1943--Casablanca, Michael Curtiz

 

1943--Casablanca, Michael Curtiz

Nominated: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Heaven Can Wait, The Human Comedy, In Which we Serve, Madame Curie, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Song of Bernadette, The Watch on the Rhine

Should have won: Casablanca

Be sure to see: Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Shadow of a Doubt, Tortoise Wins by a Hare

"If you stop breathing, you will die; if we stop fighting our enemies, the world will die."--Victor Laslo

      If this had been an American Film Institute blog instead of an Academy Awards blog, Casablanca would bombard all the other movies right off the page. In 1998, it took AFI's runner up spot on the all time greatest movies list (just behind Citizen Kane and ahead of The Godfather) and found its way to their love stories, thrillers (which is insane since it isn't a thriller and the scariest movie ever made didn't make that list); was number two on the best songs list with “As Time Goes By,” put Rick on their 50 greatest heroes list, made their biggest cheers list (whatever that is), and had six lines on their greatest lines of dialogue list. It is clearly an adored film that I merely liked a lot. 

       Based on a stage play “Everybody comes to Rick's,” Casablanca is set during World War II in a fancy nightclub and gambling hall in Casablanca, Morocco, where Rick's customers range from every walk of life. The Nazis tell him he must keep one Victor Laslo from leaving Morocco to return to America. Laslo enters his club later with Ilsa, the woman Rick loves and had a tryst with in Paris. There are all kinds of aspects of the story. An official named Louis (that's pronounced Lewy which I only mention because it is in one of the most famous final lines in movie history) gets involved in trying to retrieve deporting papers. The goings-on in the night club and the Nazi involvement are all important but the movie revolves around the romantic interest between Rick and Ilsa. A key character in the movie is Sam, Rick's faithful piano player. He keeps the club's spirits up with his playing, but one song Rick forbids Sam to play is “As time goes by” because that was his and Ilsa's song. By the way, one of the biggest misquotes in movie history is from this movie. “Play it again, Sam” is never uttered and is certainly on par with “Frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn” and “Luke, I am your father” as the biggest misquotes of all time. Personally, I'd go with the latter as taking the top spot. And I'll say this, and I'm sure most will disagree, I got sick of that song. I get tired of the theme to the Indiana Jones movies because it runs the entire film; I got tired of “Everybody's Talking'” in Midnight Cowboy after six minutes; and since “As time goes by” is played 13 times by my count, I got tired of that one, too. Also one of the most famous lines in movie history “Here's looking at you, kid” is spoken four times. I don't know, I just got burned out on that and, for me, the song and line lost their meanings. 

    Louis gives Laslo permission to leave the country on one condition, to reveal the names of the underground movement from the concentration camps. I know this is the greatest love story of all time and all but I found Laslo's predicament a more interesting story than Rick and Ilsa's. 

      A pretty tense moment is when the Nazis go  to Rick's sing their song and Rick orders the house band to play to cover up the Nazi's singing. It was a good scene, but I think that scene might be the reason it made that thriller list, and the tension is ruined by a line of comic relief about gambling. I guess that passed with a zillion people but I'm not one of them. I've never been a fan of comic relief. Let tension be tense.

     But I really did like a great deal of the movie, though it seems like I didn't. Rick's love for Ilsa is very strong. Even though that line about the enemies is my favorite I think the most important line in the movie, the one that sums up Rick, is “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” I liked this because we've all felt it. Whoever made up the term “It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all” deserves a serious beating. 

 

      I enjoyed the ending a lot, so much that I'd say the final fifteen minutes or so are among the best ending scenes of all time (though not THE best—see 1968's Planet of the Apes). What Rick does, and how the movie wraps up, shows some of the most selfless love any character has ever had in movie history. I wonder how many people would make the decision he makes. Hell I wonder if I could do that. I also wonder (and I'll try not to spoil the end here) if Rick had made the alternate decision if this would still be considered as timeless as it is. This ending is discussed in When Harry met Sally..., if you recall. Of course now that I learned a little about the movie I'm not sure if I could take that final scene as seriously. The plane in the background was a model and so it wasn't full size and looked fake (since it was). So the producers got some midgets to walk around it to give it scale. Also, Ronald Reagan was up for the roll of Rick. I'm not sure if The Gipper could have delivered Bogey's lines the same way. Look, it seems like I'm picking at this movie as though I didn't like it. I did like it. A lot. And I do agree that it should have won best picture, though Shadow of a Doubt comes highly recommended. But two all time? Above Gone with the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia? Luckily this is an Oscar blog and not an AFI blog. I'd tear those voters to pieces on all of their lists.