Which 1941 film is often ranked as the greatest American film?

Citizen Kane is the 1941 film often ranked as the greatest American film. Directed by and starring Orson Welles, it follows the rise and fall of fictional newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane and the investigation into his final word, “Rosebud.”

The film was unusually ambitious for Welles's first feature. His contract with RKO gave him extraordinary creative control, including the ability to develop his own story, use his preferred cast and crew, and retain final cut. The screenplay was written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz.

Citizen Kane was not an immediate commercial triumph, partly because newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst opposed the film and discouraged coverage. Its reputation grew through later critical reassessment. It topped the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound critics' poll for five consecutive decades, from 1962 through 2002, and was also ranked first on the American Film Institute's 1998 and 2007 lists. Rankings are subjective, but this is the standard answer to the question.