Television, it's unknown where they could end up, take for example the show Supernatural, it started out as a dark drama and ended up as a satirical action comedy, it adapted for the times and responded to criticism from it's audience. Other mediums don't have that opportunity to adapt as they go along depending on how audiences feel about it. So saying which one above all else influenced an entire medium to adapt to their style when they themselves would have needed to adapt is difficult to pinpoint.

So there ya go, those are my opinions on the idea of using Citizen Kane as an adjective when describing another product, it should really be a once in a lifetime compliment so next time you want to use it, think carefully about that.

-Danny