Casablanca: A Tale Of Love And Heroism During WWII

Question:

Discuss about the Intelligent Cinematography and Editing.

The movie Casablanca is an American romantic drama that was based on the stage play, “Everybody Comes to Rick’s” during the Second World War The movie was directed by Michael Curtiz in the year 1942 and earned $3.7 million in the box office. The movie focussed on an American expatriate who chose to help the woman he loves and her husband in order to escape from the Vichy- controlled city of Casablanca (Ronfard, 2017). Moreover, Casablanca has been considered one of the best known romantic films and moreover this is a kind of movie that makes people rethink and meditate about the world around them. The thesis statement for the movie is that the move Casablanca is an emblem of heroism, where the protagonist of the story sacrificed his passion for his love and also for the sake of all humanity.

In the movie Casablanca, the main protagonist of the story is Rick Blaine whose role was played by Humphrey Bogart. Rick was on the Nazi’s blacklist as he was considered as anti-fascist and had a history of fighting in the Spanish Civil War against the Franco. In Casablanca, Rick had his own café cum night club, where he was living his life peacefully keeping himself out from any political things, but his former lover returned to his life and set his life into turmoil, where he sacrificed his passion for the sake of his love (Isenberg, 2017).  The other two major characters are Ilsa Lund and Victor Laszlo. The female protagonist is Ilsa Lund played by Ingrid Bergman, who fell in love with Rick, without knowing each other’s history. She had been married to Lazlo before meeting Rick, but mysteriously ditched Rick and went back to her husband Laszlo. In Casablanca Rick and Ilsa met, where Ilsa requested Rick to help them out so that they could escape to America. The other influential character in the movie is Victor Laszlo played by Paul Henried. Laszlo was married to Ilsa, who was portrayed as an enemy of the Third Reich and was arrested by them. However he escaped and fled to Casablanca fro where with the help of Rick he and Ilsa got an escaped visa to America.

In the Casablanca movie, I am satisfied with the ending of the movie as how Rick had to make the hardest decision in life for the sake of his love. At the end of the movie, Rick sacrificed his passion and love and helped his former lover and her husband to escape to America. As the movie is all about love and romance, the ending of the film is beautifully portrayed, as it showed love makes people do any of the impossible things on earth (Rosenbaum, 2017). One of the dialogues of Rick Blaine that showed his sacrifice for the sake of love, “I’m saying it because it's true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You're part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow but soon and for the rest of your life” (Bioglio & Pensa, 2017).

The Plot

There is biasness in the film, when Rick tells his lover that for them Paris is there, but back of his mind Ricks knows well that Ilsa and Rick will never reunite again (Knickerbocker, 2014). In order to send Ilsa with her husband Laszlo, he confronts Isla that she should go with him, and for Rick and Ilsa they have Paris.

The most likeable character in the movie Casablanca is Rick Blaine, who in spite of dealing with many influential people he always tried to not to be socialized with any people and customers. He portrayed as an important person who sacrificed everything, even sold his café for the sake of his love, so that he could help his former love and her husband to escape to America (Merchan, 2016). He is symbolized in the movie as the man of man, who tends to help his former lover at the hour of need, even though she betrayed him when Rick needed her by his side. Whereas, the least affable character is Ugarte, played by Peter Lorre and has been a member of criminal underground in Casablanca. His main aim is to make profit by selling letters of transit to refugees and for that he could even murder people.

Casablanca is considered as a great film of all the time because of the famous characters played by Humphrey as Rick and Ingrid as Ilsa. Apart from this the dialogues in the movie are marvellous, that is every line is considered as gem and beautifully illustrated the overall meaning of the film. However, the music by Max Steiner set the perfect mood for drama (Wegele, 2014). In the song where, Laszlo was seen leading the patrons in “La Marseillaise” considered as Hollywood’s best moments. Being one of the famous movies, it should definitely receive an Oscar and in the year 1943, the movie received the Oscar awards.

The role of Sam played by Dooley Wilson is a famous character in the movie who tends to be one of the oldest friends of Rick, who is acquainted with Rick’s past history. Sam seemed to be acting as an older brother to Rick who tends to be there every time for Rick. Even when Rick sold his café to Ferrari, he makes Ferrari promise that he should give 25% of the profit to Sam (Psathas, 2014). In the movie Sam represented as a “New Negro” who helped in bringing Rick and Ilsa back together by playing their old song, “As Time Goes By.”

Main Characters

One of the best things in Casablanca is the music and was composed by one of the greatest Hollywood composers Max Steiner. He tends to draw the leitmotif by changing the melody and by altering the rhythms of the music. The song, “As Time Goes By” was originally sung by Herman Hupfield, but Max altered the variation in the song, to make it appealing to the audience (Marcantonio, 2015). Apart from this the nondiegetic concept of music in Casablanca that provided an evocative score in the movie that tends to connect with the romantic and political aspects in the film. The songs enriched the overall story by connecting it with the political and romantic context within the film and the songs “As time Goes By” also emphasis on the reunion of Rick and Ilsa.

The film Casablanca is related to our history course as it demonstrated the concept of fascism and the impact of it on the society. During the World War II, the Nazis in Casablanca tried to organize the country by imposing their rules and regulations, so that they could get the control of the economy as well as their economy system. In Casablanca it has been shown that the Nazi positioned a spotlight at the top of the roof in order to let people know that they were under the surveillance of Nazi (Rosenbaum, 2017). Apart from this, fascism has also been seen in the movie that is related to the history course. It shows that the fascists incarcerated many people and continue to do the same from every corner of the city. Some characters also have shown fighting against those wars in order to escape from the fascist regime.

Fascism in the movie Casablanca illuminated tension of war, where people tend to escape to America from the Nazis regime in the desire for peace (Isenberg, 2017). It has shown in the movie that in order to escape from the Nazi, Ilsa and her husband Laszlo seek help from Rick so that they could escape to America in the desire of peace.

Conclusion

From the above conclusion it could be concluded that Casablanca has been considered one of the famous evergreen movie of love, drama and romance. The movie portrayed the scene during the World War II, where the Fascist tends to take control of Casablanca. Apart from the characters, the music in the movie also played significant role by connecting the romance and politics together.

References

Bioglio, L., & Pensa, R. G. (2017, November). Is This Movie a Milestone? Identification of the Most Influential Movies in the History of Cinema. In International Workshop on Complex Networks and their Applications (pp. 921-934). Springer, Cham.

Fuelling, M. (2017). Book Review of Meredith Hindley's" Destination Casablanca: Exile, Espionage, and the Battle for North Africa in World War II". Strategic Visions, 17(1).

Gomez Merchan, J. (2016). From Casablanca To What The Wind Took A Look At Hollywood Film Consumption In Bogota From 1930 To 1946. Historia Y Espacio, 12(46).

Isenberg, N. (2017). We'll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie. Faber & Faber.

Knickerbocker, J. L. (2014). Vintage Films as Primary Sources In the History Classroom. American Secondary Education, 43(1), 69.

Marcantonio, C. (2015). Border-Crossing the Global Imaginary: The Bubble and Babel. In Global Melodrama(pp. 79-109). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Psathas, G. (2014). Interpreting Film: The Case of Casablanca. In The Interrelation of Phenomenology, Social Sciences and the Arts (pp. 281-293). Springer, Cham.

Ronfard, R. (2017, April). Five Challenges for Intelligent Cinematography and Editing. In Eurographics Workshop on Intelligent Cinematography and Editing.

Rosenbaum, J. (2017). We'll Always Have Casablanca The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood's Most Beloved Movie.

Wegele, P. (2014). Max Steiner: Composing, Casablanca, and the Golden Age of Film Music. Rowman & Littlefield.