Good movie

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2014)

Having often heard this title thrown around for years it does live up to its hype. This takes place in the south of France during WWII. The main character is an American who has chosen to start up a club in the city of Casablanca. Humphrey Bogart plays Rich, the American as he is split between choosing the love of his life or saving her and her husband who is a resistance fighter against the Nazi's. The movie was a little controversial because it was released to the general public after the attack on Pearl Harbor and after we entered the war against the axis powers; but before we knew that we were going to win the war.This is reflected in the movie and shows our hopefulness as by the end of the film Rich chooses to step up and fight against the Nazi's as he once did before opening his club.
I believe this was a reflection of the WWII era as his actions reflect the action the USA took during the years prior to Pearl Harbor. What I mean by this is during the early years we would sell guns and supply the allied powers with aid but when the war came to our doorstep we stepped up and did what was right. I think movie goers at the time really enjoyed this movie for that reason. Overall I would have to say this was a very good film for the earlier 1940's era of film making. The use of light in the film was done brilliantly as an almost precursor to the Film Noir genera which would come later in that decade. By this I mean the use of light to set the mood of the scene as either a dark gloomy feel with very little light and the use of shadows to open shots with much light to show a lighter more comical side of Rich.