As the world plunged into the throes of World War II, every corner of the globe felt the rippling effects, from the battle scarred terrains of Europe to the bustling streets of Casablanca. In this tumultuous time, the city of Casablanca emerged as a transitional space, an outset between the despair of war-torn Europe and the hope of freedom across the Atlantic. Within this context Casablanca finds its setting, weaving a narrative rich in romance, intrigue, and the shadow of global conflict. The film follows Rick Blaine, an expatriate running a popular nightclub in Casablanca, who navigates the complexities of loyalty, love, and life amidst the backdrop of wartime struggles. Through his story, and the multitude of characters that find their …show more content…
Among these, the idealized depiction of resistance activities is particularly pronounced. In cinematic terms, the resistance is portrayed through the lens of romanticized heroism, epitomized by characters who navigate their anti Nazi endeavors with a blend of charisma and moral clarity. This portrayal stands in stark contrast to the historical accounts of resistance efforts, especially in North Africa, where operations were fraught with peril, marked by internal divisions and often entangled in a complex web of alliances. Moreover, the film's over simplified portrayal of Nazi presence and influence in Casablanca glosses over the nuanced reality of the Vichy regime's complicity with Nazi policies. While Casablanca somewhat touches on the Vichy government's collaborationist stance by depicting its officials in cooperation with Nazi interests, it underrepresents the extent of Vichy's active participation in Nazi endeavors, notably in the persecution of Jews and political dissidents. Historian Robert Paxton’s "Vichy France and the Jews," co-authored with Michael Marrus, provides a detailed account of how Vichy's antisemitic laws assisted the Nazi's Final Solution, an aspect conspicuously absent in the film's narrative. This representation of Nazi Vichy relations contributes to a misleading understanding of the political dynamics in Casablanca and, by extension, the complexities of French collaboration during WWII4. The discrepancies between Casablanca's depiction and the historical complexities of resistance activities and Vichy Nazi collaboration highlight a broader tendency in wartime cinema to distill intricate political and social realities into more palatable narratives. While such simplifications serve the storytelling dynamics of cinema, they inadvertently contribute to a
Juan G. Cruz Hernández Section 126 Essay 1 Word Count: 599 Rick, with the Allies or the Nazis? Casablanca is a romantic drama film in which the main character, Rick Blaine has to decide between escaping with Ilsa, leaving everything behind and supporting the war by helping Victor Laszlo, a Czech Resistance leader and husband of his former love, Ilsa. At the end, Rick decides to help Victor and Ilsa. Despite the fact that this decision was Rick’s way of protecting Ilsa, it can be proven that Rick
Casablanca Essay On December 8, 1941 which was the day after when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Casablanca movie was produce the day after. The famous movie Casablanca, is considered one of the greatest movies of all time because of the time when the movie actually took place and also the characters. The movie was made during the time when the Nazi were reaching the zenith of their powers. This movie is actually real, the thing that happened in the movies were some of the most realist things
Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca may be a black and white film, but the story that it tells is richly saturated with drama, romance, and plot twists. Casablanca tells the story of a love triangle during a perilous time. Rick Blaine, Victor Laslo, and Ilsa Lund find themselves at odds with each other in Casablanca during the war. The story begins when Ilsa Lund and Victor Laslo coincidently walk into Rick’s Café Americaine shortly after arriving in Casablanca. Victor Laslo is oblivious to the fact that
the greater good, everyone can find the charming film of Casablanca to be full of dignity and decency. We as people identify strongly with characters in a film due to the moral qualities we share or sympathy we have for them, which does not make it a mystery that Casablanca is one of the most popular films ever made. This film which was debuted in 1943, was composed by Joan Alison and Murray Burnett and was directed by Michael Curtiz. Casablanca, plunges deep into a narrative that touches base on war
Memory in Casablanca: A Scene Analysis The film Casablanca (1942) is an epitome of the Hollywood studio system, thus its depiction of memory follows the classical style. This means that memory is primarily displayed through the form of the flashback. Another feature of the Classical Hollywood style is its character centric narratives, meaning the flashback is usually focalised through an individual characters perspective. This is true in Casablanca during the flashback sequence, in which we see
I think telling can lift the life of a movie to new heights. I rest my case in the classic Casablanca. The masters of the screen during the Golden Age of film grasped dialogue in ways we cannot comprehend or reach nowadays. What they did so well during then is now considered the cardinal sin of movies now. In 1982, the journalist Chuck Ross, in an experiment for Film Comment, mailed the script of Casablanca to 217 agencies under a different title and under a different authorship name. Although many
In the film Casablanca, directed by Michael Curtiz, a clear juxtaposition exists between Rick and America. Despite Rick’s numerous similarities to America and his deep longing to be part of the country, a physical and psychological barrier separates the two. With America practically being on the opposite end of the world, Rick understands that he cannot abandon his responsibility to aid and influence others in Casablanca. Rick is willing to sacrifice his personal comfort and well-being for the
isn’t easy because what you see in it depends on your point of view. The story is quite simple: The movie take place during the second world war and everyone who wanted to leave europe and go to america had to go through Casablanca. By this time almost everyone who lived in casablanca was waiting to get transit papers so that they could leave but to get these papers was hard and expensive. The plot starts with the murder of two german couriers who had two letters of transit. These letters have a high
This past weekend, I was able to watch the movie Casablanca. The movie was about man who lived in an underground world, who was reunited with the love of his life. The film Casablanca takes place in French ruled Moroccan city Casablanca, during World War II. Casablanca had salon called Rick’s American Café. This salon was the one of the main thoroughfare for illegal activities in Casablanca. The salon had a bar, piano man, gambling, private room, and office. The owner of Rick’s American Café
interest. In this essay I will be taking a look at a scene within the movie Casablanca directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942. Casablanca is a classic film that is reviewed to be one of the greatest movies of all time. This could be due to the notable quotes used throughout the movie, or its ability to follow a historic, comical, and romantic storyline throughout the course of the film. It caters to several different viewers, making this movie favorable to many. This scene in Casablanca uses specific editing
In the essay “Beautiful Friendship: Masculinity & Nationalism in Casablanca”, Peter Kunze lavishly explains the magnificence of Michael Curtiz’s 1942 film Casablanca. Kunze focuses on how the movie not only highlights an exchange of relationships, but how the film has an underlying meaning between these relationships. He also implies that there is a more complex meaning behind every character in regards to their gender, economic, and social roles. The overall thesis of his reading is “the patriarchal
Casablanca is a film about a classic love story, there are a lot of elements to this movie that makes it such a successful film. My main topic for this essay is the music of Casablanca. In this essay I will mention about a scene in Casablanca, this scene is about the conversation with rick and Ilsa that took place at Rick’s bar just after the Paris flashbacks from when Ilsa’s entered the scene. The music in Casablanca is formed to make the theme fit to the situations happening, increasing the melody
1- Classical Hollywood Cinema in transition (a+b) Casablanca can be considered a prime example of Classical Hollywood Cinema due to many of the film’s goals, its narration, style, sounds, visuals, and subject matters. Looking first to the goals of the film, Polan claims in her essay, “Casablanca comes closest to for many fans to embodying Hollywood cinema in its classic moment insofar as we imagine this classic cinema to encapsulate a certain high level of achievement in escapist entertainment
debate over Casablanca and Citizen Kane has been a classic argument between film critics and historians alike because both of these pieces contain great cinematographic value, and are timeless pictures that have managed to captivate audiences well beyond their era. However, the real question at hand is which film is the greatest? Which film transformed the future of American film making? It is these questions that I as many others have, will attempt to answer in the following essay as I explain
Despite not being considered as the traditional ‘hero’s journey’ which is outlined in Joseph Campbell’s argument of ‘separation-initiation-return’, Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick Blaine, in the 1942 film Casablanca, can be argued to follow this twelve-step journey. Campbell states “whether the hero be ridiculous or sublime…” (p.38), on this basis, Rick Blaine qualifies as a hero. These twelve steps are: Ordinary World; Call to Adventure/Disruption; Refusal of the Call; Meeting with the Mentor;