Tim Connor Casablanca

Tim Connor
Casablanca Blog
(sorry it's posted late, I had some issues and had to change my browser)

Casablanca is a definitive melting pot of cultures and conflicting ideals during World War Two. Rick Blaine, an American played by Humphrey Bogart, gets caught up in the middle of revolutionary freedom fighters’ and the occupying Nazi regime’s conflict when French resistance leader Victor Laszlo, played by Paul Henreid, and Ilsa Lund, Rick’s ex-lover played by Ingrid Bergman, come into Rick’s bar. They are being persuaded by Major Strasser. Throughout the movie, even before the conflict is revealed, there are subtle hints about the relations of the world and politics being dropped into daily conversation in ways that aren’t directly talking about international relations or war, such as when Ferrari is talking to Rick and says, “Isolationism is no longer a practical policy.” Rick, being a cynic with a guise of neutrality, is informed by the chief of police that there will be an arrest of Ugarte and is told not to tip him off, Rick responds with, “I stick my neck out for Nobody” and the chief of police says, “That’s a wise foreign policy.” There are, at this point, already conflicting views being shown that hint at the political unrest going on around Casablanca and the entire world. The conflict starts to take shape when Peter Lorre’ character, Ugarte, is arrested for murder and cannot provide the papers needed for Victor and Ilsa to leave Casablanca and flee to America.
 Rick gets sucked into the conflict starting when Ilsa asks Sam, the piano player and long time friend of both Rick and Ilsa, to play As Time Goes By, which Sam reluctantly does. This sentimental song to both Rick and Ilsa causes Rick to come out from the back of his saloon angrily until he sees Ilsa. Immediately Rick starts to break his own rules, drinking with customers and covering their bills, and we start to see the story between Rick and Ilsa be pieced together. Rick and Ilsa discuss, to some small extent, their time in France. After Ilsa leaves, Rick and Sam start to talk, and drink, the breakdown of Rick’s guise becomes more apparent with his comment, “Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.” The flashback clips of Rick and Ilsa show the intimate relationship they had developed before the Nazis invaded France and how in love they were. As the Nazis are getting ever closer to Paris, Rick must flee because he is a wanted man and asks Ilsa to come along with him because they are in love. They agree to meet at the train station just before the train departs, but Ilsa never shows up. Sam comes to the station carrying a note for Rick that says Ilsa cannot go with him and that they should never see each other again. Rick, in the present time of the movie, is still broken up about this betrayal and abandonment.
Ilsa comes back to the bar without Victor to explain what happened in Paris, but by the time she arrives Rick is well drunk and does not receive her well. She leaves without telling him why she hadn’t gone with him. The next day Rick tries to get her to tell him what had happened and Rick finds out that She and Victor have been married since before Rick had met her. Ilsa and Victor are still looking for visas out of Casablanca and Ferrari directs them to Rick who may still be in possession of Ugarte’s, which Strasser and Renault also seem to believe. Renault’s men do not find them when they search Rick’s bar. Conflicts continue to arise with the political tensions along side more personal tensions when Victor comes to Rick for the visas and Rick denies him. Ilsa comes to Rick as well and Rick also denies her until she tells him the story of why she had left him in Paris. She also tells Rick that she still loves him and isn’t strong enough to leave him again. At this point Rick is starting to have a change of heart, which is shown by his demeanor and his reactions to Ilsa.
Victor, having gone to an underground resistance meeting ends up at Rick’s saloon, injured. Victor, at this point, acknowledges that Rick is in love with Ilsa and asks Rick to take Ilsa to America to make sure that she is safe. Rick seems to devise a plan that will get Ilsa and himself safely to America and give Renault what he wants, Victor, but at the Rick convinces Ilsa to go with Victor, shoots Strasser, and Renault covers for Rick allowing everyone to get away. It’s a beautiful ending to an extraordinarily complex story. As Roger Ebert said, “This story is immensely appealing; the viewer is not only able to imagine winning the love of Humphrey Bogard or Ingrid Bergman, but unselfishly renouncing it, as a contribution to the great cause of defeating the Nazis.” It’s a beautiful, selfless act that shows us we can all be brave and have an impact on the world.