Evan D. As a project this year we are taking a trip through time to revisit all of the Best Picture winners in history, Wings to Anora. Casablanca is the sixteenth film in that series, to see all the other Best Picture reviews, click here. This series of reviews revolves around Best Picture winners, but Oscars aside, when we look back at the history of film there are not many pictures that endure the way that Casablanca has. Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is a cynical, jaded American operating a bar in Casablanca at the height of the Second World War. His place is a hotbed for both the smugglers transporting refugees out of Nazi controlled Europe as well as the wildly corrupt soldiers and police ruling over the Moroccan city. Rick takes no side. He once had his causes, futilely fighting for freedom across Europe but none of those defeats stung him so much as being spurned by Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) in Paris as the Nazis marched in. Now, alone in Casablanca, Rick “sticks his neck out for nobody,” his heart frozen over and safe from further pain. Or so he thinks. “Out of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world” Ilsa walks into Rick’s accompanied by her husband, the Czech freedom fighter Victor Laszlo (Paul Henried.) Laszlo is being hunted across Europe by the Nazis and the couple seek travel permits to the United States, something Rick has in his possession. Police Prefect Renault (Claude Rains) is under orders to prevent Laszlo from leaving Casablanca by any means. Suddenly the ice around Rick is shattered as he must decide whether to stick his neck out for the woman who devastated him in Paris. Casablanca remains as bitingly relevant today as it must have when it released during World War II, over 80 years ago. Part of that is the eternality of anti-Nazi films, but more of it stems from the way this particular film sees Rick at the center of a clash between his pride and his values. The Nazis were defeated but fascism has troublingly endured. For that reason, Casablanca continues to be relevant and inspirational. At its core, Casablanca is a film that posits love as the only force in the world strong enough to harden a man’s soul, to free it again and even to defeat fascism in the process. It is more than just Ilsa that has left Rick a shell of himself and Rick is far from the only jaded mercenary in Casablanca. That he thoroughly failed in his aid of freedom fighters before falling in love in Paris surely contributed to Rick shutting down as well. This is how the fascists work. Rick is beaten down, feeling that the fight is no longer worth his while. The way out is love. Casablanca understands this deeply. Love for another person, absolutely, but also love for freedom. Rick, Ilsa and Laszlo each make a deep, painful sacrifice for the others, recognizing that their movement is more important than their own convenience. Even now we see how fascistic leaders attempt to turn us against one another, trying to convince us that we can have more by taking from someone else. Each time I see Casablanca I am overwhelmed by how clearly it sees through that way of thinking Among the most famous sequences in the film — a testament to the film that their are too many great scenes to count — sees the Laszlo instruct the band at Rick’s drown out drunken Nazis by playing La Marseillaise. To me it is the turning point, where Rick realizes that his feelings for Ilsa cannot be allowed to stop Laszlo and his movement. His passion for freedom is reignited. With a film of the stature of Casablanca, there is much to praise. Director Michael Curtiz lights and frames every sequence to perfection, finding the exact right moment for a camera to close in on the characters. The script is sharp, funny and holds up all these years later. Bogart, Bergman and Rains deservedly get much of the fanfare, they really are fantastic, but Henreid’s Laszlo and Dooley Wilson’s Sam always stands out on my viewings. Speaking of Sam, his As Time Goes By has to be among the most iconic film songs of all time. All of it is great, to a degree sparingly few other films have ever reached. Easily the most deserving Best Picture winning film to that point. For all its technical brilliance, what makes Casablanca the legendary classic it is today remains its optimism in the face of tyranny. No one in the production of the film could have been fully certain of the outcome of the ongoing war, yet they created an enduring and brave piece of art that looked evil in the face and let love prevail. That courage still serves as inspiration in the trying times of today. 10/10
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