Can someone explain why Citizen Kane is the greatest movie of all time?

You hit the nail on the head with new film techniques. It blew people away with what they were seeing, but we can’t recognize it as not just being commonplace. Story wise I think Tiny Toons had the better adaptation.

Here's an extensive review by Dennis Grunes that goes into considerable detail about Citizen Kane and the Orson Welles: Citizen Kane
The fundamental premise seems to be: materialism can create an empty isolated loveless life.

I didn’t like it either and didn’t get the hype.

There was a long thread on this a couple months back that explained a lot. Didn’t make me like the movie better but I gained an appreciation for why it is hyped.

That’s why I hate all time lists. You can’t compare a movie in the 30s to movie in 2000

In 50 years The Avengers is going to look like a NES game.

A better description would be best of the decades.

I’ve never seen it. Looks boring.

Citizen Kane is ranked as the greatest film of all time because film critics are failed wannabe film makers, so they see films from the film maker's perspective instead of the audience's perspective.

This is also why the RT score and the audience score are so different for some films.

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I Googled it and basically it used a bunch of film techniques that are used to this day.

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Revolutionary movies often fall into this trap of not living up to expectations. Think of The Matrix and bullet time. It was cool and unique at the time and added wow factor to the movie in 2000, but now it's so basic as a special effect that it's practically cliche.

I too was underwhelmed by Citizen Kane and many older classics I've watched. I'd say the main reason is the pacing of story telling back then was painfully slow compared to today.

Part of the mystique of Kane is the audacity of Welles to paint a very detailed (and unflattering) portrait of one of the most powerful men in the US at the time. Every theatregoer knew that Charles Foster Kane was William Randolph Hearst.

Here’s a writeup from the PBS American Experience episode about the film: The Battle Over Citizen Kane

The story of the failed American Dream, the rich guy who has it all yet is still miserable. This story has been told to death but was brand new in the 40s. Also Orson Welles brought so much new innovations to filmmaking that we take for granted - modern cinematography started here with characters shot in shadows or at low & high angles. Being filmed in actual rooms and not a soundstage, the beautiful tracking shots, the non chronological storytelling bouncing all of the different ages of Kane throughout his life, the final twist ending at the very end which really puts everything into perspective. Orson Welles basically took the whole game and flipped it on its head.

You don’t have to think it’s the best ever and sure you could make the argument that it’s slightly overrated, but let’s show some fricking respect. All of us love movies, and Citizen Kane was a huge leap forward. Look at its contemporaries at the time and you can see the huge difference in quality.