Ok, why I think this is the greatest movie ever made.
It was the first movie to intelligently deal with the deep emotions of a failed romance. Every romance movie, even Romcoms, trace their roots back to this film.
Every one off quip to lighten the mood in a drama or action movie traces its roots to Captain Renault.
Movies that try to span multiple genres (romance, action, geopolitical in this case), have some lines back to this. It was the first and best to do it.
The completely radical idea of having the two main characters not end up together and have it still work was amazing.
As I mentioned above, the fact that it was filmed during the war and many of the actors emotions were real makes it unique in cinema history,
And I do think the La Marseillaise scene is the best in the history of cinema. The course of the movie and of the three main actors was set in that scene with almost no dialogue. A symbolic "victory" over the Germans achieved. The tears of the actors were real, given they were European refugees largely, and all against that rousing music. And then to close it out with the irony and comedy of Renault was perfect.

Plus Bogart and Bergman were magic. And all the iconic lines, to this day still used, that came out of it.

So yeah, fight me,

I love old school stuff like the opening city shots used Matte painting backgrounds

For an older movie this thing moves. Immediately started with suspects being rounded up and a guy getting shot with expired France and free France propaganda. Then right into Ricks to set up the MacGuffin of the transit papers and the character.

The camera work inside Ricks at the beginning is insane with tracking shots and tons of extras. The use of mirrors and shadows.

Too many great quotes and lines to list.

Every standoff between Lazlo and the German Major is so well done. Can just feel the tension and hatred.

Ilsa's face while she is hearing As Time Goes By is well acted. Can read the emotion on her face.

No subtitles while in France really helps set the mood. You don't need to know what is being said to know the point.

Love the pickpocket (the vultures, vultures guy) showing up multiple times. And then the maitre d checking his pockets after bumping into him. It's small side character like that that will elevate a movie and reward rewatches.

Not sure what else I can say about the La Marseillaise scene that people much better than me haven't already said, but man.... so good.

I love how it doesn't spell out Rick's plan to get Ilsa and Lazlo on the plane. It's left to the audience to figure out what he's up to.

Fun fact: The plane at the end was made out of cardboard and they used little person actors around it in the background to make it look bigger.

A sign of the times that they can only hint at Rick and Ilsa's sexual past, and Renault giving visas away for sex instead of stating it directly.

There have been two attempts at TV series based on this movie. In 1955 set in the Cold War. Then again in 1983. So TV and movies have been obsessed with rebooting media forever.

Renault is such a great mix of charming and slimy that you don't realize he's constantly providing exposition, character backstory, and character traits.

What exactly does "Here's looking at you kid" mean and why would you say it as a toast or a romantic phrase?

You played it for her, you can play it for me…
Play it Sam!

As to the beautiful friendship quote - they're both crooked. That's the whole point. Be crooked in a crooked world. Make money. But remember what's actually important and do the right thing when it counts. They know they can trust each other in the end.

Aside from its influence factor, this is simply fantastic cinema and storytelling we rarely see. Top 4 for me.

For the Disney World fans:

Quote:

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The rear half of the movie prop plane that Ilsa and Victor flew out of Casablanca can be seen as plane wreckage on the Jungle Cruise ride at Walt Disney World.

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I consider Casablanca to be a solid movie from its era. I love the characters - movies from this era tended to be much more character driven than we see these days. I didn't need a lot of exposition on who they were, what their motivations were, etc, because it was conveyed very well in the France sequence and with a few lines of dialogue.

I also love the cinematography, especially as already referenced, the shadows that perhaps was an influence on Stevie Spielberg roughly 40 years later.

The only thing I found amusingly bad was the airplane taking off. Clearly a model on a line- no airplane takes off like it does in this movie. But, well, there was a war going on, and war movies of the period are equally bad in their depiction of period-specific aircraft and their flight characteristics. And I said amusingly, as in watching an old Godzilla flick with the dude in the rubber suit stomping out obvious model tanks and buildings and swatting down model airplanes on wires.

I'd give Casablanca a solid 9/10.

DallasTeleAg said:

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Overall, I thought it was a good movie. However, it did not blow me away. I came into it really hoping it was going to wow me, and I ended up just thinking it was good. My list of black and white films is pretty small, but a movie like 12 Angry Men is one I immediately thought was amazing when I first saw it.

I can understand and appreciate its importance in cinema history, but that is not really how I judge my enjoyment of a movie.

I do really like the use of shadows in older movies like this. It's one of the reasons Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite Indy film. I love those highly contrasted shadows of objects, and use of shadows when framing a scene or character.

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The first time I watched Casablanca, I thought the same as you; okay, but not that great. The next time I watched it, I enjoyed it much better - I appreciated the dialogue more, the use of light and shadow, Bergman's subdued beauty, the context and especially the heartrending ending. Every time I've watched it since, (Five? Ten times?) I've loved it more and more.

I always appreciate something in it that I didn't notice before, but it took me watching it more than once to "see" it all.

I agree. A lot of the acting and impact is in nuance. The whole movie is about that nuance. It took me multiple viewings to start to appreciate all of those seemingly little things.

It's the little looks, the small comments and word choices. It's a nod here or there that signal huge changes in the characters. When Rick nods to the band in the Marseillaise scene, he actually decides to commit to the cause for the first time. Things like that I didn't even notice the first time I watched it.