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Monday, November 8, 2004 - 12:47pmSanction this postReply
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I didn't watch Casablanca when I was in high school or college.  I decided that it was dated, in black and white, and would be boring.  I decided to watch it a few years ago and can say as to my former opinion--I was misinformed.

Bill


Post 1

Monday, November 8, 2004 - 12:57pmSanction this postReply
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John,

This has to be one of the greatest movies ever made. I love this film. Thanks for writing up this timeless classic.

George


Post 2

Monday, November 8, 2004 - 3:41pmSanction this postReply
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I remember that years ago, Harry Reasoner for some reason was introducing 'Casablanca" on television. He said: "I know that this isn't the greatest movie ever made. But for my generation, and for many of the generations that followed us, it always will be the greatest movie ever made."

I know exactly how he felt. And I've watched it more times than I can remember. The ending makes me weepy every time -- and so does that great scene where the Germans are singing a Nazi song and the patrons of Rick's bar drown them out with a defiant "Marseillaise" -- and so does . . . well, you get the point.

I'll have to see it again, very soon.

Barbara



Post 3

Monday, November 8, 2004 - 10:47pmSanction this postReply
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My wife and I first saw this at a little re-run "arts" theater in Mesilla, New Mexico, shortly after we were married.  We rented it several times since and then bought it.  I found the script in a used book store and bought that.  Now, I am working on a collection of coins, banknotes, and stamps from the timeframe of the movie. ("A franc for your thoughts," Ilsa says.)  Eventually, I will place a judged exhibit about Casablanca  at a convention of the American Numismatic Association.

When the viewer meets Richard Blaine, he is playing chess by himself.  He is an intelligent, thinking man -- and a loner.

Louis Renault claims that Rick is a sentimentalist, pointing out that Rick ran guns to the Spanish Loyalists and to the Ethiopians.  "I was paid well both times," Rick insists.  Renault counters, "The winning side would have paid you more."  Rick demurs.  "I'm a poor businessman." In that, we see that Richard Blaine is a practical man whose actions are guided by principles.  He also has a bitter sense of humor.

The "Marseilles" scene says even more.  Victor Laszlo orders the band to play La Marseilles. The band leader, however, looks to Rick.  (As Sasha says in a previous scene, "Yvonne, I love you, but Monsieur Rick, he pays me.")  Rick nods. They play.  It is Rick's Cafe Americaine that the police bust up the next day.  Rick takes responsibility for his actions and he literally pays the price for Laszlo's defiance.  It is easy to see Laszlo as the brave idealist. Having watched the movie several times over many years, I see Laszlo as an irresponsible idealist, a Kantian up on the shoals of a Hegelian world.  Consider this contrast.  When the bar is closed, Rick keeps everyone on full salary.  It comes out of his pocket, of course.  On the other hand, Laszlo is so devoted to The Cause that he abandons his wife -- who comes from a sheltered home and is barely an adult -- in a foreign country.

Rick's values come from within.  When Signor Ugarti is arrested, Rick defines himself for us by saying, "I don't stick my neck out for anybody."  Of course, he does just that for Ilsa and Victor.  When Signor Ferrari wants to buy Rick's club, Ferrari makes an offer for Sam, the piano player.  "I don't buy or sell human beings," Rick says, almost spitting the words out. Yet, the entire story hinges on the letters of transit that let some people escape while others are stockaded in Casablanca, which is exactly the buying and selling of human beings, albeit once removed.  (Rick also buys the freedom of the Bulgarian girl and her husband.) In this, Rick is forced into an untenable situation and he maintains his Self by adhering to basic principles.  The bumps in the road might change your course, but you do have a course.  For Rick, that course is complicated by many forks.

Ilsa walks back into his life. (Of all the gin joints in the world...)  He has to protect her.  He is also committed to the destruction of the Nazis.  Therefore, he has to help Laszlo.  He feels a sense of responsibility for his employees.  As the viewer, I have to wonder how life will be for them after Ferrari owns the club.  Even so, howevermuch Rick might "care" for them, they are responsible for themselves.  That is the only way I see to resolve that conflict, so I project it on Rick.

Obviously, the movie transmits and reflects a lot for me.

(One aside: The Germans were singing the old imperial national anthem, "Die Wacht am Rhein."

Another aside: La Marseilles is literally a bloody song. In the book, the stage directions say that Yvonne -- the floozy who has been sleeping with the enemy -- is looking in the direction of Major Strassser and company when she sings the lyrics about their blood fertilizing our fields. )



Post 4

Tuesday, November 9, 2004 - 5:32amSanction this postReply
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Michael, hello and thanks for the thoughtful response to the film. Barbara, George and Bill, many thanks for your thoughts.

Actually, reading your responses increases, if that's possible :), my enjoyment of the film experience.

John

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Post 5

Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 8:23amSanction this postReply
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I don't get why people love this movie so much. It's the classic example of self-sacrifice for the good of another. Rick starts out as a cynical, scorned man and via the power of love of an otherwise virtuous woman gains the moral strength to give her up so that she can remain virtuous.

Stand this against Gunga Din, whose theme is often confused (incorrectly) with one of self-sacrifice. Gunga Din (the character) stands up for what he values most, the army and his friends. His life without these things would be, for him, not worth living. This is all set up early on and he spends the whole film holding true to his values. The final ghostly image of him marching in uniform show that, metaphorically, this wasn't a sacrifice, but an affirmation.

Comparatively, Bogart's Rick starts out a selfish capitalist. In Casablanca, that's a bad thing, because he's also surly, repressed and apathetic to the Nazis. He is willing to give up everything to save, morally and literally, the woman who abandoned him.

This and Citizen Kane are two films that have helped cement altruistic ideals into the foundation of accepted cinema morality.

I do understand the technical/literary appeal of Casablanca. It's a lean, fast-paced story. As a writer, the economy of the dialogue is worth study but as a representation of ethical behavior it should be viewed with a critical eye.

Mark Allen Holm
cinemark13@bresnan.net



Post 6

Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 3:02pmSanction this postReply
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Mark Allen Holm wrote: "I don't get why people love this movie so much. It's the classic example of self-sacrifice for the good of another."
We could go back and forth on this for 100 posts.  Art is a reflection of your own deepest values.  You see self-sacrifice in the movie and you do not see that in yourself.  For me, Casablanca is about values.  You might Google on this site for a discussion of Rodin's Thinker.  Different people who share the same basic philosophy perceive different reflections of themselves -- or not.


Post 7

Saturday, May 27, 2006 - 4:35pmSanction this postReply
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I must be from the wrong generation, as I don't have a lot of really favorite movies from that era; Casablanca is one that just hasn't grabbed me.  But I don't think the moral message is one of self-sacrifice per se, though certainly a lot of people are going to take that from the movie.  Popular perception aside, you could view it as Bogart's Rick joining in the fight for an ideal.  That could certainly be integrated into an egoistic perspective.


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Sunday, June 18, 2006 - 9:37pmSanction this postReply
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   Rick was neither 'duty'-oriented, nor was he a hedonist; he also was clearly not a  '2nd-hander' type of pragmatist nor was he a manipulator-oriented power-seeker, though he was obviously capable of the skills of either.

   What kind of person does that leave?

LLAP
J:D


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Friday, September 4 - 10:34amSanction this postReply
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We watched it again last night (9/3/20).

 

Still fine, super-fine.



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Post 10

Sunday, September 6 - 2:55amSanction this postReply
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I have to agree, Stephen.

 

Reading back through the posts here was disappointing. The common error among objectivists is evaluating a work of art on the basis of its conformance to the politics of capitalism. Casablanca has long been a favorite of students of Objectivism because it is about actions in conflict based on values in conflict.

 

We saw the same thing in here on RoR in the critiques of the film Crash. The plot-theme was the relationship of attitudes about race to the actions of people in conflict. To me, it was romantic theater but the conservatives here dismissed it as progressive propaganda.

 

Barbara Branden wrote a short piece I have not been able to find in which she contrasted Ayn Rand's own ability to identify a person's deeper philsophical assumptions from their higher-level opinions about politics or art. Barbara Branden contrasted Rand's ability at that, and her purpose in so doing, with the imitative harraganues of her admirers.



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