Jordan Mojzer-Brown's Casablanca Blog

The movie Casablanca has been sitting in my movie collection for many years, yet I had never put it in the VCR and watched it. Little did I know that some quotes that I know came from this movie such as, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” and “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.” When I put the tape in and pressed play I was a little reluctant because I still was not clear on what Casablanca was about. The movie sleeve artwork made me think that this was not going to be my type of movie. I was not expecting the type of movie it turned out to be.  I was pleasantly surprised. 

             It took me a good 15 to 20 minutes to get into it and to start putting things together.  At some places, I had to ask my mom to explain things to me.  She should know since this is her “all time” favorite movie and has watched it over 100 times.  As I got sucked further into the film, I was intrigued and instantly became a Casablanca fan. The mix of romance, adventure, humor and the fact that it is in black and white makes this an all-around excellent movie. What made this movie stand out for me was the lighting on Ingrid Bergman. A room could be completely dark except for the lighting on Ingrid which drew my attention right to her and put me in awe. I can now understand how Casablanca resembles a film noir. 
            I also enjoyed how strong of a character Ingrid portraid Ilsa as. My favorite scene that  illustrated this was when she was trying to convince Rick to give her the letters of transit. She did everything she could including pointing a gun at him. But then she had a melt down and couldn’t bring herself to shoot him.  She was willing to do anything for those letters but deep down, I knew that she would not be able to kill the man she loved.

While the film began to wind down, I could not believe what I was seeing. I wanted Rick and Ilsa to fly off into in the sunset and live happily ever after. I was stunned when I read in a review that no one knew how the film was going to end except the writers until that day of shooting. In some way, I am kind of glad that it ended the way it did. It did end in a happy way just not in the way that most viewers thought it would. I think that is why most people, including myself, enjoy this movie so much.

When I was reading Ebert’s review of Casablanca, it was hard for me to believe that no one thought that Casablanca was going to be as big a hit as it was. I understand that during that time they produced a movie a week but couldn’t they see that this movie was special?