casablanca

However, although I understand and truly adore "Casablanca" now, many of my peers who watch it
for the first time seem to have preconceived ideas of what the film will be. They have heard of this
classic over and over and expect I don't know what to come out of it. They always come out
disappointed, and interestingly, they never understand the context of what is going on historically.
Simply, they cannot follow the story from frame one.

The plot isn't intricate, but it does require a working knowledge of 20th Century history, a subject
our generation has all but ignored, which makes "Casablanca" inaccessible to many young people
because of their ignorance.

So, for the historically and "narratively" challenged, here's the setup of a classic. For those who
know it well, bear with me. I must educate the others.

The Nazis have occupied France in 1940. All of the refugees from Europe are fleeing to
Casablanca in Vichy-held Morocco, where they hope to attain exit visas to the United States and
escape the Third Reich. In the city of Casablanca, the most popular club is owned by Rick Blaine
(played by Humphrey Bogart), an American ex-patriot who threads out a living running his
bar/casino and walking the fine line of neutrality with the local Vichy authorities and the desperate
refugees.

One night, Rick's life is thrown upside-down when a seedy acquaintance named Ugarte (played by
Peter Lorre) slips him exit visas signed by Charles De Gaulle, which he acquired by murdering two
Nazi officers. The Vichy police find Ugarte and arrest him, unaware that Rick is now in possession
of the visas. That same night, a lost-love from the past, Ilsa (played by Ingrid Bergman), arrives
with her husband at Rick's club.

Ilsa's husband is a notorious Resistance hero and the Nazis are willing to do anything to execute
his arrest, but the laws in Casablanca prohibit such an action lest he commit a crime. Rick knows it
is only a matter of time before the Nazis circumvent Vichy authority and take Ilsa and her husband
to a concentration camp. He has the means to help them, via Ugarte's visas, but he is torn
between his anger towards Ilsa and his conscience.

The film is simply a masterpiece in its own right. Considering ex-President, then actor Ronald Reagan was slated to play Rick Blaine, I think history did quite
well getting Bogart in the lead role. Ingrid Bergman is exquisite and while Ilsa is not as complex as Bergman’s role in “Notorious,” her character is still
remarkably interesting. Sidney Greenstreet is casting perfection as the seedy crime lord, Ferrari, playing a kind of precursor to Jabba the Hutt.

The dialogue moves like gangbusters. It's a new quip and dry comeback every second. Claude Rains and Bogart have the most witty exchanges. Bogart, no
longer typecast as the wayward gangster, simply immerses himself in the career abnormality of the Blaine role.

The film is not without it's creative faults, though they are very slight. Frankly, while it might sound like blasphemy, I confess I have a hard time watching
Blaine's flashback sequence in Paris with Ilsa. After a number of viewings, it has become a tedious sequence for me that I just want to get past. Friends have
found issue with other scenes, lines, and moments.

What it proves to me is how much of a personal experience "Casablanca" is for people. Everyone sees it a different way. If you haven't seen it, you are
missing a keystone of Hollywood history and great filmmaking all the way around. If you're watching it for the first time, if you have a hankering, e-mail me and
tell me what you thought of it. I'd like to hear your opinions.