Friday, April 27, 2007

Casablanca

Casablanca, a movie that shall prove the test of time due to its greatness in all areas of the film industry debuted in 1942 as a romantic movie. I was set Morocco, in the city of Casablanca, and the movie revolved around a couple of Rick and Ilsa. Rick is a cafĂ© owner, which participates in illegal gambling and is quite popular for both French Officials and German Officials. Set in World War 2 this is reason for problems in this occupied country and reasons for a lot of tension. Rick however refuses to take any sides what so ever. That is until Ilsa unexpectedly arrives in his club. Before Rick was a club owner, he used to run arms to French resistance fighters in Paris. There in Paris he and Ilsa had gotten into a relationship. They proceeded to see each other until it became unsafe for both them to stay in Occupied France. On the day they were supposed to leave together, but Ilsa stood Rick up. Since then he has become distraught over the situation and refuses to get attached to anything. He later learns that Ilsa was cheating on the leader of the French Resistance with Rick, which changes a lot of ideas he has in his mind. Rick obtains a very valuable item in Casablanca, of which anyone who bears these papers, they are allowed to leave the city of Casablanca and are allowed to move through neutral and German occupied territory. Many people want to obtain these letters of transit, and get out of Casablanca. No on more than Victor and Ilsa, mainly because Victor is urgent to get back to helping with the French resistance. Rock is hesitant due to how heart broken he was over Ilsa. After much deliberation with Rick and Ilsa, rick decides to help them out, flat out ignoring his favorite motto “I stick my neck out for no one”. At the end Rick helps Victor escape with Ilsa, and he doesn’t get the girl, which was very disappointing to the audience because of the on screen chemistry between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.
This movie is great because of the ending. The build up for it begins right when you see Rick and Ilsa meet in the club. Everyone has the preconceived notion of how the movie ends, because they are used to love movies of that type. The guy is supposed to get the girl in the end. That’s not how it goes through this entire movie. Its very hard to fully understand each character in the movie, the only ideal that can become fully comprehendible are the emotions that each character is feeling. Which makes for the viewer to have a variety of emotions for each character. And trust me, there are plenty of good characters in this movie. There is Sam, the piano player, the Renault, the French officer who is really only good for looking out for himself. There is also Ugarte who is in desperate need of help, and of coarse the German officer, Major Strasser. All these characters at one point in the movie has some sort of conflict with either Victor, Ilsa and Rick. I really enjoy this move as it is so very different and encompasses a lot of emotions.

No comments: