Review of Casablanca (1943) by Erik R — 12 Jan 2014

I make no particular secret of the fact that I believe most old 'classics' are lackluster. I gave relatively low ratings to both 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Maltese Falcon. I found the histrionic acting in Laurence of Arabia almost hysterically bad. I believe Citizen Kane is largely over-rated.

I'm almost hesitant to watch such classics these days because I don't want to face another disappointment. It makes me feel apart. Makes me feel like an outcast, like there's something irrevocably different about me. Here these beloved films, these beloved stories and characters, and I don't care much for them. Watching - and not loving - a classic just serves to remind me that I am different, that I am an outsider to society. It's not a very pleasant feeling, no matter that I regularly choose to maintain my non-conformity on a daily basis.

As such, I didn't see Casablanca (considered by many to be Hollywood's greatest romance) until just recently, even though I always pretended like I had:

Random movie guru friend: "You've seen Casablanca, right?".

Me: "Of course." (with a derisive tone).

Cause I mean, how can I, a lover of movies, NOT have seen such a classic? Impossible. But I hadn't and I'm sorry for lying. But if you know me, you know I love to lie and am not sorry about it whatsoever.

Well, I finally got around to seeing this old girl, and I was not disappointed, for all sorts of reasons:

I liked the spare, simple plot. A resistance leader is being hunted by nazis in WW2. This man needs travel papers that another man, an owner of a night club, has. They're both in love with the same woman.

I liked the lights shining in Ingrid Bergman's eyes. I liked the elegance of her hair and her costume. There's such a contrast between the movie stars of yesterday and the movie stars of today. Today's belles feel almost cheap in comparison, flashing skin, and with faces made as much of plaster as they are of flesh and feelings.

I liked the play of hero and anti-hero of Bogart's character Rick. He's something of a jerk, but you really can't blame him can you? And anyway, what would you do, if given a choice between the love of your life and the 'right' thing? To my mind, all great stories serve one common purpose: they take a look at what it means to live in a shitty world... and what it takes to survive, while still doing the right thing. Casablanca does that.

However, this moral complexity notwithstanding, what I liked most about Casablanca is its simplicity. This is a 1943 film alright. It's very simple. Most are. They simply didn't have the technical prowess or the experience or the financial backing to film the awesome globe-trotting stuff we have today. To my mind, that's usually a negative. Life is not that simple. A great story needs more than five or six interior locations and a spicy script.

But in the case of Casablanca, a simple story is what works. Because a great love story, when you remove all the bullshit, is a simple story. Two people love each other, but for whatever reason, they can't be together. Call me cynical, if you'd like, but that's how it is: once two love-birds are together, without conflict, then what else is there to it? After that, it's all breakfast in bed, watching movies on the couch, and if kids ever come into the picture, well... kids usually means the end of the parents' stories and the beginning of the kids'.

Final Say: Casablanca is not perfect and to my mind is hardly the 'ultimate' Hollywood love-story. That is, it doesn't stand head-and-shoulders above other love stories. But I don't think I could comfortably say that any other romance is better than Casablanca.

It's not brilliant, but it's utterly solid. Some famous film person or other said, "To make a good film, you need three great scenes and no bad ones." Casablanca certainly fulfills that definition.

How to Watch It: Not really sure, actually. It's not really a 'romantic' film in the sense that we mean it. Watching it with a significant other would actually seem a little strange, maybe. But I wouldn't watch it alone either. I think the best way to watch it would be to do so with a person who you had a crush on. That'd really kick you in the feelers, hahaha!

Trivia: There was a lot of rewriting on the set for Casablanca, so none of the actors actually knew (until the very end) how the story would finally play out! I think that uncertainty helped strengthen already strong performances from the actors.