THEN AND NOW -- CASABLANCA

Thanks to the blog hop hosts with the most:

The Armchair Squid

Nicki Elson
Suze

Nan Mock

As the Squidster said on his blog, here's a prompt for the hop:

The greatest films stand the test of time, speaking to us in different ways at various life stages. Is there a movie that was a part of your life when you were younger that you see differently now?

 

 

If you’ve ever watched Casablanca, it’s probably one of your two or three favorites. If you’ve never watched it, shame on you.

There are very few movies that can be involved in a “best movie ever” argument. Sure, you can argue that the original Halloween is the best horror movie of all time

and you can questionably argue that the original Arthur is the greatest comedy of all time.

You can even mistakenly argue that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is the greatest western of all time.

But none of those can compare to Casablanca in a “best movie ever” discussion.

 THEN

 

I first saw Casablanca when very young during a weekend classic movie marathon with my other friends in our closely knit group we called The League of Five.

All of us wanted to be Rick Blaine in that movie.  And why not?

I want to be Rick Blaine. Rick is noble, principled, generous, straightforward, tough, secretive, respected, unpredictable, wealthy, loved by his friends and employees, and irresistible to women.

I want to run Rick’s Cafe Americain. I want my shot at Ilsa.

I want to drink as much as Rick and not feel the effects.

The only thing I would do differently is not smoke.

As Captain Louis Renault told Ilsa Lund near the beginning of the film, “If I were a woman…I should be in love with Rick.”

Perhaps that is why my Samuel McCord owns a haunted jazz club and is in love with a bewitching woman, Meiloiri?

NOW

 

 

As an adult I look at it with different eyes --

Love can become bitter.  Pain, if held on, to can be an anchor.

To forgive can breathe life back into a bruised love, and friendship and wit can see you through most fogs.

It is a superb film, which boasts among the strongest casts I’ve ever encountered on screen.

 

The performances are uniformly powerful and affecting:

 

the solitary, brooding Rick (Humphrey Bogart), the enigmatic Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the smug yet witty Captain Renault (Claude Rains)—

 

the list goes on and on.

 

The cast members play off each other beautifully. Sparks fly as personalities and motives clash.

 

 

Another appeal for the adult writer in me is its rapid-fire dialogue.

 

The movie debuted in 1942, while sound film was in its relative infancy.

 

Filmmakers during this period began to take full advantage of the asset of sound, and films became dialogue-driven rather than using a mainly visual narrative style.

 

Director Michael Curtiz implements the emerging technology with expertise. The quick rapport between the characters drives the plot—

 

If you don’t pay attention, you can miss a crucial plot point inlaid in an aside between passing characters.

 

Snarky remarks and snappy retorts are tossed across card tables and over drinks.

 

In a perfect example, the slimy character Ugarte (Peter Lorre) inquires of our hero, “You despise me, don’t you?” 

 

Rick replies offhandedly: “If I gave you any thought, I would.”

 

 

Casablanca was filmed in 1942.  We were losing the war at that time.  It looked like the Nazis would conquor the world.  The film spoke to bravery and sacrifice for the greater good.

 

The “La Marseillaise” scene so beautifully embodies man’s unquenchable devotion to freedom and country that it gives me chills every time I see it.