The overwhelming theme that seems to be driving the characters in Casablanca seems to be – “All’s fair in love and war”. This movie is often said to be one of the greatest films made in the golden era of Hollywood. It certainly has all the classic elements to stir up ones imagination – war (although none of the characters are directly in the middle of it), an exotic third world setting, cheeky dialogues, a good sound track, the famous love triangle, and a star-studded cast. All these elements have combined to make this movie a huge success.
Casablanca can very well be rated as highly as some of the greatest films made, like Psycho, The Rear Window, etc. The course of action in the plot seems to be based both on love, and war. Although the ending is not particularly a happy one, at least not for Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), we all seem to accept it as the correct path taken by him. As Rick himself says “it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”
Although Casablanca was produced as an A-list movie, it was never touted to be as successful as it has become over the course of time. The movie is originally based on an unproduced play called “Everybody Comes to Rick’s”, but the script writers – Philip Epstein, Julius Epstein and Howard Koch have all done a brilliant job with the portrayal of the different characters, especially considering the fact that they only wrote down the dialogues during filming. Perhaps this also helped to serve as suspense for the actors themselves, as they themselves did not know what fate (or the writers) had planned for their particular characters. This possibly helped to impart a more realistic expression on the faces of characters like Rick Blaine, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), Victor Lazlo (Paul Henreid), and even Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains).
Many would perhaps brand Casablanca as a mere Chick Flick, or a movie for women. However, having watched it more than once (quite a few times, actually) I can say with much certainty, that this movie has transcended the level of mere Chick Flicks, to that of immortality. In fact, saying that Casablanca is the best Chick Flick would be a gross understatement. Sure, Casablanca is, at its core, a love story, with its love triangle between two men and a woman. And yes, this model has been followed in many plot lines (not just movies, but dramas as well), by some great pre-war and post-war literary figures like George Bernard Shaw and John Osborne, but the way this love is portrayed here is very unique. Sure, in the end it is still the married couple who end up staying together, with the unwanted lover parting ways, but the reason for them parting why the lover parts ways is completely different. On the one hand, we are horrified at the lack of belief in the sanctity of marriage, on Rick’s part, as we see that it is more due to Rick’s admiration for Lazlo and his anti-Nazi movement, that he decides to engineer a safe passage for Lazlo and Ilsa to America, rather than his deficiency of love for her, or vice versa. This conveys a strong message about people who unselfishly sacrifice everything for the greater good. Generally such strong messages cannot be found in “Chick Flicks”.
Rick is a cynical saloon owner, who is seemingly the picture of diplomacy. Its seems as if all he ever cares about is the proper running of his saloon. The scriptwriters have very shrewdly given Bogart some brilliant and indeed memorable dialogues like – “I stick my neck out for nobody”, or “Here’s looking at you, kid.” These dialogues help impart a certain enigma to his character. More interestingly, we go on to find that Rick is not the heartless diplomat that he tries to be. As we go further into the movie, we find out, from the words of Capt. Renault and Major Heinrich Strasser (Conrad Veidt) that Rick had been involved in rebellions against tyranny in Ethiopia and Spain in 1935 and 1936 respectively. He was also in some way linked to the Anti-Nazi underground movement in Paris, though it is not clear to what extent, as the Germans clearly do not seem to be interested in arresting him. Although Rick tries his best to hide behind a veil of diplomacy, it is clearly difficult for him to hide his hatred of the Nazis.
The situation is in some ways similar for Capt. Renault, who is portrayed brilliantly by Claude Rains, as a corrupt Vichy official, who is in charge of police activities in Casablanca, Morocco. Renault is a “diplomatist” in the truest sense of the word, even though he himself often compliments Rick with that word. The one thing that perhaps sets both Rick and Renault apart from the rest of the characters is that they both try to maintain a neutral perspective, but the circumstances eventually prevent them from doing so. Henreid has also portrayed Lazlo perfectly, as the leader of the underground movement all across Europe. His most prominent scene is the “La Marsailles” scene where he stirs up a mini-demonstration inside Rick’s saloon. Also notable among the star cast was Ingrid Bergman, who played the role of Ilsa Lund, a Norwegian woman, who is torn apart between her war hero husband (Lazlo), and a cynical sentimentalist lover (Blaine).
With a brilliant combination of cinematography and direction, Michael Cutriz has crafted out a classic from the World War II era. What makes this movie even greater is the subtle use of the soundtrack songs like “It Had to be You” and “Knock on Wood”. The song that perhaps deserves a special mention is “As Time Goes By”, which has evolved into a timeless classic since Casablanca.
Source:
http://www.filmeducation.org/pdf/film/Casablanca_new.pdf
