Casablanca

Can there ever be another movie so effortlessly entertaining and comfortable as "Casablanca"?  This movie is able to juggle 11 balls effortlessly, and leaves the viewer wanting more without sacrificing the integrity of the story.  It's rhythms are at once familiar and jarring.  Its story is completely sappy, yet as hard as nails.  How does a film do this?  This is one movie that proves that sometimes, the sum is greater than its parts.

The film was a standard Hollywood drama that somehow catapulted itself into legendary film making.  There was nothing unique about its production that foretold of its greatness.  The signature song of the film was a throwaway piece that was used merely because the Warner Brothers owned it.  The story is nothing special at first glance.  Yet the decisions the characters make, the actors who portray said characters, and the music and the mood all combine to create dynamite storytelling.

For those who don't know, the film centers on the town of Casablanca in Morocco.  For many, this town is the last stop on the way out of the Old World to America.  Out of Casablanca lay hopes of escaping Europe and the difficulties of World War 2.  In Casablanca, the story centers around Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a New Yorker who has left America and has built a life for himself by running a bar in Casablanca.  He has established himself as a cynical, worldly and streetwise businessman who "sticks his neck out for nobody."  With him is Sam, a piano player who seems to travel everywhere with him.  Things are going as Rick planned...he is making money, playing God in his own way with peoples' lives, and not letting anything into his heart.  Then, one night, Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergmann-a woman who my wife never fails to describe as beautiful) walks into the bar with her husband Czech war hero Victor Lazlo, and his tough shell is cracked.  It turns out he has a history with Ilsa, and, to quote Bogart, "...of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."

The story goes from there.  Surrounding it is a wonderful cast of characters, most notably Claude Raines' Louis, a corrupt French official who "oversees" immigration and other legal matters for the French government.  His cynicism and corruption personify Casablanca, and the decisions he makes seem close to the heart of the film, right along with the decisions that Bogart's Rick makes.

Along with a captivating story of intrigue, the film sports amazing dialogue and great scenes that are executed perfectly.  My favorite is the scene depicts Lazlo leading the whole bar in a singalong of La Marseillaise (the French national anthem) against the German officers singing a German folk song.  Rick's implicit agreement with Lazlo's action is one of the first signs of his shell beginning to crack.

The movie sports many other memorable scenes.  There are so many, and they are so good, that I do not wish to spoil them.  Suffice to say that it is one of the few films that still gives me goose bumps every time I watch it.  The level of execution of this melodrama is so high that it never fails to move me.  As we see Rick fall again back into his sentimental past, we see ourselves, and the struggle all of us face between controlling our lives, and letting conscience and love guide us to a better place.  When one has seen this film many times, it is much like an old friend.  And, if you have not seen this film, once you do, it may, as Rick says, "Be the beginning of a beautiful friendship".