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 +++++.
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