Review of Casablanca (1943) by Chet K — 22 Nov 2012

Wow. Every time I watch this as I get older I see new meaning. This is a perfect movie. It's a perfect love story - possibly - no probably, the best. Yet it is so much more than a love story. It really captures the hopelessness and the absurdity of the period.

I never realised how well written it is. You can understand a character's soul through, really, just a handful of quotable phrases and iconic glances. There are two iconic heroes here - Victor Lazlo, yes - an admirable, hopeful, inspiring history-book hero fighting for a lost cause, but more interesting is Rick - the anti-hero, ridden with existential angst and masked in a veil of indifferent, he will walk away quietly into the night, alone, unnoticed and never remembered.