Review of Casablanca (1943) by Beth G — 25 May 2018

Very good. Loved the dialog. Loved the look of the movie and Ingrid Bergman is just stunning.

Once I realized Rick's transformation was the main point of the film, I liked it better. The treatment of Ilsa's character was, for me, just too 1940's Hollywood. So she tragically loses her husband and falls in love with Rick. Then, when she finds out her husband is actually alive but Rick is in danger and need to leave Paris, she sacrifices that love to stay with her sick, hero husband and also to protect Rick. But the film does not see this as heroic. This is just a plot point to show why Rick is cynical and bitter. Then they meet again in Casablanca. Rick can't forgive her, or even let her explain. He's too deeply wounded because he loved her so much - not enough to hear her out- but enough to change his whole outlook on life and become cynical.

However, hero husband needs Rick's help which he refuses, (because he is cynical and bitter) even though he agrees that Lazlo is a great and important man. Ilsa begs Rick for help, calls him out on his punishing Lazlo because he's mad at her and even pulls a gun on him. Up to this point, this is not a woman who needs Rick to think for her. She is not weak or morally confused in any way. She has put aside her love for Rick to support her husband who is fighting the Nazi's while Rick serves them drinks. However, in this movie, Ilsa's self-sacrifice means nothing - because Rick is to be the hero. We need to see him transform from selfish and cynical to self-sacrificing and heroic. So Ilsa conveniently becomes unable to decide right and wrong: "Oh Rick, you must think for both of us!" Now Rick can be the moral agent, hooray! He decides FOR her that she must stay with Lazlo (because she is his inspiration - a fitting role for a beautiful woman). Now her sacrifice has meaning and he can live with it because he got to decide, rather than being dumped. And now they will "always have Paris". Only now are the Paris memories able to be cherished because Rick gets it now. I'm thinking Ilsa probably always "had Paris" because she originally made the decision to stay with Lazlo. But now Rick is the decider - so everything is better. Rick's the hero. Ilsa has been guided by him back to where she had already gotten by herself and he hopes that "someday she'll be able to understand" that her husband's work is more important than the "problems of three little people ( that) don't amount to a hill of beans".

Good job, Rick! Better late than never.

Am I right?