Casablanca


 * 1) “The lives of three people don’t add up to a hill of beans in the crazy, mixed-up world.” Is this something the movie argues is true?


 * 1) Rick strives to be aloof – the first shot of him playing chess against himself, being told by Ferrari that isolationism is no longer a practical policy, “I stick my neck out for nobody,” “The problems of the world are not in my department,” “I’m only fighting for myself – I’m the only cause I’m interested in (echoes of Han Solo in that one – “Look, I ain't in this for your revolution, and I'm not in it for you, Princess. I expect to be well paid. I'm in it for the money.”)” Why doesn’t he succeed?


 * 1) Was Ilsa’s leaving Rick in Paris cruel or loving?


 * 1) Why do you think Rick sold guns and fight for the underdogs (Ethopia and the Loyalists in Spain – also, if you do not know the history of those two conflicts, please look them up)?


 * 1) When Ilsa arrives in Casablanca, why is Rick so cruel to her? Does it make any sense?


 * 1) My major complaint with the film – isn’t Victor Laszlo a stick in the mud? Does he seem like a hero? He has some kind of corny lines (granted, so do many of the other characters in the movie, but somehow they seem to pull them off, him, not so much).


 * 1) Who is the most honest character in the film? The most dishonest?


 * 1) What do think of Rick’s cynicism? Is some of it worthwhile – “Yesterday they were just two clerks; today, they are the honored dead (speaking of the two German couriers)”?


 * 1) How did the Germans outlaw miracles?


 * 1) When Ilsa comes to Rick after he refuses to sell the exit visas to Laszlo, is she acting? Are she and Rick in some way paralleling the young Bulgarian woman and Renault?


 * 1) Do Rick and Ilsa make the right decision in the end (Ilsa getting on the plane with Laslzo)? Should they sacrifice their own feelings? At one point Ilsa tells Rick, “Put your feelings aside for something more important.” How are we to know if our sacrifices are worth it? Can we?


 * 1) The scene where the saloon sings “La Marseillaise” is one of the greatest scenes in movie history (in my humble opinion). I cannot exactly explain why I love it so much – sure, it is the good guys trumping the bad guys, but somehow the passion that the actors show in the scene comes through somehow. Even before I knew that only three actors in the film were born in the US, many originally from Europe, where war raged as the film was being shot, with some of the actors so overwhelmed by the scene that they were crying afterwards, I loved that moment. I think that it has something to do with the scene being in song and not in English – I looked up a translation for “La Marseillaise” once, read the first line and immediately stopped – the words seeming boring, normal, and rather anthem-like. I imagined them being much greater, and since I still do not know the words, I maintain that illusion (that sentiment is echoed in //Shawshank Redemption// by Morgan Freeman’s character when Tim Robbins plays the Mozart from the warden’s office – “I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about . . .”). As I watch the scene, I have the hope, somehow, that no matter what happens in the world, good will triumph over evil, silly as that may be, much as I sometimes doubt it. I’m now embarrassed by having said too much about myself, and leave you to write something about the power of the scene.

What is it about this movie that has withstood the test of time and allowed it to become one of the most popular films of all-time?

Casablanca was made during World War II Casablanca is located in Morocco Morocco was a French province Many people escaped France by way of Morocco, then Portugal, and then to the US The Germans captured Paris France was divided up into two parts during WW2, Occupied France (controlled by the Germans) and Vichy France (which was Free France, though in name only) Germany and Italy fought on the same side for most of the war The US did not join the war right away A number of people, including Charles Lindburgh, did not want the US to join the war - they saw it as a European conflict. Some of those people were accused of sympathizing with the Nazis Very few members of the cast of the films were American La Marseille, the French national anthem, is the best national anthem by far