Review of CASABLANCA

CASABLANCA

Drama, romance, WWII, Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Nazis, French resistance. 1942

"Here's looking at you, Kid."

The movie Casablanca is widely considered one of the finest movies ever made, but...a workout movie?

Yes. Absolutely.

For those unfortunates (mainly in recent generations) who have never seen it, here's a synopsis: World War II is raging. RICK BLAINE (Humphrey Bogart) runs a saloon and illegal casino in Casablanca, a city in unoccupied French territory. ("Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.") People come from Nazi occupied Europe to Casablanca hoping for visas to get them to America. Unfortunately, on the black market, visas can be gotten only for large sums of money, or, as one unhappy young lady discovers, other asses--I mean assets.

                                                                                            

VICTOR LAZLO, a leader of the resistance, is one of those looking for visas for himself and his wife. Rick happens to have two visas, but Victor's wife, ILSA (Ingrid Bergman), had once been Rick's lover and had abandoned Rick suddenly and without explanation. He's still angry and refuses to help Victor and Ilsa leave Casablanca. When Victor goes to a meeting of the underground that night, Ilsa sneaks over to Rick's hotel room and pleads for the visas, but Rick remains adamant.  Then Ilsa pulls out a gun and demands the visas. "Go ahead and shoot. You'll be doing me a favor," Rick says. From there, the plot has some interesting twists...

"...you're in love with a woman. It is perhaps a strange circumstance that we both should be in love with the same woman. The first evening I came to this café, I knew there was something between you and Ilsa. Since no one is to blame, I - I demand no explanation." (Laslo to Rick) Rick is the protagonist, and is well played by Bogart in what is probably his best role, but the real hero of the story is Victor Lazlo. Brave, dedicated, charismatic, and understanding to the fault of being unrealistic, the man is a saint. The movie might be a little better if he showed some imperfection, but it's a minor point. Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa is just wonderful. I'm in love with her.  Talk about bedroom eyes, she has bridal suite eyes. My marriage could be in trouble, but fortunately, she's dead.

There is some mindless, institutional racism, but not vicious. The lack of any mention of the Holocaust or the psychotic anti-Semitism of the Nazis is more problematic, at least for me. Granted, the full horror wasn't known when the film was made (1942), but there was some information.'

This is a wonderful movie and a wonderful workout movie. If you've never seen it, you're in for a treat.  And even if you have seen it, it will frequently get your pulse up to a sprint. I give it +++++.

Revirew of WHERE EAGLES DARE

WHERE EAGLES DARE: 

World War Two covert operations adventure with lots of dead Nazis.

In this movie, Richard Burton and not-yet-senile Clint Eastwood infiltrate a mountaintop Nazi fortress, get valuable information about traitorous spies, and return to England.

 Oh, and they kill Nazis. They're quite good at it (at one point Clint dispatches a radio operator with such nonchalance, he seems like a psychopath.) The Nazis shoot at the two heroes, throw bombs, kick them and punch them--all with little or no effect. Between the two of them, Clint and Richard jump into freezing water, go through a car crash, jump from one cable car hundreds of feet in the air to another, and with all that happens, literally the most severe injury they suffer is that Richard scrapes his hand while closing a door. On the other hand, their bullets bring down Nazis with amazing accuracy. Yeah, the unrealism is funny, but they're killing Nazis, so it's exciting.

The plot is complex with lots of sudden shifts. It took a couple of viewings to understand all that goes on, but it's worth figuring out. Plausible - no. But lots of fun.

 There are a couple of plot flaws (e.g climbing under a bridge to place dynamite instead of putting in inconspicuously on the side), but those are minor.

 The music is stirring and memorable, though not too sophisticated.

This film still revs me up even after seeing it six times. The phrase 'oldie but goodie certainly fits. It's a great adrenalin stimulator. Without a doubt, it deserves +++++. It will raise your pulse as much as a sprint.

All comments welcome.  And if you notice anything different about this review, let me know at fiddlerzvi@comcast.net.

Review of INGLORIOUS BASTERDS

INGLORIOUS BASTERDS

This alternate history account of WWII starts in 1941 with a French farmer PERRIER LAPADITE watching with trepidation an approaching vehicle. His concern is justified. The visitor is HANS LANDA, a Nazi who equates murdering Jews with killing rats.  Landa orders Lapadite to reveal the location of a Jewish family, the Dreyfus's.  Lapadite at first says the family escaped the country, but when Landa threatens to take his daughters to be sex slaves for the Nazis, Lapadite gives up and points to the floor. The Jews are hiding in the crawlspace. Landa's soldiers pepper the floor with bullets, killing everyone in the Dreyfus family except for one daughter, Shoshanna, who manages to run away. Landa watches her leave and laughs.

Switch to 1944, when American Lieutenant ALDO RAINE (Brad Pitt) recruits eight Jewish soldiers, the Inglorious Basterds, for a mission behind enemy lines.  They ambush a German squad, and, when the squad's sergeant refuses to give them information, one of Raine's men, DONNY DONOWITZ, a big guy nicknamed 'the bear Jew,' beats the sergeant to death with a baseball bat. Only one of the Germans survives the ambush. Raine carves a swastika into his forehead both to scar him forever and also to warn Hitler that Raine's men mean business.

Shoshanna, using a pseudonym, now runs a movie theater in Paris. She learns that Goebbels, Hitler and other high level Nazis will be attending her cinema to see a propaganda film, and, with her lover, concocts a plan.  At the same time, the Basterds also plan at attack on the cinema...

No spoilers.

The plot is a lot more complicated than the details above, but it's all laid out in a clear fashion that's easy to follow. Seeing Jews beat the crap out of Nazis is a lot of fun, and the ending, though just alternate history, is exquisitely satisfying.

One plot flaw is that Raine, the leader of the Jewish band, himself is apparently not Jewish. Actor Brad Pitt certainly doesn't make a convincing Jew (he's not Jewish in real life). But this is not major.

All in all, this is a riveting and exciting movie that will often get your pulse up to a sprint.  I give it +++++.