“The Greatest Film Ever Made”? 

About 30 years ago, I severed an Achilles tendon playing basketball. Post-surgery, I had to spend more than three weeks off my feet. I was very active athletically at the time, so the thought of being supine for 20 to 30 days was unthinkable. To feel better, I vowed to spend a good portion of that downtime doing new and useful things. One of them was to watch at least two dozen of the best movies ever made.

My primary resource was the American Film Institute. But I also looked at a half-dozen other “best movies” lists. In doing that research, one film was consistently at the top: Citizen Kane.

I watched it then and thought it was “good” in many ways, but not “great.” There were too many oddities about the film that left me feeling puzzled.

I watched it again about 10 years ago, and my opinion of it improved, from “good” to “quite good.”

And then I watched it earlier this week, and upgraded my rating once again.