Casablanca

It was very interesting to watch a movie from 1942 as the first film of our time together in class.  Casablanca is highly regarded as one of the best films ever created.  I think, however if it had been released in a later time, they would have to beef it up considerably.  People these days need a lot more than just a story-line.  For instance, look at how different the second trilogy installation of Star Wars differ from the first installation.  Obviously, they were able to do a lot more with special effects and such, but in doing so they covered up the fact that a lot of the story-line was lacking.  The plots of the first three Star Wars were much more in depth and thought out, and the last three had less story and more action.  The reason that I'm babbling about this is because i think that, even though it may not seem right, Casablanca would have to do the same to find such success in the media these days, or else it would be looked over by the general population as boring, people wouldn't want to "waste" their time with arguably the best movie ever made.

I think that Bogart especially played his character very well as Rick Blaine.  He had a very rough exterior.  He wouldn't help out his so-called friend Ugarte to get away from the cops, who eventually ended up dead because he had absconded with the letters which would allow others to leave Casablanca for America.  I think that Rick knew the importance of these letters that Ugarte had entrusted him with, and that is the only reason that he had held onto them.

Then comes Elsa.  She acted as a drug to completely transform the character of Rick.  As soon as he sees her, the tension starts building.  A blind person could listen to the movie and pick up on the tension in Rick's voice as he comes into the room telling Sam, "Sam, I thought I told you to never play this....."  There is recognition in his voice as he talks to Elsa.  Bogart played his part so well, and he is deserving of going down in history with this role.

There are many things about this movie that were different from films we generally watch these days.  First and foremost, it was black and white.  I would imagine that this wasn't a choice, but I still liked it because it makes the viewer use their imagination even more.  A great black and white movie is Schindler's list, when finally the little girl in the red dress comes onto the scene.  It directs all the attention in the audience to her immediately.  Very smart.  Another difference that I noticed, only a few times, was the lighting.  Instead of cutting from one character to the other when they were not in the same shot, they would show the character's shadow.  I thought this was a very Hitchcock-esque procedure (I do realize that his movies were made after Casablanca).

So the tension is building the entire movie, and the character's of the individuals are coming out more and more.  Sam has been shown to not only be an employee of Rick's, but also a friend.  I was quite surprised by the end of the movie that Captain Renault had lied about the death of the agent that Rick had shot.  Minutes before, he was ready to arrest Rick, then he sees Rick's master plan and that he had done such a selfless act, the he decided to look past the fact that he had just murdered an individual to let the love of his life leave him forever.

The character development as the end got closer was great.  If I hadn't seen Out Cold (which uses essentially the same love-story story-line), I would have never guessed that Rick was going to make Elsa leave with Lazlo.  He really surprised me with that, which doesn't happen all that much anymore since all movies have little twists in them which are truly predictable.  This twist, however was not.

As I watched the movie, I wasn't terribly moved by it.  These days, we see tons of movies that are very moving, so why would this be any different?  But writing this blog has forced me to look a little deeper and to realize that this movie is extremely emotionally investing, and its no wonder that so many other movies use lines from it, or use the story-line in different ways.