The husband and I watched Casablanca tonight. He had never seen it and I hadn't seen it since high school. And the movie meant a whole lot more to me now than it did back then.
My husband remarked how absurd it would seem to modern viewers to have a woman leave the man she loves to stand for a cause. Nowadays, you'd never break up true love at the end of a movie, especially not for war aims. Rick makes Ilsa go because "the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." Few people talk like that these days. Fewer still think like that.
But Casablanca came out in 1942, long before the outcome of the war was certain. It was a beautiful story of sacrifice in difficult times. Rick and Ilsa gave up love for the greater good.
Posted by Sarah at February 7, 2008 09:50 PM | TrackBack
I have never seen this movie before and my brother keeps getting on me about it. It is next on my Netflix right now.
Posted by: Kasey at February 7, 2008 10:36 PMI bought that movie a while back, but I haven't seen it yet. Now I gotta dig it out and give it a try. :)
My wife and I also watched it this weekend. She had never seen the whole thing, just bits and pieces. I could not find it at the rental store or the library so I bought it. I love the Inspector Reynaud character.
It remains an excellent movie, 65 years later. I think it was a total surprise to those involved that it 'worked' as well as it did - it was not significantly different than dozens of standard studio productions of the time, and in addition it was affected by war effort comings and goings of writers and other personnel during production. The script evolved through several writer changes and writing barely kept up with filming. I think it was just one of those 'magic' accidental combinations of story, cast, direction, script and historical timing.
Many would hold me blasphemous, but to me the most analagous 'modern' movie is the original Star Wars - science fiction instead of historical fiction, but romance, heroism, an array of interesting characters, and some memorable lines, which all really 'worked'.
One of my alltime favorite movies. Inspector Reynaud was also my favorite character. When I worked at the jail, everyone became quite familiar with the phrase, "Round up the usual suspects!"
Posted by: R1 at February 8, 2008 11:04 AM