Casablanca

Drama 103 min / 1943 Rating: 10/10 While today if a film won an Oscar that'd be a reason not to see it, when Casablanca won Best Picture back in 1942, it meant something. And today you'll still find film historians touting it as the best picture ever. When Ilsa Lund hears that the Nazis have killed her husband she is inconsolable…until she meets Rick Blaine. They meet in Paris, a city on the brink of an invasion by German forces, and in the midst of this ongoing chaos the two quickly fall in love. But then, mysteriously, Ilsa runs away. She disappears from Paris without a word of explanation, and leaves Rick an embittered man. Three years later they bump into each other again, this time in the free French North African town of Casablanca, but Rick is stunned to find out that Ilsa is there with her very undead husband, Victor Laszlo! In one of the film's most stirring scenes, "La Marseillaise," the French National anthem, is sung in Rick's bar at the behest of Laszlo, a heroic man but, looking at this from Rick's perspective, a competing love interest. But Lazlo is singing to drown out the Nazi soldiers singing "Die Wacht am Rhein," a German national anthem of sorts – they are staking their claim to Casablanca, and Lazlo won't have it. Then Rick gives a nod to the band, and they start playing the French anthem, and everyone joins in. I read up on this, and discovered that among the extras populating the bar background were many actual refugees, who had fled Nazi persecution in Germany and elsewhere, and their tears may well have been real. Cautions The most obvious objection here is that Rick has a romance with a married woman. But at the time both Rick and Ilsa think her husband, Lazlo, is dead so I don't think they can be faulted. When Lazlo reappears, Rick and Ilsa's romance ends. Then, there is a scene in Paris in which Rick is talking with Ilsa in a hotel room, and you can choose to think that is "their" room, or simply presume that Rick has his own room. In other words, you can choose to conclude they acted properly, or choose to think they didn't, but the film doesn't force you to go either way. I choose the latter. I'll also note that a hero in the story, Rick, owns a bar which is also a gambling joint. Not the sort of hero that Christians should usually find admirable. But the point is, Rick doesn't start off all that heroic. He does show some empathy when a a young girl is gambling to hopefully get enough money for her and her husband to flee to America - he fixes the game in her favor. But the point, early on, is that Rick is all about Rick, and it is only the reforming Rick who becomes the hero willing to risk it all for others. Conclusion I am a fan of many World War II films, particularly those that were made at that time. What sets Casablanca apart (and above) the many other very good WWII movies is that it is not a movie about heroes doing heroic things. Rather it is about lonely, broken, and even wretched people in difficult conditions doing the right thing in the end. That might sound rather depressing, but it isn't. These are the sort of folk we can empathize with, so when they pick principle over pragmatism we're right there with them, cheering them on, and hoping that we would do the same. This is one of those rare classics that even today's audience is sure to love. I'd recommend it for 12 to 112, with two thumbs way up! For a very different (but equally enthused) review, check out Harma Mae Smit's thoughts here. ...